Chapter 2: An Idea is Formed

We were having lunch after church one day when my mom mentioned one of the neighbors who had gotten divorced a few months back.

“Have you seen the girl he’s been dating lately?” my mom said in a low voice so as not to be overheard by the folks in the booth next to us. “Good grief, I doubt she can even vote yet! I bet she doesn’t know he has a thirty year-old daughter and two grandkids!”

My dad and I both laughed together. Actually I’d seen the girl in question myself earlier in the week and my mom was right; I could have sworn she was a babysitter except I knew he didn’t need one anymore. Naturally my dad, being a guy, had a different take on the situation than the women in his family.

“So what’s the big deal? Hey, if the guy can screw a teenage girl at his age, I’m certainly not going to blame him for going for it!”

My mom just snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, figures you would say that. Men are such pigs and you all stick together!”

My dad leaned forward across the table and grinned at my mom. I could barely hear him whisper, “Just in case you’ve forgotten Mary, your 42 year-old husband likes to bang his 22 year-old daughter.”

“And his twenty year-old niece, not to mention his fifteen year-old niece as well,” I added, earning a sharp glance from my mother, apparently for not keeping my voice low enough.

My mom wasn’t THAT easy to win an argument with, though. She countered with, “True, but at least you’re not dating them out in public and making a spectacle of yourself.”

That effectively ended the discussion so we went on to other things as we finished our lunch. On the way home, my dad was quiet, as if something was on his mind, but he wouldn’t say what it was. It wasn’t until later that night during supper that he eventually spilled the beans on his new idea.

“You know, I bet that guy loves it when women like you get all worked up over him dating a girl half his age,” he started out with my mom.

“Who cares? I STILL think it looks ridiculous,” my mom fired back. “He should be dating someone more his own age. She’s just like Anna Nicole Smith.”

My dad turned to me with a grin. “OK then, how would you feel Kelly, dating an older guy. Would you like people to stare at you and make gossip if you went out with some older guy?”

Immediately I had a premonition on where this was leading to but I played along.

“Why not, I think it would be fun!”

“See Mary,” my dad countered smugly, “Your own daughter thinks it would be fun.”

My mom shook her head and sighed. “So John, don’t tell me that now you want to go out on some sort of date with Kelly, do you?”

“Why not?” he answered, acting as if it was the most innocent thing in the world for us to do.

“Well, what is someone sees you that knows you?”

“We could make it a road trip. You’ve been wanting to visit your girlfriend in Cleveland, why not make a night of it? We could stay in a hotel, have dinner on the town and visit a few clubs and places.”