The long awaited summertime had finally arrived, so the boys had a lot of free time on their hands. Maybe even too much, because they started getting into trouble from time to time. A neighbour's window broken by a baseball, a pack of bubblegum stolen from the corner store. Normal boy stuff, Dan told Karen after the phone call from the store manager. What can you do? But the real test of patience came the previous Saturday, when the policeman showed up at their house. But let's backtrack a little bit…
Karen and Dan were sitting in the living room, Karen reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles for the umpteenth time, Dan going over the car dealership's figures. Luke and Nathan were supposed to be at a friend's house until eight o'clock that night, so Karen and Dan had the evening to themselves.
"Isn't this nice, Karen?" Dan turned to his wife. "Nothing that needs to be done, nowhere we have to rush off to… It's so nice to have an evening where we don't have to do anything."
But perhaps he had spoken too soon because as soon as Karen opened her mouth to reply there was a knock at the door.
"That's weird," Karen observed, standing up to answer the door. "I wonder who it could be."
Dan followed his wife to the door. They opened it and saw Lucas and Nathan standing next to a policeman. The sight was so appalling that no one spoke for a moment.
"Hello, are the two of you Mr. and Mrs. Scott?" the policeman was the first one to speak.
"Uh, yes. Yes, we are. Is there a problem, officer?"
"I'm afraid there is, Mrs. Scott. I found these two, Lucas and Nathan, throwing eggs at a house on Cuthbert Road."
"What?" Dan looked at his sons, but both of them were trying hard to avoid his gaze by looking down at their shoes. "You can't be serious!"
"I'm afraid that I am. We got a call from one of the neighbours saying that they saw something suspicious. They saw them with a group of boys their age, but by the time we got there, the rest had run away."
"I see. Officer, are you going to press charges?" Dan knew full well that he wouldn't do that to ten year-old kids. He just wanted to scare his sons a bit, so that they would think twice before pulling something like this again. He had to stifle a smile when he saw Nathan look up from gazing at his shoes, fear evident in his eyes.
"No, I think that I'll let them off with just a warning this time. However, I wanted the two of you to be aware of what your sons are up to. Make sure that it doesn't happen again."
"Oh don't worry officer, it won't," Karen answered for the two of them. "Have a good evening. Luke and Nate, come inside right now."
The policeman left and Luke and Nathan followed Karen inside, obviously embarrassed.
"Mom, Dad, this isn't what it looks like," Lucas spoke up.
"Oh yeah, Luke?" Dan turned around. "Then do you feel like telling me what it is then? Because by the looks of things, you and your brother were caught throwing eggs at a house? Seems pretty clear to me."
"Mom?" Nate turned to Karen. She was usually the one who heard them out and bugged Dan to go easier on them.
"I'm sorry, Nathan, but I'll have to agree with your father. The policeman pretty much explained it all. I mean, we still want to hear your side, of course, but the two of you are looking at some kind of punishment either way."
"Well, in that case, we don't need to tell you anything," Luke shot back.
"Sit," Dan said plainly, motioning towards the couch and meaning that he meant no nonsense. "If you don't explain how you ended up being brought home by a policeman, you will be suffering some serious consequences."
"Alright, alright," Luke replied. So he and Nathan sat down and, interrupting each other, retold the story of how they got brought home by a policeman.
We were over at Tim's house and we were bored… We'd already played basketball and watched TV and stuff, so we didn't know what else to do. So Tim suggested we go over to Adam's house and we decided to walk there, since it was pretty close. Once we got there, we tried ringing the doorbell, but no one answered. We were pretty sure that he was at home, so we went over to the other side of the house and yelled for him.
Well, Adam heard us, so he came out. He said that he was busy and that he couldn't come out to play with us. So we said okay, we understood. But then we realized that he wasn't busy, he just had someone else over. A girl! Tim saw it through the window, he was playing cards with Melissa from school! Can you believe it? He ditched us to play with Melissa! So that's when Tim suggested that we egg his house. It was stupid, I know… But we went to the corner store and bought eggs…
At this Karen let out a small laugh.
"This is funny to you?" Dan asked.
"No, it's just that they bought the eggs for their own money. Can you believe it? They must have really wanted to egg that house."
Anyways, we started egging the house and then…
"Alright, I guess we know what happens next," Karen replied.
"So…" Nathan looked at his parents expectantly. "Are you guys mad?"
"What do you think, Nate?" Dan looked at his youngest son.
"Uh, you are?"
"Correct. I cannot believe it! Being brought home by a policeman?"
Karen tried to suppress a laugh once more, again unsuccesfully.
"Karen, seriously?" Dan looked at his wife.
"I'm sorry Dan, it's just that I find this kind of funny. They egged a house because one of their friends was with a girl!"
"And this is amusing to you?"
"Well, remember the time you and I TP'd John Michaels' house?"
"You toilet-papered someone's house?" Nathan could barely believe it. The thought of his dad and especially his mom throwing toilet paper at someone's house was almost too crazy to be true.
"Yeah, it was after a party when we were both, um, not thinking clearly," Dan hated to admit it, but this story was true. He also started laughing. "That was a fun night."
Karen smiled. "Ah, to be young again."
"So, it's okay?" Lucas looked from one parent to the other.
"Now, we didn't say that, Luke," Dan gave him one of his looks. "Egging someone's house is never okay. You're vandalising someone else's property. That is a crime. Which is why we expect the two of you to go over there tomorrow and offer to clean it up. After that, you're both grounded for a week."
"I agree," Karen looked at them. "That sounds about fair." Had this happened during the school year, they would have probably grounded them for longer, but a week was a very long time for a kid in the summer.
"Fine," Nathan grumbled quietly and Lucas nodded in response.
"I'd say you got off easy," Dan sighed. "God, I feel like yelling and lecturing both of you guys, but I think that we'll skip that for now. Just don't do it again."
"We're sorry," Nathan spoke up. "It was a stupid idea."
"You bet it was. And you better learn your lesson and never do anything like this again," Karen replied.
The boys nodded.
"Well, I guess you can go up to your rooms," Dan said. "There's not a lot to do before tomorrow."
"Good night, Mom, Dad," Lucas said.
"Good night," Nathan chimed in.
"Goodnight, goofballs," Karen smiled. "I'll come up in just a moment."
"Goodnight, boys," Dan finally broke his strict dad act and smiled.
As soon as the boys were upstairs, Dan turned to his wife. "God, I practically forgot about that night."
"I know, it was so funny."
"I guess we can't really blame the boys for doing something we did once upon a time…"
"No, but we can't let them get away with it either…"
"I guess it's fair. They got grounded, but not yelled at."
"I guess…" Karen said and with that the two went down memory lane to the days when they were young…
