The Summer Seekers

“Police?” Liza, who didn’t understand at all, was frantic. “What is going on?”

“Yes, Liza and I will be dealing with them I can assure you.” Sean finally hung up and swore under his breath. “We need to leave.”

“Is it the twins? Did they have an accident?”

“No, they had a party.” Sean’s expression was grim as he threw their clothes into the overnight bag. “They’ve wrecked our house and, it seems, broken our neighbors’ dining room window and destroyed their precious herbaceous borders. We have to go home.”

6

KATHLEEN

Two weeks later Kathleen sat clutching her bag on her lap as Liza drove her to the airport.

She felt old, but that was what two nights with teenagers could do for you.

Was it wrong to feel relieved that part of her trip was over? She was starting to understand why Liza looked drain

ed the whole time.

Liza gave her a wan smile. “Sorry. It wasn’t the most relaxing stay.”

“It was a treat to see the girls.” Kathleen forced herself to lie, a challenge for someone who believed in speaking the truth. It seemed the polite thing to do, even though they both knew that the twins had been a nightmare. They’d behaved delightfully to her of course—Granny! It’s great to see you—and appallingly to their mother—We could all go out for a nice family dinner but Mum’s taken away all the fun in our lives.

Given the level of hostility, Kathleen admired her daughter for sticking to the sanctions she’d imposed. In the same situation she doubted she would have been so resolute. But Liza had always been an easy child, so discipline of any sort had been unnecessary.

What a horrid, conflict-ridden, joyless world her daughter was inhabiting.

“No internet, no TV, no phone, for a month.” Caitlin had stomped around the kitchen. “It’s an infringement of my human rights.”

Alice, a conflict avoider, had covered her ears and left the room.

Liza had stayed calm. “It was an infringement of our neighbors’ rights when you kept them awake, broke a window and destroyed half the plants on their border.”

“That wasn’t my fault.” Caitlin was mutinous. “I’m not responsible for other people’s actions.”

“You are when they are guests in your home.”

“They weren’t guests! I didn’t even know them. And taking everything away is—is—it’s medieval. Granny, tell her it’s medieval.”

“Nothing about your life is medieval.” Kathleen had tried to stay impartial. “In medieval times you probably wouldn’t have survived to teenage years. Infant mortality was alarmingly high.”

“Are you saying you never had a party when you were our age?”

Oh dear. “Yes, I suppose—”

“You see?” Caitlin turned to Liza, triumphant. “Granny said she had a massive party when she was our age.”

“I didn’t say massive,” Kathleen said, but no one was listening to her.

Liza was working so hard to stay calm her body was vibrating.

“Firstly, this is about you, not Granny. Secondly, social media hadn’t been invented when Granny was a teenager and even if she did have a party, I’m willing to bet she knew everyone there. Thirdly, her guests didn’t destroy the house and also the neighbors’ house.”

“We didn’t destroy the house,” Caitlin mumbled, but she had the grace to look a little sheepish. “We didn’t invite those people.”

“But someone did, and you need to find out who and make them accountable.”

“No way. That is not cool.”