Martin Sullivan

"You Traced It"

“You traced it.” The words acted like a vise, even though at age six I really didn’t know what a vise was. I could feel my whole body tense up as my young mind raced through the events surrounding my supposed victorious creative achievement… I had drawn the picture of a jet plane and boy was I proud. I knew the man sitting in the plush living room chair hadn’t moved for over an hour or more. That was his thing… reading the Manchester Union Leader newspaper it seemed until there was no more ink on paper to be absorbed.  My dad was like that. He seemed to know everything but what a young boy growing up in his and his fathers shadow needed to gain a sense of accomplishment, of pride, of just satisfaction in a job well done. I almost wanted to blurt out “I didn’t trace it! I drew it myself!”