And the boy calls, he's wondering if he can come and stay with me for a few days.
I'm delighted, of course, but am wondering why this all of a sudden, especially with the cats and his allergies -
His mom takes the phone:
"I just wanted to say that your boy has grown up to be JUST LIKE YOU! And I can't take it anymore so he's going to come to live with you and..."
And she carries on, she's having a bit of a fit. The boy, he's in his early teens, you knew it would come to this sooner or later, but I'm a bit surprised that she should accuse him of being "just like me", which seems a bit harsh, and I'm surprised because we've gotten along, more or less, the past 15 years pretty good and so - well, to be the victim of her righteous wrath right now....
There's a pause for a moment in her ranting and I slip in a question - "What's he done?" I ask, and this is an invitation for her to start again....
"He's an intellectual snob..." she finishes, and it's fair enough, I can see this and it's probably time the boy and I had a little talk. We make our plans.
When we get together I explain to him the rules, assign him Lord Chesterfield to read, punishment enough when you're 15, and I ask what precipitated this outburst....
"We were having a discussion and she was arguing that material things don't define you and I explained that I thought they did...." and I sympathize, he's doomed, there's a few years ahead where he's going to have to hide his light under a bushel and I explain that there's some things some people don't want to talk about and for the next few years he can't win. He accepts it.