Daddy

“Do you know you're being put on academic probation?” Benjamin nodded. “Do you realize you may never get into a decent college after this? Or you may have to forfeit a year, or at the very least do summer school? And what the hell happened to all the notices they supposedly sent me?”

“I threw them out.” He was honest with him, and he looked about ten years old again, as he looked unhappily at his father. “I figured I'd get everything in control again, and you'd never have to know.”

Oliver paced the room, and then stopped to stare at him. “And what does that girl have to do with this? I think her name is Sandra Carter.” In truth it was emblazoned in his mind, and he had suspected for a long time that Benjamin's current romance was out of hand, but he had never for a moment suspected it would go this far. “I presume you're sleeping with her. How long has that been going on?”

For a long time, Benjamin stared at the floor and didn't answer.

“Answer me, dammit. What's going on with her? Young said she was thinking of dropping out. What kind of a girl is she and why haven't I met her?”

“She's a nice girl, Dad.” Benjamin suddenly looked up at him with defiance. “I love her, and she needs me.” He chose not to answer his father's second question.

“That's nice. As a fellow dropout?”

“She's not going to drop out … yet … she's just had a hard time … her father walked out on her mom, and … never mind. It's a long story.”

“I'm touched. And your mother walked out on you, so the two of you walk into the sunset hand in hand, and flunk out of school. And then what, you pump gas for the rest of your life, while she goes to work as a cocktail waitress? That isn't what I expect of you, or what you want for yourself. You deserve more than that, and she probably does too. For chrissake, Benjamin, get hold of yourself.” His face hardened into rigid lines his son had never seen before, but the last three and a half months had extracted a price from him and it showed. “I want you to stop seeing the girl. Now! Do you hear me? And if you don't, I'll send you away to goddamn military school if I have to. I'm not going to let you throw your life away like this, just because you're upset and we've all had a hard time. Life is going to throw a lot of curves at you, Son. It's what you do with them that will make or break you.”

Benjamin looked at him quietly, as stubborn as his father, worse, as stubborn as Sarah. “I'll pull my grades up, Dad, and I'll stop cutting school. But I'm not going to stop seeing Sandra.”

“The hell you won't, if I tell you to. Do you understand me?”

Benjamin stood up, his red hair and blue eyes blazing at his father. “I won't stop seeing her. I'm telling you that honestly. And you can't make me. I'll move out.”

“Is that your final word on this subject?”

Benjamin only nodded.

“Fine. You're on full restriction till the end of school, until I see those grades look the way they did before, until the school tells me you haven't missed five minutes of class to take a pee, until you graduate, and get into the kind of college you deserve. And then we'll see about Sandra.” The two men stood glaring at each other, and neither of them wavered. “Now go to your room. And I warn you, Benjamin Watson, I'm going to be checking on you night and day, so don't screw around. I'll call the girl's mother if I have to.”

“Don't bother. She's never there.”

Oliver nodded, still desperately unhappy with his oldest son, and startled by his defiant devotion to the girl. “She sounds charming.”

“May I go now?”

“Please do …” And then, as Benjamin reached the door, in a softer voice, “And I'm sorry I hit you. I'm afraid I've reached my limits, too, and this nonsense from you isn't helping.” Benjamin nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him, as Oliver let himself slowly down into a chair, feeling his entire body tremble.