Mom's Dilemma Redux

nspired by the greatest r**e fantasy story I ever read, “MOM’S DILEMMA” by Coyote, I take a crack at rewriting it, putting my own spin on the classic tale and substituting in all the girls from my own personal fantasies.

Introduction: A wrong turn down a dirt road turns into a nightmare more horrifying than anything prudish mother Janet Smith could have imagined while it also becomes a fantasy and an opportunity that Janet’s own son and three other young boys would have never believed.

Janet was at work when the phone call came and it was not good news. As if her life hadn’t been stressful enough lately; what with the death of her husband and the discovery that they were just about broke. Now here she was, almost forty and with very little in the way of work experience, desperately trying to hold onto a job that was the only thing keeping her family off the streets. The pretty Catholic mom now knew she was on edge, not to mention terrified; after all, it was the overwhelming desperation of her situation that had made her stoop to levels and degrade herself in ways she had never imagined. And now, to make things even worse, apparently the bus that was supposed to drive her three kids home from summer camp that afternoon had broken down. That had been the camp director on the phone and, in a brusk, irritated and almost commanding manner, he was telling her, not asking her, to drive up to the camp so she could pick up her own children.

“And ... if you could,” the camp director had also stated matter of factly.

“If you have a larger vehicle ... we’re going to have you bring back some of the other staff and children who live closest to your own home. After all, not all parents are as fortunate as those of us who have white privilege, so they’re going to need some help in their children getting home.”

Janet now swore under her breath as she pondered the bitter irony. After all, the last thing the 40-year-old Catholic mom felt as of late was that she had any sort of privilege. Sure, before Rick had passed away, her family had enjoyed a lifestyle most people had envied, but now, in the year since he had died Janet had struggled as much as anyone. It was her own fault, Janet sometimes believed, for Rick had left her in a situation that could only be described as a disaster and if she had been more insistent in taking a role in the family’s finances, she probably could have avoided her current predicament. At the very least, Janet could have insisted on life insurance even if, to this idea, Rick would have been resistant.