The parson pushed the doorbell button of the well-attended home. Waiting a response, he turned to watch the horses in the white-fence trimmed pasture. A colt, coal black with white socked front legs, pranced about in a vain attempt to deflect his mother’s concentration of grazing.
Eventually, the sound of the door opening drew the parson’s attention from the magnificent Morgans back to the door.
“Hello, parson,” greeted Eloise, “thank you for coming. I’m sorry to impose on you coming over so quickly but we’re in a crisis here.”
The parson didn’t respond but silently followed down the entry hall leading to the family room with its massive fireplace built from rock obtained from the farm itself. Eloise asked him to take a seat and if he’d care for any refreshment. The parson declined the offer. He was acutely aware of a tension in the air as well as the manner in which she kept wringing her hands.
Sitting down in a wooden rocker that faced a semi-circle of love seats and recliners, the parson asked,
“Eloise, you seem worried.”
“Oh, parson,” she replied, “worried is not the half of it. I’m absolutely beside myself.” She sat down
wearily on one of the love seats. “It’s Jason. I wanted you to come over and help me talk with him.”
Before the parson could respond her daughter, Jason’s younger sister, came bounding into the room. “Hi, parson,” she called in midair as she dove into the pillows resting on the love seat directly across from her mother. “Mom got you over here to preach to Jason, huh?”
The parson looked toward Renee’s mother. She informed her daughter, “The parson just came in, honey, I haven’t told him why I asked him over yet. I planned to let Jason tell him.”
“Gee, Mom, why be so dramatic? Renee sat, surfacing from the sea of pillows. She looked at the parson and said, “Jason got caught shoplifting at the mall. That’s why she asked you over. She’s having trouble dealing with it.”
The parson looked from the precocious fourteen-year-old to her mother. Eloise was staring at the hardwood floor; tears were running down her cheeks. The parson looked back at Renee. “What happened?”
“He was at the mall hanging out with his soccer buddies. One of his friends asked him to hide some shorts in his pants. He did. Then when they left a security man stopped them. Mom was helping me with the horses and left her cell phone in the kitchen, so they couldn’t get her. They called Jason’s coach. He went to the mall and got him and his buddies and took them home. Since then he and Mom have been doing nothing but screaming at each other.”
“You don’t seem very upset about this,” the parson said.
“I’m sure not as upset as Mom is, that’s for sure,” said Renee.
“This is not a big deal to you?”
Renee leaned forward. “I know this seems serious to Mom and you, parson. But things are different than when you guys were kids. Kids go to the mall and shoplift all the time. They don’t think it’s really stealing. They think it’s a game.”
Eloise leaned back where she sat and held her arms in a “see what I’m up against” gesture. She shook her head from side to side.
“It’s a game?” the parson asked.
“It’s just a game.”
The parson slid himself to the edge of the rocker and leaned toward the teenager. “Do you play this game?”
“No, I don’t play that game, parson. But a lot of the kids at school do.”
“Why don’t you play the game?”
Renee moved back against sofa and folded her arms across her chest. “I just don’t.”
“Is it because you think the game is wrong?” asked the parson.
Renee moved her hand up and began to twist a curl around her index finger. “Maybe,” she whispered.
The parson moved back in his chair. He was at a loss where to take the conversation next. Renee helped him.
“Listen, parson, I understand that it’s wrong; it’s stealing. But Mom just doesn’t understand the pressure Jason is under. The kids in his group do this all the time and sooner or later Jason was going to do it with them.”
“You make it sound like he didn’t have a choice.”
Renee pulled herself up from the sofa and moved to the end, closer to the parson. “Friends are really important, parson. I mean they are really important. Jason didn’t have a choice like your and Mom’s generation think he had a choice.”
The parson suddenly felt very old. He looked toward Eloise, hands down by her side now, but slump shouldered with redness around her eyes.
Eloise spoke, “Renee, go tell Jason to come down.”
Renee jumped from her seat had headed to the bottom of the stairs. She then shouted, “Jason, Mom says to get down here. The parson’s here.” She then skipped back into the family room.
“Thanks for being such a lady about that,” said Eloise.
“You’re welcome,” Renee replied, “but I’m not a lady yet. I’m just working on it.”
The parson could hear the clump, clump, clump of Jason’s large feet on the stairs. In a second his muscular body lumbered into the room and he plopped down in the recliner directly across from the parson. Watching the macho display the parson was reminded of Jason’s father whose untimely death two years previous had shattered the family. Jason’s father was gone. Jason was angry.
Eloise sat upright and confronted Jason, “I don’t know if I’m going to let you hang around with those boys any longer.”
Jason replied with a trembling in his voice, “You can’t tell me who my friends can be or not. You can put all kinds of restrictions on me, but you cannot select my friends for me.”
His mother’s voice rose and it too was now trembling, “You watch the way you speak to me, young man. And don’t tell me what I can or cannot do. You sure don’t know how to pick your friends.”
“We’ve discussed this Mom,” Jason said. “You’ve put me on restriction and I’ve accepted my punishment but you just won’t let it go.”
“Well, you’re going to get into more trouble if you don’t get better friends.”
The parson cleared his throat. “Eloise, do you mind if I talk with Jason?”
“Of course not; I’m hoping he’ll listen to you. Maybe you can tell him how to pick his friends.”
“I can’t do that, Eloise,” said the parson.
She immediately opened her mouth to respond. The parson held up his hands. “I don’t have the power to determine who is and who is not his friend, Eloise, and frankly neither do you. Now let Jason and me talk a second.”
The parson turned to Jason. “What happened?”
“We were just hanging out at the mall. Frank told me to stick some stuff in my pants for him. He’s my friend, so I did. And we got caught. The security guard knew we played on the school soccer team so he didn’t call the police. He called Frank’s mother, but when he couldn’t get Mom he called the coach.”
“The coach is upset about this, I guess.”
“Yes, sir, he is. I don’t think either one of us will be starting for a while.”
“What did you steal?”
“The package I had was underwear, jockey shorts.”
“You jeopardized yourself for a pack of jockey shorts?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell me they were the right size.”
“They weren’t for me. Frank wanted them.”
“Jason,” the parson said quietly, “let me ask you something. Would you ever ask Frank to steal something for you?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that.”
“That sounds like you’re a good friend.” The parson paused a second then added, “Now one more question, and don’t answer this out loud. Just tell yourself the answer: What kind of friend would ask you to steal something for them?”
The parson turned to Eloise and said, “Eloise, let me make a suggestion to you. Jason’s little crime is a matter between you and him. What concerns you and him has nothing to do with his friends. Frank didn’t stick the shorts down Jason’s pants. Jason made the decision to put them there. No one forced him. When you try to punish his friends as well as punishing him, you’re avoiding dealing with what’s happening in your own house.”
The parson turned to Jason, “So what’s your punishment?”
Jason gave the parson a listing of Eloise’s items of retribution.
“And you think you deserve this?”
“I know I do. I was stupid.”
The parson stood up. “You know, Eloise, if you don’t mind, I think I’d like Jason to show me that new stallion you guys got last week. Somebody told me he’s magnificent.”
Before Eloise could engage them or offer to accompany them, the parson had gestured for Jason to follow him. They hopped on a four-wheeler parked by the front porch and headed for the barn.
When the parson left an hour and a half later, Jason was standing on the porch with his arm around his mother while Renee sat in the rope swing she’d played on for ten years.
The parson drove away knowing Jason would learn from his experience. And he felt depressed at the changing value system of the rising generation.
Comments