A/N: I don't own anything. Well maybe the writing but the characters or songs. Nope not a one.
They had been driving for almost an hour. The trees on the side of the highway beyond the guard rail were whipping past in a blur.
Aside from the music quietly blasting classic rock, the only noise was to point out animals in the distance.
"Daddy," the little voice from the back seat yelled. "Are we there yet?"
"Sorry Parks," he replied. "We just crossed into Pennsylvania and we won't get to Grandpa and Meme's house for awhile."
Sensing his son's mounting boredom, he quickly thought up a game.
"Hey, I've got an idea. You should keep your eyes on the edge of the tree line for deer and maybe you can count any that you see."
"Okay Daddy."
After a few minutes Parker asked rather loudly, "Daddy, where are the deer?"
"Well maybe they're hiding right now. Or maybe they're playing soccer further in the woods so that they don't kick the ball onto the highway by accident."
"Yeah that would be bad because they could get hurt if they ran after it."
He laughed to himself that his progeny didn't question why the deer would be playing soccer or not. Feeling the need to encourage some mental stimulation he asked his son, "Do you think that deer play soccer?"
"Well I don't know about soccer but I know they play games."
"Oh do you now?" he asked incredulously.
"Yeah, because the deer we see in the woods are like reindeer and in the Rudolph song it talks about reindeer games."
He let out a chuckle at the innocence of the little boy.
"Daddy, are we going to see one with horns?"
"Well we usually only see the mommies or the babies and they don't have horns or antlers for that matter. Only the daddy's have antlers."
"Did the mommies and the babies antlers fall off?"
"No they don't have antlers, only the grownups or the daddies have antlers. If you were a deer, when you became a grownup you'd have antlers kind of like how when you grow up to be a man you'll have a beard like me."
"Yeah but the deer can't shave their antlers because they don't have any mirrors."
He let out another chuckle.
"And since they don't have mirrors in the woods they can't see what they're shaving so they might cut themselves like you sometimes do."
"I can't argue with that logic," he muttered to himself with a smile beaming from ear to ear.
A/N: As always with Parker stuff, my son was the inspiration of this one.