Not By Chance by Kathy Herman

Author:Kathy Herman [Herman, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-56233-3
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2012-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

25

Brandon Jones opened the door to his parents’ home and was hit with the delicious aroma of something spicy. He went to the kitchen and saw his mother stirring a pot on the stove and his father sitting at the breakfast bar, reading the Sunday paper.

“What smells so good?” Brandon said.

Ellen turned around. “Shrimp Creole. I hope you’re hungry. I made enough for an army.”

“Yeah, I’m starved.”

“You’re not going to get fed like that at camp,” Guy said. “That’s for sure. So Mom told you Dr. Tehrani hired me?”

“Yes, and I called Ali and talked to him myself.”

“Why did you do that?”

Guy looked over the top of the newspaper. “I was just curious about the camp. I knew the board had purchased the facility and voted to go forward with it, but I hadn’t taken much of an interest in it.”

“And you wanted Dr. Tehrani to be sure that your son was out of there in three weeks? Is that it?”

“I told you why I called him. Don’t try to turn it into something it wasn’t.”

“Dad, I’m not a kid. You don’t need to go behind me and make sure I did everything right. Do you know how embarrassing that is?”

“I assure you, that’s not what happened.”

“Did the two of you talk about me?”

“Eventually, sure. Ali went on and on about you, and I just reinforced what he said. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re much more than he ever bargained for. Hiring you will probably be the best two hundred a week he’s ever spent …”

There’s a but in there somewhere, Brandon thought.

“But you and I both know this job won’t lead anywhere. If I thought it would get you moving in the right direction, I’d pay you two hundred dollars a week to look for a real job.”

“I don’t want your money, Dad! I want the freedom to make my own choices! I thought we were on the same page. It’s been forty-eight hours since you promised to be an encourager and not tell me what to do, and we’ve already disagreed twice on this issue.”

Guy held up his palms. “Okay. I just think you’re making a mistake to postpone your job hunt for an entire month. The longer you put it off, the harder it’s going to be.”

“It’s not as though I’m lazy.” Brandon let out a sigh of exasperation. “I’m not going to defend my reasoning anymore.”

“Well, maybe after three weeks of rubbing elbows with poor, disadvantaged kids, you’ll feel differently about the career you just threw away.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll never regret leaving Mavis and Stein, only that I didn’t do it sooner. I was a square peg in a round hole. That doesn’t make me inferior to you or Mom or Owen or anybody else who happened to land in the right career the first go-around!”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Ellen said. “Your father doesn’t think that.”

“Honey, I can speak for myself.” Guy folded the newspaper and set it aside. “I see so much potential in you, son.

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