Sometimes I think wives and mothers are really the Clark Kent's of the world. We simply move through life quietly doing our seemingly endless jobs - usually unnoticed (and often unappreciated) by most. We get the kids off to school, grocery shop, clean the house, do the laundry, clean up the dishes, answer the phone calls, fill out the forms for everything under the sun, make the doctor appointments, drive the kids fifteen different places all at the same time, settle the arguments, find the lost toy or shirt or shoe, fix the boo-boo's may they be physical or emotional, enforce homework time, bedtime and veggie eating - all without batting an eye.
In our house we have some Clark Kent duties many other families do not, including administering chemo to one of the children, locking up anything dangerous to prevent an additional suicide attempt for another of the children, and working to stop another child from becoming a full fledged outlaw by the age of 17.
Some days we moms have to break down and pull out our capes, run into the phone booth and come out a superhero to make it all work out. Today, in addition to my everyday jobs, my super task was to find, interview by phone and hire a lawyer from a town I'm not familiar with three hours away to defend my step-son, Alex. Part two of my super task was to then produce the $2000. out of thin air to pay for said lawyer. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, though. Let me back up and start from the beginning.
My mother-in-law, Dottie, lives three hours away in a beach resort town. Her husband passed away a little over three years ago and since then she has been very lonely. Each summer Brian's son, Alex, spends most of the summer with his grandmother. They are extremely close so it works out nicely for both of them. Dottie loves to have her grandson all to herself for weeks on end and Alex loves being able to go to the beach everyday. This summer, however, my husband and I both had some concerns about Dottie's ability to adequately supervise Alex closely enough given some stunts he has pulled since last summer. We worried trouble might just be brewing. It turned out we had no idea what we were in for.
With four teenagers living with us full time, Brian and I get very little time to do things alone together. The weekend of July 4th, however, we lucked out. My Alex was visiting his father in Pennsylvania, Jessica was on a trip with a friend and Nicholas was visiting his mother. We couldn't believe it! A whole weekend all to ourselves! After dinner and a movie, Brian and I came home and got ready for bed. We were just turning off the lights when the phone rang. It was Dottie. A phone call from a parent at 1:30 in the morning is never a good thing and this was no exception.
From across the room, I could hear my mother-in-law shrieking into my husbands ear. While I couldn't hear what she was saying, my husbands response of "WHAT?!?! THE POLICE?" and "HE DID WHAT?!?!" assured me we were in uncharted waters. Apparently my step-son, John Dillinger had gone on a bit of a crime spree that night. My mother-in-law was awakened by the state police beating on her front door. When she answered, a tall state trooper was shining a flashlight into her eyes, demanding to know where her car was. Confused, Dottie pointed to the driveway but when she looked she was horrified. Her car was nowhere to be found. After checking for her keys and her first born grandson, it became obvious; Alex had taken the car.
Now this act alone might not have been such a big problem except that Alex has no drivers license. He apparently also has no common sense since he was driving without headlights and when the police tried to pull him over for this, he decided to try to outrun them! He led police on a high speed chase through stop signs, red lights and across numerous front lawns. According to the police, he nearly caused three major accidents with his reckless driving. In the interest of public safety, the troopers called off the chase as he was heading into the tourist part of town for fear pedestrians would be hurt. Unfortunately, it was at this point that they lost him and for the next hour no one knew where he was or even if he was okay.
Needless to say, my husband and I jumped into the car and got on the road immediately, fearing the worst. We called his cell phone repeatedly until he finally answered. He had now driven more than an hour away in another direction. We talked him into pulling over, parking and waiting for the police. We advised him to cooperate since he was in enough trouble as it was.
By the time we got to the police department, Alex had been arrested, finger printed, had his mug shot taken and was sitting quietly in a jail cell. We collected the little outlaw and his grandmothers car and went back to her house so he could pack. There was no way we were letting him stay for a second longer. We apologized profusely to Dottie, who was still shaking and crying from the fear Alex had been hurt or had hurt someone else. We packed him into the car and headed home.
We were finally served with the papers this week. Alex is officially being charged with driving without a license, stealing a car and eluding the police. So much for our quiet weekend alone.
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