TUESDAY TALES - MORE OF "SKIT THE SCOUT"

 

Welcome! This week we are writing to the word prompt GHOST. We have another episode of my young adult story, 'Skit the Scout and Me."  Don't forget to hop on over and read all the wonderful stories. You can find them HERE.  

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“Why are you leaving me with people I don’t even know?”

“Even if you don’t remember them, they remember you,” My mother said, her tone ominous.

That’s all I need. To spend months with people who remember something bad I did upteen years ago and are still pissed. Great. Wonderful. My mother is putting me in a concentration camp with people who she hopes will “straighten me out”, as Charles always says.

“What did I do to make them remember me?” I asked.

“Just were your charming self, I guess,” she said, not without a trace of sarcasm.

Even better. I don’t even know what rule I broke or thing I broke to make them remember me.

“When Brian DeMarco found out I would be away all summer, he ghosted me,” I said, pushing the guilt lever.

“Brian DeMarco doesn’t even know you’re alive,” my mother shot back. “He’s captain of the football team. He dates the head cheerleader. He wouldn’t know you if he fell over you. Jocks don’t hang out with fifteen-year-old artists,” she said.

Okay. I’ll give her this one. But just this once. Her comment buys my silence.

I look out the window at the greenery. More trees than I ever see in the City. Nicer trees, too. All different. And greener than City trees. Must be the fresh air? I don’t even know the names of all these trees. Shame on me. I mentally put “learning tree names” on my summer to do list.

 I hate it when my mother is right. I don’t know why I do, but I do. Maybe because she’s not right about stupid Charles. Why can’t she see what a phony he is?  

None of my friends like him, either. Oh, sure, they’re polite, but that’s it. They laugh about him behind his back. He’s nothing like my father. He was a man of integrity, whatever that is. A man who knew right from wrong and lived it.  

That's all this week. Thanks for stopping by.