I was absolutely gutted. I couldn't believe this was happening. Thoughts of mutiny were running through my head as I sat and fumed.
A slide show of all the fun things I was supposed to be doing this summer played through my mind as I sat in my room and muttered angry words not quite loud enough to be heard. I had just turned eighteen and finally had my license, not that I had enough money yet to buy a car. I could legally drink and I could go into a bottle shop or a bar and not worry that my mum would find out. I was looking forward to doing that normal teenage tradition of going out with my mates and drinking. Going on camping trips and just generally enjoying my new found freedom.
To make matters worse I had finally gotten the nerve to talk to a girl I liked. Naomi was cute, at least to me she was. Not in that conventional way more of a Boticelli way. She was a bit bigger than the other girls and because teenagers are such cruel animals she was painfully aware of what she saw as her shortcomings. To me though she was very pretty and it even seemed that she may even be interested in me. Like me, she was shy and had lacked the nerve to speak to the opposite sex. Things were finally looking up for me and then my parents drop this bomb on me.
My parents had been on my case about getting a job this summer. I wasn't against getting a job, it was just bloody hard to find one around here. My lack of success in finding a job the moment they told me to was being interpreted by my mother as an affront and as though I didn't actually want one. The upshot of this is that they had volunteered me for a job.
Normally this wouldn't bother me but the reality was that it meant I would be spending the next six weeks at my Aunt's house. Unlike my mother I quite like my Aunt but the six best weeks of the year? Were they deliberately trying to kill any form of social life, such as it is? Did they want me to die a virgin?
I was still pissed off and doing my best not to talk to my parents that night when we sat down to dinner. Mum had noticed my mood and she was having none of it.
"It'll do you good to do some work and earn a bit of money. You should be grateful that we organised this."
I knew better than to respond. Anything I would say would not go well and she would get even angrier. The simple fact is that she just wouldn't understand. This wasn't just teen angst talking either. From what I had learned over the years, she had always been like this. It was her way or there was hell to pay. Dad was more like me, I get the impression that he wanted more from life but like me, he was too timid to pursue it. Once he ended up married to mum he just let go of his dreams. She was a dominant woman and he was too much of a pacifist to say no to her. She was my mum and I love her but we really didn't get along.
Dad came to talk to me after dinner. I was sitting outside in a place I used to go to when I was upset. A sort of hidden corner in the garden that I had always assumed that Mum and Dad didn't know about. I always felt alone there but in a good way. It was a place to clear my head, where I could think about things. I could think without being harassed and I often came away from there feeling a lot better about things. I was sitting there trying to think of a way out of this nightmare. The only thing I could think of was to get a job before my Aunt turned up. The problem was that that was tomorrow night and tomorrow was a Sunday. Dad sat down next to me and sighed. I could tell he'd been copping it from mum and had been sent out here by Mum to reason with me.
"I'm sorry, Nate, I know this sucks, but you don't have much choice now."
"I know but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it though."
"No, no you don't but how about you try and see some positives about it instead of looking at all the negatives?"
"Positives? Like what?"
"Well, for one thing, you will have six weeks without being nagged."
He gave me a sly grin and I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah, I guess that is a positive. I'm just really disappointed that I won't be able to do anything with my mates."
"The thing is, Nate, I get that but your mum never will. She's just not wired that way. She never had many friends growing up and didn't feel much of a need for them. You are different in that. The funny thing is you are a lot more like your Aunty Megan with that. She was always more social than me and definitely more than your mum."
"I know Aunt Megan has always been more free-spirited but is she really all that fun?"
I used the air quotes sign with my fingers for the words free-spirited because that was mum's way of saying she was a hippie freak, unreliable or a slut. Mum had never approved of Aunt Megan and often spoke harshly about her.
"I think you would be surprised just how fun Aunt Megan can be, besides you will get to stay right on the beach."
