PEN PROBLEM

I was at the dining room table balancing my checkbook when my son, Alex walked in. “Can I borrow your pen for a minute?” he asked.

I handed over my pen. Alex looked at it for a moment. “What's Affinia?” he asked.

“Oh, that's the hotel I stayed in with your Aunt Liz last weekend.” I was busy with my phone calculator as I crunched some numbers. “We had such a good time. It was a great hotel!”

Alex looked confused. “So you stole their pen?”

“Stole?” I stopped what I was doing and looked over at him. “I didn't steal it!” I cried. “They want you to take them. It's advertising for them!”

“Is that what you tell yourself?” Alex laughed as he wrote his return address on the envelope he was holding.

“No really!” I cried. “I'm serious! As a matter of fact, I collect pens.” I reached over to my purse and began rummaging around, finally pulling out several pens. “See!” I cried holding them out for him to see. “It's like a little keepsake from all places I've been.” I began going though them. “Here's are three different ones from the three different hotels I stayed in when Aunt Liz and I went to the Netherlands.” I smiled as I laid them down on the table. “Here's one from an MRI Imagining place.” I look at that a moment longer. “I don't remember ever going there.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Oh, well. I still have their pen!”

Alex just nodded his head as I put those aside and looked at the others.

“See this one's from my bank.” I held up the green pen. “They have buckets of them when you go in.” I looked over at Alex. “They wouldn't have buckets of them if they didn't want you to take one. Would they?” I argued.

Alex shrugged his shoulder, seeming to agree with that one.

“You know, a long time ago, banks used to have their pens tethered to a table so you couldn't steal...I mean borrow one if you wanted to.” I laid that pen down with the others. “I really think my bank made a genius marketing plan when they began giving the pens away!” I pulled three more of their pens from my fist and laid them on the table.

“You really like your bank, don't you?” Alex was shaking his head.

I shrugged my shoulder again. “I guess I'm there more than I thought.”

I was still going through my collection when I had another thought. “You know,” I looked back at Alex to see if he was still listening to me. “When a place doesn't want you to have a pen they find ways to let you know.”

Alex looked confused. “Really?”

I nodded my head. “I was at Motor Vehicles the other day, to renew my license, and they had pens with long paper tubes attached to them. They must have been two feet long! It wasn't like I could toss that in my purse!”

“That's because they don't want you to!”

“I know! I get it! I didn't want a pen from there anyway.” I shook my head. “It's not like anyone would want a keepsake to remember that place.” I gave a disgusted look.

“Why do you need so many pens?” Alex asked.

I looked at the pen that was still in his hand. “Because when people ask to borrow one I always have a spare.” I held out my hand. “Can I have my pen back please?”

“Can I keep this one?” Alex held on to the pen. “I don't have one in my room.”

I looked down at my pen pile and grabbed a green bank one. “Sure! But could you take this one instead?” I handed it to him as I took back the Affinia pen, looking at it lovingly. “This one has a great memory attached to it.”