08 Family Time

Arnold's mother pulled the car into their driveway, then touched Arnold's arm to stop him before he could move to leave. “Arnold, we need to discuss something before going inside.” She paused for a moment and then spoke. “Heather taught you how to kiss, didn't she?”

“Yes.” Arnold said.

“Arnold, you can't kiss me like that.” His mother said.

“Why?” Arnold asked, confused. “Heather said that a kiss on the forehead was still a kiss; but, it didn't mean as much as kissing on the lips.” He said, then his face went from blank to completely indifferent. “Does that mean you don't care about me as much as she does?”

“Wh-what?!?” His mother exclaimed and then she sighed. She saw the trap she was now in and she didn't have any real way to get out of it. “Arnold, you're my son. You mean more to me than anything else in this world.”

“Then what's wrong? Did I do it badly?” Arnold asked.

His mother sighed again. She couldn't respond to that and not cause him some distress. “Arnold, I...”

“I know I need to practice more.” Arnold said. “I'll get better. I promise.”

His mother blinked her eyes at him for a moment, then she made a decision that might cause him distress. “Don't tell your father that you kissed me.”

Arnold understood, because Heather's mother said almost the same thing, which reminded him of what else she said. “I won't kiss you in front of him, either.”

His mother was a little surprised that he would make that logic leap so quickly and she didn't have to tell him. She nodded and the two of them went inside the house. His father wouldn't be home from work for several hours, so neither of them had to worry about telling him about what happened to Arnold until then. They had barely entered the house when the phone rang.

His mother picked it up. “Hello?” She paused. “Hmm. Yes, he's here.” Another pause. “I'm not sure if I should let you.” A brief pause. “I'm sure that you're sorry...” She said and then she sighed. “All right; but, I expect you to bring his homework over every night.”

Arnold heard a loud yes as his mother held the phone out from her ear, then his mother passed him the phone. He spent the next hour telling Heather everything and listening to her reactions, then he listened to what she had heard from others about what had happened and her reactions to that.

Arnold's mother stood there and listened the entire time and she wasn't sure if what she was witnessing was a good thing or not. She was happy that he was finally showing some kind of interaction with the people around him; but, she wasn't sure she liked what that interaction was. On one hand, for the first time in his life, Arnold was talking to a girl. On the other hand, he had defended her honor and gotten into trouble.

His mother held in her sigh at that thought. She knew it made him a good boyfriend to step up when it was necessary and she also knew it was the start of a lot of headaches for her, especially since Arnold was now suspended for two weeks and his girlfriend was going to be visiting every day.

She was excited when I asked her to deliver his homework and it's supposed to be a punishment. His mother thought and kept looking and listening to Arnold. I wonder how much longer...

“Okay.” Arnold said and hung up. “She needs to study with Kelly now.”

His mother stepped close and took him into a hug. “You would have stayed on the phone with her all night if she wanted to keep talking, wouldn't you?”

Arnold nodded. “I don't have school tomorrow, so I don't have to do my homework right away.”

She smiled and let him out of the hug. “You can go and do it now.”

Arnold nodded again and went up the stairs. He had worn his stuffed backpack the entire time and didn't take it off until he sat down at his desk. He quickly did the homework he had received that day and then he thought about the homework that the vice-principal had assigned. He could do it now; but, she told him to wait until after he had been suspended for the two weeks before he was allowed to write it. He packed up his backpack again and put it aside.

“Finished already?” His mother asked and he turned to look at her. She had combed her blonde hair and had changed into her relaxing clothes. She wore a loose pair of faded jeans, her favorite pair, and a baggy white t-shirt. She also carried a plate of food for him.

“It was easy.” Arnold said. Compared to memorizing the anatomy of hundreds of different animals and insects and their real and scientific names, doing every other subject was like relaxing.

His mother walked into the room and put the plate on his desk. “Arnold, I've been thinking about something.” She said and sat down on his bed while he ate. “I want to tell you what to expect... that is, what might happen... now that you have a girlfriend.”

Arnold paused for a moment in eating. “Are you going to show me what...”

His mother's face flushed red. “No, no.” She shook her head. “I'm just going to tell you.”

Arnold shrugged and kept eating.

“I... dammit, I don't know how to start.” His mother said and then took a deep breath and let it out when she decided what to say first. “I guess it's time we had a special talk.”

Arnold paused in eating again. “A special talk?” He asked. No one had ever mentioned there was such a thing to him before.

His mother saw that she had his undivided attention and took another breath and let it out. “You need to know about the birds and the bees.”

Arnold smiled. “I know all about them.”

“What?” His mother was shocked. He only just learned to kiss yesterday!

“Bees are necessary for cross pollination of plants and crops. The hive queen controls them all with pheromones and...”

His mother relaxed when he described real bees. “No, Arnold. The saying 'birds and the bees' is a phrase most people use when they are going to talk about sex.”

Arnold raised his eyebrows at her and dropped his fork onto his plate.

“Yes, this is definitely going to be an awkward talk.” His mother said and pat the bed beside her.

Arnold took the cue, since she used it a lot to get him to sit where she wanted him to.

“All right.” She turned to face him and he did the same. She took his hand and looked into his eyes. “Please, bear with me while I try to explain things.”

Arnold nodded and listened intently, then his mother started to speak. He memorized everything she said, her facial expressions as she described certain things, and the motions and fidgets her body did when she talked about more intimate things. When she was done, she was exhausted mentally and Arnold stared at her with surprise on his face.

“Mom.” Arnold managed to say when he realized what she had told him. “Is... is it true?”

His mother sighed. “Yes, Arnold. People have sex for fun and not just to procreate.”

“But...” Arnold went over everything he had learned about the animal kingdom.

“I can see your mind working.” His mother said. “You won't find any animal species that does the same thing... except for dolphins.”

Arnold blinked his eyes and looked at her. “Dolphins?”

“They have sex because it's fun, too.”

Arnold's entire world view started to shift. Despite all of the evidence he had gathered over the years, he started to realize that humans were not like he had always thought. He looked down at the hand his mother still held tightly, then he looked back at her face when he came to a conclusion.

“We're not animals.” Arnold said.

His mother let a smile show on her face. “I wouldn't quite say that.” She said. “Some people would argue that we're some of the worst animals on the planet.”

Arnold opened his mouth to say humans weren't the worst, then his eyes went to his bare desk. “Mom.” He said and looked back at her as he had a thought. “What do I have to do to get a computer?”

His mother knew this was going to come up as soon as he had mentioned that Heather had one and showed him what it could do. “Arnold, we... we kept that information from you for a reason.”

“What do you mean?” Arnold asked.

“If you knew what computers could give you access to...”

“Heather already showed me the thousands of specimens it has.”

His mother held in her sigh and didn't want to tell him everything. “You can look for other things on the internet besides specimens.” She said and hoped that he got the hint and didn't ask about what, specifically, he could search for that she didn't want her impressionable eighteen year old son looking for. Not right after the talk they just had about the birds and the bees.

“Heather said that, and that there are games to play, too.” Arnold said. He didn't notice that his mother had relaxed.

“We still need to talk about what else Heather...”

“Tell me what I have to do to get a computer.” Arnold said and cut her off.

His mother sighed. “Computers are expensive, Arnold.”

Arnold nodded. “I know they don't have them at school and they do have them at college.” He said. “I don't want to wait for a year before getting access...” He stopped talking and smiled. “How much is in my college fund?”

His mother was a little surprised he had made the connection so quickly to his college fund. “We'll have to talk to your father about it.”

Arnold nodded and looked at the clock. His father would be home any minute.

“You should wait until he's had supper before bringing it up.” His mother said.

Arnold went to his desk and finished his supper, then the two of them went downstairs and waited until his father ate and went to the living room. Arnold followed him, with his mother beside him, then pleaded his case for a computer and using some of his college fund to get it, since it would be essential for him to have a computer for college.

“I'll get you one of the old ones from work.” His father said.

“Gerald.” Arnold's mother said with squinted eyes. “It's a legitimate expense for college.”

Gerald ignored her. “Old ones work just fine if all he's doing is doing homework and printing things.”

“Gerald.” Arnold's mother said in a stern voice and he sighed.

“We can't afford it, Annie.” Gerald said and turned to look at her.

“Excuse me?” Annie said. “There's over...”

“...five grand left.” Gerald finished the sentence and Annie's face drained of color. He stood up and looked apologetic. “I made a few bad investments and I had to take some of it...”

“SOME OF IT!” Annie yelled and slapped him. “We had over twenty-eight thousand dollars in that account!” She said. “We've scrimped and saved everything for years to get enough for Arnold to go to college!”

“I'll get it back.” Gerald said and rubbed his face. “There's this hot commodity that's going to be available soon and...”

“If you touch that money again, I'll divorce you and sue you for everything!” Annie nearly screeched. “You've ruined all of our plans! Years of hard work! You made me quit my job and stay at home to raise our family, then you steal our son's money!”

Arnold stood there and listened to his mother as she berated and cursed at his father. It was the first time he had seen any kind of disruption in his home life and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Gerald had had enough after about ten minutes of her yelling. “I'll fix it, Annie! Calm down!” He said and reached for her. In the next moment, he was slammed against the wall, bounced off, and had landed on the floor on his back. He looked up and couldn't stop his shiver at the cold expression on his son's face.

“Arnold!” Annie took his arm to restrain him, because she remembered what he had said about the fight at school.

“He was going to hurt you.” Arnold said, his voice empty of emotion.

“Arnold...” Annie started to say that her husband wouldn't do that.

“I saw his face.” Arnold said. “He never looked at you like that before.”

Annie looked at her husband and saw the fear there. “Gerald!”

“I swear I wasn't going to hit you.” Gerald said in a normal voice. His anger at her yelling at him for the stock market's fault was forgotten. “I just wanted you to be quiet and to listen to me.”

Annie wasn't sure what to make of that admission, especially since she didn't want to hear what he had to say and wondered what he would have done to make her listen.

The three of them stayed there in silence. Annie stood awkwardly and considered what to do next. Gerald sat up on the floor and wondered what he could say to make it up to his wife. Arnold looked at his father and remembered what his mother had said about people acting like animals, which made him wonder what kind of specimen treatment his father would be best suited to undergo.

“Arnold, I think you need to go upstairs and...” Annie started to say.

“No.” Arnold said, which surprised her, because it was the first time he had told her no. “You are going to argue and I will have to come back down and stop it again.”

Both Annie and Gerald looked at him with wide eyes.

“I'm staying right here.” Arnold said and didn't take his eyes off of his father.

Gerald took Arnold's cold gaze for another ten seconds and stood. “I need some air.”

Annie didn't say anything as her husband left the room. A moment later, they heard the front door slam. His mother let out a shaky breath and hugged Arnold.

“Mom, can you stop him from taking any more money?” Arnold asked.

“The account is in all three of our names, so no.” Annie said, sadly.

“Can we take it out instead?” Arnold asked and she looked at him in surprise. “Is the bank open now?”

“No, it's closed until tomorrow.”

“We'll go and get it then.” Arnold said, a plan already forming in his head.

“Go upstairs and go to bed.” Annie said.

Arnold nodded and went upstairs like she wanted and went to bed. He didn't sleep, though. He was waiting for the sound of his father's car. He knew that if he could estimate the right time to move, then he could confront his father before the man had a chance to hurt his mother.

Arnold didn't wonder where his protective instinct came from and he didn't question it. It had appeared mysteriously when Heather had been threatened and he thought that was the end of it, since feelings like that usually waned fairly fast. This one didn't and had stayed with him. He hadn't felt a need like it before, and he knew he would do anything to keep that feeling.

When he thought his mother was threatened, he felt it surge forward, much stronger this time, and he had acted without thought for the consequences. When that feeling filled him, Arnold knew that he would do anything to protect his mother.

Absolutely anything.