Carry On Epilogue : Dori and her Mom

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Dori talks to her mom about the events of her trip home and a possibility for the future...

In the grand scheme of things, Doreen was aware it could’ve been a lot worse. She and Monkey Joe could’ve been a lot worse off. But no one had gotten hurt, however it did sort of hammer home the fact that someone could’ve. She sat at the table with just a bandaid on her cheek. And the only reason she had gotten that was Monkey Joe had slipped and almost fell from her head while they were running away.

“So, that’s uh, kinda what happened,” she said looking over at her mom.

Maureen blinked once before taking a sip of her tea. The story she'd just heard was unbelievable, even for the active imagination of her daughter. "What, exactly, were you thinking?!" she asked in a rising tone, keenly aware in hindsight of the danger her daughter had put herself in.

“That large squirrels are a really good deterrent?” Doreen offered, lamely, “I know now it really wasn’t that great of an idea, but we had to do something.”

"Doreen, you could have been seriously hurt...or, or," the alternative was too terrible to contemplate. She'd already lost one child, and she didn't want to face that sort of horror again.


“I know, Mom,” Doreen said, looking down at the table, Monkey Joe pushing at her hands with his head, “I’m not trying to say what we did was really smart or well thought out or anything.”
Maureen sighed and took another sip of her tea, she wanted to scream, to break things, but what good would that accomplish. "Maybe...maybe you need to be closer to home...so we can keep a better eye on you," the young girl's mother muttered slightly.

Doreen shook her head, “I’m not going back to school here, Mom. It was… well, it was really, really bad. And I didn’t want to lie to you about what we did either.”

"Dori, I'm just worried about your safety honey. I know what it's like to be young, to think you can't be hurt, but you're not invincible!"

“I know, Mom. But we couldn’t let Julian go out and do stuff on his own. He’s not invincible either,” Doreen returned.

After a long period of silence, Maureen made an exasperated sound. Her daughter was so strong willed, "Just because every other kid is jumping off a bridge, Dori, doesn't mean that you should too!"

“Some kids can fly, Mom,” Doreen said, “I mean, I can’t. But Megan can. You saw her wings, right? I mean, I’m not like most kids. And we couldn’t just call the cops on these people, they wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”

Another exasperated sound later, Maureen continued in a more depressed tone, "You're so much like your father sometimes."

Doreen looked crestfallen at that, “I’m sorry Mom. I’m not trying to be stubborn. I just didn’t want to lie to you.” Great, how was she supposed to go about part two of this conversation?

Another sigh and a sip of tea later, "I'm sorry sweetheart, that was unfair. I'm...I just worried about you."

“You don’t need to be worried, Mom. I mean, with my friends I’ll be okay. And uh, I kinda wanted to talk to you about something else,” Doreen started meekly.

"What is it?" she hoped it wasn't more bad news.

“Um, there’s a program at the school that wasn’t in the pamphlet,” Doreen said. She had gushed about the super heroes before, but she knew it was a bit more than that.
"Program?" the girl's mother asked softly.

“Yeah, the Super heroes, remember?” Doreen prompted.

"Oh," was all she could manage, having a firm feeling what was coming next.

“Um, anyway, when you’re seventeen they let you join if it’s okay with your parents and stuff and I’d really like to,” Doreen said, “You’re a nurse because it helps people, right? I want to help people this way. And maybe then they’ll be less afraid…”

"Dori, I don't know...it seems really dangerous," her mother mused.

“Which is why you really train up to it,” Doreen said firmly, “Mom, I really want to. I mean, I’m sort of built for it. Kinda.”

A moment of silence, another sigh and Maureen looked her daughter square in the eyes, "So you want to be a superhero?" Another sigh and a sip of tea, "Okay, I'll need to talk to whoever is in charge of the program, but provisionally...okay."

“Well, they don’t let you start until your seventeen and it’s training stuff, you know?” Doreen said, “I can totally get you someone to talk to. I mean, I’m not doing this because it would be fun. I’m not going to lie, it SO will be, but you know…”

"I know and I know you'll be responsible. Get me someone to talk to me though, okay?" Maureen put a hand ontop of her daughter's and gave a bit of a squeeze.

“Okay, Mom! I totally will. I promise,” Dori said with a smile.