The News

The news reached June before she had her morning coffee. Her son, Max, had driven his car through someone’s hedgerow last night around midnight. The inhabitants of the country home with said hedges had told the boy that they wouldn’t report the incident if he would give them his parents contact information and address. So, June got an early morning call from the hedge people, who were actually very nice, and she agreed to pay for their damages once they had an assessment and came up with a monetary value. June looked outside and saw Max’s car parked in front of the house. The body of the car had some damage. She shook her head and sighed. She wasn’t going to wake him and get into what happened until she had some coffee. She just didn’t have the strength.

Everyone has a child like Max, she told herself. A kid that pushes boundaries, is a little wild and hangs around kids who are a bad influence. Max had always been a follower, and June hated that some of the leaders in his little crew of friends seemed reckless, careless and going nowhere.

Fortified with caffeine, she went up to Max’s room and entered without knocking. He was asleep, and for a moment June just watched him lying there, so young and handsome. Her boy. He had so much potential, and she had expected much from him. What will happen to him, she wondered. Next year he would be a senior, and she needed him to take life more seriously.

June shook Max and he opened his eyes. She could see the memory of last night slowly returning to him, and he sat up in bed.

“I got a call this morning about what happened last night. A man said you veered off the road and ran into his hedgerow. Is this true?”

“Yes,” Max said, “but it wasn’t my fault”

“Oh? Was someone else driving the car?”

“Look, we were goofing around and Ryan pulled on the steering wheel to be funny and -“

“That’s not funny!” June exclaimed. “That’s crazy. Something terrible could have happened. We will talk about this more, but for now just know that you’re grounded.”

“But there’s a party I am supposed to go to tonight. It’s at Jenny’s house. Her parents will be there and everything, so nothing bad will be going on,” Max pleaded.

“No,” June said and left his room.

She heard echoes of her parents’ voices in her head, telling her to behave and not embarrass them. She had always determined that she would be a cool parent, not one that nagged all the time. She had been a little wild when she was Max’s age, too. She had some skeletons in her closet, and she understood Max better than he knew. But she found that she didn’t want her son to know any of that. She just wanted him to reach adulthood without making any big mistakes, the kind that follow you. She wanted to try to protect himself from himself.

June started on her second cup of coffee. She had made it through high school and college, she thought, he will, too. She would do her best to guide him and stick to some rules. And she would listen to him and trust him. June believed in Max.

Pick 3 #4 This week’s new list

Your inspirational list for this week:

• Body
• Midnight
• Echoed
• Hedgerow
• Inhabitants
• North
• Trip

• Reach
• News
• Nets
• Sounding
• Troy
• Money
• Watching

• Supplies
• Around
• Little
• Morning
• Impromptu
• True
• Skeleton