A Son's Tale

She was not going to let him make her second-guess herself. Yes, she saw the best in people. She liked to help people, too. Both were positive characteristics.

“I also called an attorney. I’m going to meet with her tomorrow, too.”

“Good. Your father has a lot of money, Morgan, but you’re a good mother and you and Sammie have rights.”

“I know.” She also knew not to underestimate the power of money. She’d seen her father’s wealth in action all of her life.

“How was Sammie tonight?”

She didn’t want to tell him. Didn’t want anyone to judge her son. Sammie was just struggling with growing pains.

“He was angry with me for putting a monitor in his room.”

“A monitor?”

“Yeah.”

“Like those things people use to hear if their baby cries in the night?”

“Yeah.”

Dead air followed and when she felt uncomfortable after a few seconds she said, “I just wanted to be able to get some sleep. What if he sneaks out during the night? I’ll lose him for sure if he goes a second time. I can’t make him sleep with me, or camp out on his floor forever. What he did was wrong. A monitor in his room seemed like a punishment that fit the crime.”

“The crime?”

“He broke my trust in him.”

Another silence had her wishing she hadn’t spoken quite so freely. Cal Whittier made her feel as though she could tell him anything. She’d have to watch that.

“It’s not anything I would have come up with, but, you know, what you said has some merit.

“A more common punishment would be grounding, maybe,” he continued. “I’m not a parent, but I am an educator and I know that taking away something that the child values for a designated period of time is a widely accepted practice. But you’re right. He’s lost your trust. And that’s what you’re showing him.”

“Other than sports, Sammie values his computer. What good would taking away the computer do?” she said. “He uses it for legitimate things—schoolwork, and keeping up with his favorite teams and game scores. He’d be bored stiff without it. I heard in one of my classes once that the prisons are filled with smart people who were bored. It’s more of a challenge to be bad than to be good, and when you’re bored you look for a challenge. Besides, his computer use played no part in what happened on Friday. The other thing he values is his independence. That’s what I’m taking away. Only until I can trust him again. He has to know that breaking someone’s trust is critical.”

“You’re right.”

Why did his saying so matter so much?

“Well, thank you for calling,” she said abruptly. “I have to work early tomorrow. Covering for someone…” The words tumbled over one another as she hurried to extricate herself before she did something really stupid.

Like talking to the man half the night and getting herself in too deep. Her son’s life was at stake. Morgan was not going to mess this up.

* * *

SITTING AT THE COMPUTER in the small room that served as an office at home, Cal wrote long into the night on Monday—a collection of personal notes and memories that he was putting in chronological order. And he nursed a single glass of whiskey. He’d have had something to eat, too, but he’d eaten his fill during his dinner with Kelsey.

She’d seemed to enjoy herself. And he’d asked her out again for later in the week. She’d accepted.

On Tuesday, at ten o’clock, he dialed the phone again, exactly as he had the night before.

“How did your meeting with the lawyer go?” he asked as soon as Morgan picked up. He was in the office, wearing sweats and a T-shirt, ready to write, but had to do this first.

“Good. She says that while my father has a legal right to ask the courts to consider my ability to parent Sammie on my own, the courts will put the most weight in Sammie’s health and well-being. His having run away will work against us, but his good grades, good health and emotional stability will be in our favor. She thinks there’s a possibility that we might get joint custody, because of my father’s ability to provide for Sammie financially so much better than I can, but she doesn’t expect that to happen.

“And…she said that she thinks I should represent myself in court. She

said that court is all about strategy. About choosing the best strategy to win. And in this case, she recommends that I appear on my own behalf. Basically, my father is going to have me on trial. All an attorney would do for me is call me to the stand and ask me questions so that I can present my case. She said that I’m perfectly capable of giving the court the truth on my own and that I’ll appear more confident and capable if I do so. We aren’t going to try to fight my father, or drag him through the mud, which is what I’d need an attorney for. We aren’t going to challenge him, or put him on trial because then it appears like I’m fighting with my father, not standing up for my son. And…she said that she’ll continue to advise me as we go along, free of charge. She was really sweet, Cal. I liked her a lot.”