"Shelly, you may be some hot shot college graduate now; but may I remind you that you are still a minor? Don't think that just because you're nearly sixteen that I won't take you over my knee for talking back to your Mama." Sheldon clearly heard the exasperation in his Mother's voice coming over the telephone wire and responded with a sigh.

"But Mother, I don't want to spend Thanksgiving with a bunch of strangers…I would rather carry on living on campus and continuing with my studies."

"Sheldon, they wouldn't be strangers if you hadn't kept coming up with some random excuses not to meet them! Iris your Meemaw's Goddaughter and you've never once hung around long enough to meet her and her family."

"Mother! I have not been making up random excuses and resent any implications that I have! Working on my college degree and then studying for my first doctorate has consumed my life and now that I am so close to finishing….I would have hoped that you, of all people would have understood that! It was you and Meemaw that agreed that I would benefit more out of moving to California…whereas I was quite happy to continue my studies at Rice." Sheldon's tone was rising in pitch and Mary Cooper knew that her son was likely working himself up into a terrible state of anxiety.

"Shelly, settle down...we all discussed this together, remember?" Mary kept her tone soft and soothing as she tried to calm her teenage son, suddenly 1400 miles seemed further than ever.

"Eidetic memory, Mother; of course I remember." Sheldon muttered as he slumped into his desk chair, keeping the phone propped between his ear and shoulder blade. "Meemaw brought over a plate of brownies that were still worn from the oven, and you took me out into the kitchen where you had laid out a series of university letters that had arrived in the post. I hadn't even applied anywhere else and you said that all of them had come to me rather than me having to fill in all of those dreaded applications."

"That's right, Shelly…all of those universities wanted you, and all you wanted to do was to stay where you were comfortable; it took Meemaw and I the whole day to make you see that there was a whole world out there for you to choose from, and you finally picked California because…?"

"…Because I wanted to go and have breakfast with Mickey Mouse."

"And have you?" Mary asked, already knowing what the answer was likely to be.

"Not yet, I've been too busy." Sheldon answered a little distractedly, his fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard of his desktop computer.

"Sheldon honey, I'm worried about you. George has nearly finished up at the community college and with Missy still in High School…I want you to be able to have a family Thanksgiving, and since I can't be there with you, Iris has very kindly invited you to join theirs. It will just be Iris and her daughter, Iris's husband passed away a few years ago. Promise me that you'll at least think about it?"

"Very well, Mother…but I make no promises." Sheldon sighed again as he looked at the clock, "Mother, I have to go soon; it's nearly eight ten and I have to go and do my laundry in five minutes. I'll e-mail you once I've made my decision."

"Okay, Sheldon…I'll call you next week…oh, and if you do go to Iris's; be nice to her daughter won't you? She's having a hard time at school and I don't want you making things awkward for her."

"Mother…" Sheldon whined in an exaggerated tone, knowing that his mother would like nothing better than for him to find a nice girl, settle down and move back to Texas to raise a bunch of noisy, smelly babies.

"Sheldon…" Mary mimicked his tone and he knew that was his cue to act like the gentleman he was brought up to be.

"Sorry, Mama…" He apologised and Mary smiled into the phone.

"Be nice, Sheldon. Iris said that her daughter's a little like you…skipped a few grades in school and is now studying biology or chemistry; or something like that in California. She's only just turned fifteen a few months ago and is finding it hard to find her feet…you may just have more in common with each other than you think."

"All right, I really have to go now Mother, speak to you soon...love you, bye!" Sheldon held the phone away from his ear and replaced the receiver gently back into its cradle with his Mother still speaking; it was past eight fifteen and his overflowing laundry basket beckoned him like a siren. Had he held onto the receiver just a moment later, he would have heard his Mother mentioning Iris's daughter by name…Amy Farrah Fowler.