Jill couldn't have been prouder than anyone about her boys. But once in a while they did try her patience. She thought about the time that Brad got suspended.
It was the first warm day that the city had seen in weeks. For weeks it had snowed and the weather had been extremely cold. Jill had been going crazy because the boys had been stuck in the house. They couldn't go our for more than an hour, before they got too cold . But finally the signs of spring were in the air. The temperature was now in the sixties and Brad had decided to walk to school.
The walk to school was not that far and Jill thought that Brad was now old enough to walk with his friends. She watched as Brad and two of his friends had walked down the street and had gone inside. She was busy cleaning the house when the phone rang.
On the phone was the school secretary where Brad attended. She was calling because Brad and his two friends had not shown up at the school that morning . "Do you have any idea where Brad could be?" she asked.
Jill was terrified. She had heard about kids being kidnapped and murdered. 'Why on Earth did I let Brad walk to school?' she worried. But she told the lady from the office "No. He left for school with two of his friends and the last time I saw them they were walking down the street towards the school." she told her.
The secretary cleared her throat and told Jill "One of the teacher's aides are here with me in the office and she has something very interesting to say." she then handed the phone over to the aide.
"My name is Jeanette Persons and I work as an aide with Brad in a couple of classes. I was on my way to work when I saw Brad and his friends Steve and Bill. I saw them stop halfway up the hill and go over the railings. They were going towards the trees that are in the park. I think that is where you will find them." she told Jill.
Oh Jill was sure that was where the boys were. She knew that if the kids were going to skip school, that would be a good place for Brad and his friends to wait. She knew that Steve's mother would be headed to work in about a half an hour. They could wait at the park and then go to Steve's house for the day and have a great skip day.
Tim had been at work that morning and was having a pretty good day. That is until he got the call from Jill. 'Boys will be boys . Every boy has skipped school at some point. But Tim knew that Brad had been caught and now he was in trouble.' Tim told Jill "I will go and take care of it . Don't worry."
With that Tim had driven to the park. He parked his car away from the trees and went up to the trees from the back. He could hear the three boys talking and recognized Brad's voice.
Tim chuckled to himself as he listened to the boys and their big plans for the day. They were just waiting for Steve's mom to go to work. Only Jill and Steve's mother had a different plan for the boys. Tim thought that it was a little mean, but what the heck.
Jill looked up Steve's mom's Sues phone number and gave her a call. She told her what the boys were up to. Sue was very upset. "I have an idea on how to teach the boys a lesson that they will never forget. As she told Sue the idea her friend laughed. She told her that she was going to call Bill's mother too. Let's have some fun.
Sue took her car and parked it down the street around the corner and went to the back of her house. There she let in Tim Jill and Mary. They took a seat at the kitchen table and waited. Sure enough with in ten minutes they heard the sounds of the three boys as they went into the house. They just sat there smiling. Tim had his camera in his hand and as the boys walked into the kitchen he snapped their picture.
To say a picture speaks one thousand words is a truthful statement was true on that day. The boys all knew that they were in trouble now. Brad tried his best to explain as did his friends, but there was nothing that they could say.
The three boys were brought up to school that morning even though it was now late. As the sat in the principals office they knew they were in trouble. To Jill and Tim's despair along with the other parents all three boys were suspended for three days. Oh they would have to do all their work that they missed in a special classroom for another three days once they came back to school. As Brad was brought to the car he tried to apologize, but Jill was in no mood to listen. Tim shook his head at Brad and he knew his goose was cooked.
Brad and his friends were all bumming big time when they went back home that day. Brad had three days with his mother that he was going to have to spend and the list of chores that she had for him had made her tired . As she had written down the things that had to be done, she smiled though. This was something that Brad could not do again and she had to make the punishment bad enough so that Randy and Mark would think twice about skipping school.
Brad was not permitted to see or talk to Bill or Steve for two weeks and all was eventually back to normal. It was something that Jill could now look at and remember with fondness.
