The Stardust Lounge: Stories from a Boy's Adolescence by Deborah Digges

Author:Deborah Digges
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Developmental, Mothers and sons, Psychology, General, Family & Relationships, Personal Memoirs, Child, Biography & Autobiography, Family Relationships, Life Stages, Adolescence
ISBN: 9780385720939
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2002-05-14T03:00:09.358571+00:00

“But he can't be on the phone all night,” I argued another day in a session with both Ed and with Stephen.

“If Stephen thinks he can be on the phone all night and still get up for school, and pay his own phone bill, it's fair to say he should be able to do so,” Ed had countered. “Right, Steve? Isn't that fair?”

“Sure,” said Stephen.

“But what if he can't get up for school? Or pay the bill?” I said.

“Well,” Ed considered. “What would happen to you, for instance, if you couldn't get up for work or pay your phone bills?”

“I'd lose my job,” I said. “And they'd turn my phone off.”

“Right.”

“But school is different,” I said.

“Well, not really. I mean for a kid, school is like a job. If Steve misses school, he gets fired, sort of. Then he can either try again or drop out for a while, then go back. Or maybe he won't ever go back. Right, Steve?”

“Right!”

“And were he to flunk out of school, it would be unfair of him to expect you to support him. Nope,” Ed spoke casually, “that would be unfair, and we've agreed, haven't we Steve, that it's important to be fair. No, it wouldn't be fair for you to support Steve, any more than it would be fair for him to have to support you if you lost your job. Steve wants to be independent, right, Steve?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You want to be able to do what you want, when you want to. Right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good man. Of course. We all do. We all want to be independent. So Steve would need to find his own place to live, get a job to support himself. In fact, look here, Steve. I saved the want-ads section of the paper for you. And here is a list of apartments.”

Ed opened the paper and began reading descriptions of apartments aloud. “Here's one: ‘one bedroom apartment in North Amherst.’ Whoops,” he interrupted himself. “If you live in North Amherst you'd need a car … can you get a car?”

“My license is suspended.”

“Who needs a license? Weren't you by yourself when you were driving Ray's car the other night? You know, the night they picked you up …”

“Ya, but…”

“But you got caught, huh. Well. Maybe you couldn't depend on Ray's car every day. Or if you got caught again driving alone—what'd they say?”

“They said if it happened again, I go to juvie …”

“Bummer,” Ed replied. “Geez! Those Amherst cops are rough. Wait! Here's one. It says, Apartment on bus route …’ “

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