Collette

Surprise. A few years ago, that was usually the reaction he got when anyone learned his pedigree. Surprise was always quickly followed by “You don’t look like a Phillip Morris progeny;” followed by embarrassed silence. ###
Marlboro Thermos P. Morris had long ago given up on feeling hurt by people’s reaction. He’d never fared well when compared him to his sibling, Marlboro Man (Morris). Where Marlboro Man was ruggedly handsome, Marlboro Thermos was plain. Where people said, Marlboro Man was ‘the kind of guy women wanted and men wanted to be’; Marlboro Thermos knew, couldn’t come up with a single person that wanted to be him, and women only thought of him when they needed him to carry something. ###
Short and round, with a ruddy red / whitish complexion, he’d never had the “it factor” his brother possessed in spades. Marlboro Man was always cool. In each of his iterations, Marlboro Man had that “it” that they all wanted it. Everyone wanted it, including Thermos. ###
Only time had allowed Thermos to roll out of his brother’s shadow and appreciate his own temperament, which ran sometimes hot, and sometimes cold. It took time, but Thermos found people that appreciated his stoic dependability and what he, Thermos, brought to the table. He’d come a lllooonnnggg way. (Not as far as his Aunt Virginia, but still…) Time and a little distance had brought him out of that giant shadow and taught Thermos to enjoy the drink of life and pour for friends, new and old, gladly.