Doreen Calls her Mom

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Doreen calls her mother to ask a very important question, and ends up weaseling her way into the answer she wants, for better or for worse...

The three hour time difference could be really annoying at the time, but she had gotten the hang of it. It was midday when she dialed her Mom's cellphone number. There were things... things like stuff... that she had to get rolling. She had sat on it for long enough.

Now she just hoped her Mom would be able to answer.

"Doreen!" Maureen Green's voice was full of good cheer. There was nothing like seeing your daughter's name on your cell phone's caller ID to brighten a day. Since she was working an evening shift, she'd just gotten up and was puttering around the kitchen to make breakfast, but she would have even rolled out of bed to take the call. "How's things, sweetie?"

"Everything's going okay," Doreen said, "I just thought I'd call and talk about stuff and I kind of maybe want to ask something but how are you?"

Wanting to ask something? Now Maureen was curious. Not that Doreen was the type of child that only called when she wanted something, but it still had her wondering. "Pretty good. Work keeps me busy, and your grandfather is...well, your grandfather," she said with a note of loving exasperation. She supposed she couldn't blame him for still being occasionally protective of her. It was a parent's prerogative, after all, and she certainly felt the same about Dori.

"You'll tell him I said hi, right?" Doreen asked, "Anyway, I was kind of sort of maybe wondering if I could join a program here that sort of prepares you for public service. With a cape. Only there aren't any REAL capes, you know?"

"...capes." Maureen pinched the bridge of her nose. She wasn't sure if this was a function of all those comic books her daughter loved to read, but she had a bad feeling about this. "Doreen Stephanie Green," she said in her Stern Mom Voice, "are you telling me that you want to become some sort of superhero-in-training?"

"In a manner of speaking?" Doreen suggested, "You sort of have to sign something for it, since I'm not eighteen yet."

Visions of Doreen lying in a hospital bed, or worse, flashed through Maureen's mind. "I am most certainly -not- signing anything just so you can put yourself in harm's way, young lady," she replied waspishly. "I won't be party to anything so...irresponsible."

"But it's not irresponsible. It's really organized, and they help people!" And if she didn't sign it, Dori was going to do it anyway when she turned eighteen. But she wasn't going to pull that out of her arsenal just yet. "And I know it will be dangerous. But anything is dangerous. I mean, a box could totally fall on me at work, but you don't stop me from going to work. Or I could've fallen out of trees and off stuff but you never made me stop running on things."

"There's quite a difference between climbing trees and being in more harmful situations, Doreen," her mother snapped back. She'd seen more than her fair share of the results of 'harmful situations' in her nursing career. A broken bone from falling out of a tree didn't even come close. "And that 'box could totally fall on me' argument is just ridiculous."

"Some of those boxes are really heavy. But, I could get hit by a car or something on the way to work, I mean, bad things happen," Doreen said, "But that's not the point. They help people mom. People like me and I think that's awesome and I really want to do something like that. And they don't even wear spandex so you can't say it's like a hero worship thing."

Maureen sighed almost imperceptibly. She'd raised her daughter well, and instilled in her a desire to help others, much like she tried to do herself. But she was still her baby girl, and the maternal instinct to protect was strong. "Just because bad things happen sometimes doesn't make a good excuse for going out seeking after them," she answered.

"I don't think bad things will happen though, it's just I thought I'd pay them back somehow for everything they're doing and if you don't sign off on this I'll do it when I'm eighteen, but I'd really rather you be cool with it Mom. Please?"

Doreen shifting to wheedling should have been an indicator that staying firm was working, but Maureen had always had a hard time denying her daughter. And she had a point that she could just wait and do it when she was eighteen. Their family had disintegrated enough, she wasn't about to drive a wedge between herself and Dori. She sighed. "I'm not happy about it, but okay." Before Dori could squeal in victory, Maureen kept speaking. "But I'll want to talk to one of your...supervisors, or whatever they are, and I want regular updates on this." Maybe that would help reassure her own fears.

"Oh, I can totally set that up!" Doreen said, practically bouncing up and down, "Thank you, Mom! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!"

Maureen sighed again. "Just...be careful, sweetie, okay?"