This is important to my story because she is going to need the (non-gas-guzzling) car next week. I'm headed to Peter's for the holiday and she is taking care of her grandmother. I'm thinking of taking the train rather than the gas-sucking SUV.
I enjoy the train. It's a wonderful way to spend 6 hours. It's rarely crowded, you get two second run movies between here and Bellingham. You can nap, knit, read and "compute." The round trip train ticket is about the same price as gas for my SUV. However - I'm a little frightened of running into the last people I met on the train.
The last time I took the train my son got into trouble at school. The morning I left I got a call from one of his teachers, explaining to me his offense and that the outcome could be a one week suspension. Fortunately he had not gotten into trouble before and this teacher agreed that kicking him out of school for a week was more of a reward than a punishment. I left a message for my son to go straight home from school and call me the minute he got there.
He called me while I was sitting on the train waiting for it to pull out of the station. The train was somewhat quiet with small conversations going on around me. There were about 20 people in the whole car. My phone rings, I dropped my voice and hunkered down in my seat hoping my voice would be suitably muffled. My end of the conversation went something like this (only much longer and possibly with more curse words)..
"I got a call from Ms. X today. She tells me you're in big trouble"
"That's not what she said."
"What the hell were you thinking??!!" (I think my voice went up a little here..)
"It's bad enough that you're doing it.. but to do it in school.. in PE class!!"
"Until I get back I've taken your TV, your game station and your computer. You're grounded from everything."
"You should have thought of that BEFORE you did this!"
"I don't believe you.. You're lying to me - this teacher would NOT make up the story she told me."
"Now you're just pissing me off. Enjoy your phone because I'm considering taking IT away when I get back."
"Bye. Love you"
I let out a big sigh.. and then I noticed the entire train was quiet. No more little conversations. Dead stinking silence. I shrunk into my seat, hoping that perhaps no one would know it was me on the phone.. and maybe blame the lady behind me... and then a voice.. from the farrrr end of the train said, quite loudly.. "I gotta know.. how OLD is this kid??" and then more voices joined in and then everyone was talking about MY son. They all agreed I should call him back, pass around the phone and THEY would give him the advice he apparently so desperately needed. It was a very long 6 hours. The SUV is looking more appealing all the time.
Ha ha!! I remember that!
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