surprise (you had to be there and not be our mother)

She says we're much worse now than when we were kids, and there is a part of me that's ashamed as there should be, but when I call her house to get her to read something for me and its eight o'clock in the evening, he shouldn't be there.

"Hello."

"Hey mom."

"Hey, Shea."

"Whatcha doing?"

"Sitting here talking to Josh."

"He's there?"

"Yes. He came to get a cup of coffee."

"Let me talk to him."


"Hello, Shea." He does a solid sinister to a sister voice.

"Ohmygosh. Seriously? Is she in her pajamas right now? Is she trying to rest?" I try my best bullying to a brother voice.

"Shea?"

"Yes."

He breaks a bit here. I can hear him smile. "Good night."

Then he hangs up the phone.

I call back trying not to laugh but it only gets funnier when he answers.

"Hello."

"Josh, let me talk to mom now."

"Shea. Good night."

This time I'm crying while I laugh.

Then I try to call a friend to ask if she can read what I need because Josh won't let me talk to Mom and she'll ask how that happened and she'll start laughing.

But then the phone starts beeping and I see it's Mom's number and I think it must be her just dying to know what she could do for me before we were so rudely interrupted. I answer quickly,

"Hello."

It's a fairly long pause before we both start laughing and he says, "Mom says you need to stop calling her because you're waking up dad."

When he hands her the phone she is still kind to her grown kids when she says, "You are worse now than when you were kids."


Today I am grateful for a reading, a funny family, and for a little wackiness in what can be an overheated world. (read spoiled rotten)