Trolling Manny
At seventy-two, Bunny had long ago stopped caring what others thought of her choices. In fact, she quite enjoyed scandalizing her conservative sons. Manny, in particular, had earned her special attention.
Manny thought of himself as a self-made success story. Never mind that Bunny had paid for his first car, his first house, and invested more than a million dollars in his first business. His frequent sound bites for the local news made her eyes roll.
“I worked hard to get where I am today. The only reason anyone is poor is because they’re too lazy to work.”
When he decided to run for governor, Bunny had had enough. She started showing up at his rallies, at which he promised to cut funding for social programs that “picked the pockets of the hard-working people of this great state.”
Bunny heckled him unmercifully, dressed in his democratic opponent’s colors. She brought along a bus full of unemployed workers she paid to give out pamphlets and free t-shirts, making sure the media knew she was Manny’s mother.
When Manny had his security escort her from the premises of one of his rallies, she hired her own security for the next. The war escalated, as Bunny began to make the talk show circuit.
Pollsters got in on the act, reporting that she had become more popular than either of the candidates on the ballot. Manny was furious. He stopped showing up for family dinners.
Bunny thought it was a hoot and registered as a write-in candidate. She had stickers printed and started holding rallies of her own, where she continued to campaign for Manny’s opponent. She didn’t stop attending Manny’s rallies, either. Bunny couldn’t remember when she’d had this much fun.
On the day of the election, Bunny voted for Manny’s opponent, then threw a huge party for her workers. As the election results came in, her dismay grew to epic proportions. She had worked so hard for that democrat!
Manny’s opponent was the first to call her to concede. He thanked her for all her work on his behalf and said he hoped she would sit as a Democrat. Bunny wasn’t sure she wanted to sit at all.
Bunny discovered she had a flair for whipping her senate into line. She enjoyed being governor so much she ran again. Now in her third term, she continued her work for the disadvantaged and had made it a policy in all her private businesses to recruit from that demographic.
Manny, whom she had cut from her will, was completely estranged from the entire family. He still hadn’t conceded the election.
I wrote this story based on a character sketch—a wealthy, bold woman in her seventies. I think I’d like to grow up to be Bunny (though I don’t have sons like Manny).
Interesting twist, go Bunny!
Your story raises interesting questions about what it might be like to have a son like this, to be a mother like this 🤔