Someday you might find your hero,
Some say you might lose your mind.
I keeping my head down now for the summer,
I'm outta my mind let me pull the other,
I'm gonna take that tiger outside for a ride.
What a life.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - AKA… What a Life.

June 2026

Will had managed to graduate high school and, much to his mother's relief, didn't get anyone pregnant. However had dropped a massive bombshell : he wanted to join the army.

"Are you out of your mind?" Carlie asked her son once she got home. Mad was an understatement with her at that current moment.

"Look, it is practical. You wouldn't have to pay for college, I'll learn new skills and go to places I've never went before."

"War zones Will. Those places you'll be going will be war zones."

"Ok, I get you are upset, but I know what I am doing."

"You don't though. You think you do but you have no clue as to where you are going and what is going to be expected."

"Christ when did you start controlling my life."

"I am not controlling your life. I just think you are making a massive mistake."

"How is fighting for my country a mistake?"

"I'm not saying that is the mistake. It is you doing the exact same thing your father did."

"He died a hero though."

"He died too young though. I don't want you to waste your life because you decided to be an idiot"

"I'm sorry Mom, but I'm enlisting whether you like it or not."

bxbxbxbxbxb

The tension in the Bray household had spread over three days and Wendell was getting a little fed up. He knew he couldn't change Will's mind but he could bring Carlie around to the idea.

"He's my son and he wants to go out to places like Rwanda and I don't know Kazakhstan where he'll die." Carlie said on the third night.

"You don't know that." Wendell said. "He's eighteen and rational enough to make his own choices."

"I lost that massive part of my life when I was seventeen. I don't want to lose this massive part of my life."

"What if I say that you know that he is doing the right thing, it's just that the mother in you is preventing you from seeing that."

"No… I… when his father died, I felt like a part of me was ripped out. I was young and in love and I thought he was doing the right thing because it was a tradition in his family. Then that phone call came and I shut down. I was pregnant, alone, without a job and I just couldn't cope. And I know it is completely selfish but I don't want to be feeling like that again."

"The difference is that a: you are not alone, you have me and Molls, b: you have a job and c: you're not being selfish your being a mother."

"I am though. I'm preventing him from doing something he wants to do in favor of keeping him at home where he'll hate me. I'm turning into my father that is what is going on."

"You are not turning into your father. What it is that you still see Will as a four-year-old, and now that he is graduating, you begin to wonder where all those years have gone."

"How do you know that?"

"Because mom said that when I left for college, she wondered where all those years went. I'll do the same when Molls moves out, but we have ten years to think about that."

"Should I go and talk to him then?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, I'll talk to him." She said getting up to go to speak to her son. "Hey honey." She said quietly when she reached the door of Will's room. "I'm sorry I have been a little off with you because of this whole enlisting thing but you need to know why I have been off."

"Ok, I'm listening." Will said putting his phone down.

"I know that you are eighteen and a grown up now, but I still think of you as my baby. I still see that little boy who loved video games and wouldn't say much, and I don't want to see you get hurt or worse, killed."

"Ok, I understand that but I don't understand why you said it would be a mistake."

"When I had you, I was depressed because of what happened to your father and I had said to him that I was okay with him joining the army. I don't want to go back into that should the same thing happen to you. And I know it sounds selfish but -"

"It isn't being selfish. I don't want you to either but I've made my mind up. Mom, there is no way you and Wendell can afford to send me to college without becoming broke and I am not the most academic person alive. This seemed to be the more natural option."

"I know I cannot stop you doing what you want, and I won't. I was just a little surprised that was your career choice because you never said anything about it before."

"I know I never but I decided to do this when I was thirteen. I just wanted to make you proud."

"I have always been proud of you Will. Never doubt that for one minute."