Monday, May 10, 2010

Have you ever ratted out your sister? I have!

Friday night my 16yr old son decided to go MIA.

Unfortunately this was not the first time.

However, this particular Friday night was the worst time ever for my 16yr old to go MIA.

My car had decided to not start and my husband was stuck at work.

Great. Never ask yourself "What else can go wrong?" because nine times out of ten,you will quickly find out what else can (and will) go wrong.

Took some time,but we (and by "we" I mean "I") came up with a solution to the car and husband. Only thing left was to figure out where my 16yr old had vanished off to.

He does not have a car (or license for that matter, a punishment from the last time he went MIA) he does not have a cell phone (had it, but it was taken away as another punishment for MIA) but he knows the rules (so I thought). He must check in and let me know where he is and who is with.

Nothing.

Now,because I believe God has a terrific sense of humour, I was brought back in time to our house on Wormington Dr. in a suburb of Chesapeake, VA. When we were kids and my sister decided to go MIA.

There is about a 2 1/2 age difference between my sister and I, and yes, I am the older one. I was also the shy,quiet,keep to myself, one. Where my sister was more like the "Haaaayyy you cannot have a party unless I am there" kind of one. We were around 12 and 14 years old, at that age where we cannot wait to grow up, but so not ready to grow up. My sister had one of her (slutty) girlfriends over spending the night.

I apparently was so desperate (or bored) for friends, I had went down to her room about 11 at night to see what they were up to. Now,my sisters room was right across from The Parents room, where as my room was clear over on the other side of the house. I knocked on my sisters door, and right away hear all this rambling around and "shhhh" noises. She slowly opened the door, just barely enough for me to see her

"What Jen"

"I am bored, what are you doing?"

*sigh*

"Nothing, go away"

Yeah right it was nothing, She had on full makeup, the room reeked of perfume,she had on her little tight jeans, she was up to something and I just HAD to know what it was. (Have I mentioned before how nosy I am?)

"What are you up to, I am going to tell The Parents"?"

She angrily opened the door and allowed me in. Her friend was sitting on the bed packing a bag, and the window was open.

Apparently my sister and her friend (also known as the neighbourhood sluts) were going to sneak out and meet the neighbourhood boys.

What the hell were they thinking?!?! The Parents have always taught us not to get in the car with strangers, to stay away from boys, not to have premarital sex (okay, remember, I was still young and naive back then). What were they thinking?

"Look Jen, we are just sneaking out for a little bit, we will be back in time for church in the morning, you cannot tell the parents, promise?"

So I was torn, here it is my sister is FINALLY allowing me into her secrets, is confiding in me, asking me to cover for her.....yet I knew what she was doing was wrong. What was I suppose to do?

"Okay, I promise I wont say anything but you better be back in the morning"

and just like that they were out the window, into the car of the neighbourhood boys.

I made the long walk back from her room to my mine, all the while my head kept playing games with me. "What if she does not come home, what if something happens to her, what if they get into an accident, what if, what if, what if" AGH!!!! I could not take it anymore.

I turned back around and now made the long walk to The Parents bedroom. Knocking ever so quietly on their door, because if they were asleep, then there was really nothing I could do about it, right?

"Hey Jen, what's up?"

This is where my memory ends, kind of. I do not remember which parent opened the door, all I remember is confessing that "Sis and her slutty friend just snuck out and I do not know where they are going but I knew they were going and I told her I would not say anything but now I feel guilty" and all I heard was

"Jennifer!"

So, it was most likely my mother who opened the door because anytime she got mad with us, she always used our full names, and then she got my dad.

Crap. I should have kept my big mouth shut.

~Jennifer




So, I thought the day had gone well. A nice Saturday in Virginia, activities with the kids, dinner out, everyone settled in for the evening… yes, the day had gone well. Until about midnight; then things got a bit “dicey”.

Now, we all pulled dumb stunts when we were teens or even pre teens, right? Things that we know were wrong or that we would get us in trouble. I believe the excitement of “pushing the envelope” to see how far we could get was a big part of the attraction of our forays into “the dark side”. You are with me, correct? Most, if not all, of us have been there.

It’s with that in mind that I remind you that very little of what our kids tried to pull or actually did pull off surprised me. Of course, some caused a bit more angst than others, but, overall... no real surprises.

What Carolyn attempted to pull off that fine Saturday evening did not surprise me in what she did… it surprised me in her lack of originality and proper planning. I mean, if you are going to pull one…pull it!

Let me set the stage:

We had all retired to our rooms (retired?? I sound like a narrator from an Agatha Christie novel!). We had all gone off to our rooms. It was about 10 pm and it had been a long day. Carolyn had a friend over to spend the night, which was perfectly fine with us. We enjoyed when the kids brought their friends to our house. It was a great way of keeping a handle on what was going on “first hand”.

By midnight, Rhonda and I were pretty well sound asleep. Then came the quiet knock on the door. Let me tell you, nothing is as bad as the sound of a phone ringing in the middle of the night, but a knock comes in a pretty good second. We knew it was not just one of the kids calling on us to tell us how much we were loved.

Rhonda jumped out of bed first and slowly opened the door..she answered in her usual cheery voice, even for that hour of the night:

“Hey, Jen…. What’s up…?”

Ok, I thought to myself… it’s Jennifer… probably nothing too bad… perhaps she is just not feeling well .

Then I heard a lot of not so low whispering and most of it was coming from Jen. Oh,Oh… she is going into a long story… this can’t be good.

Then, Rhonda’s not so low voice: “Jennifer!!!”

Oh Damn, it’s not good. I jumped out of bed and was at the door a second after ruining my left leg for life by slamming into the stupid dresser.

Me, trying to sound authoritative and in control (what a joke): “ok what’s going on????Is everyone ok??”



Rhonda is glaring at me as if I had done something wrong. My mind quickly races to ensure there is nothing I am guilty, at least recently, of.

“Seems your Daughter decided to sneak out the window tonight!!”

My initial thought… they always mine when they do something stupid , but when they are on their game…. Oh, well… not the time to bring this up.

“Sneaked out I say!” A bit louder than I had wanted it to come out. Jennifer looks as if she has just sold out the entire country. I bet Benedict Arnold had that same look on his face.

Rhonda than pushed Carolyn’s door open, none to gently, I may add… And there in front of us is the evidence. CSI would have died laughing. Window is still open. (Nice touch not to close it). Two pillows form the sleeping body under the covers. My lord, “the old pillows under the blankets” trick. I thought Carolyn had more imagination than this.

Rhonda is fuming, not so much because of the dumb stunt, but because of worry and fear that our 12 year old was out for the evening with … well, we didn’t know who. Poor Jennifer looked ready to fall on her sword, so we calm her down and tell her she did the right thing, though we would have liked to know BEFORE the great escape. Nevertheless, “ratting out” your sister is never easy, so we didn’t go hard on her at all.

As for Carolyn, there was not much to do now except make her sorry she had done such a knuckle head thing. I wrote her a small note with the words’

“Welcome Home! I hope your evening was worth it”



We placed this note under the covers without disturbing a thing. I think she was grounded for a year.

As we all walked out of Carolyn’s room to try and salvage as much sleep as we could…. I could not help but notice a small smile on Jens face as she read the note.

Sisters.


~Don Ortolano

Me again...for the record I would like to add that I aka The Favorite Child, have never pulled a stunt like that.

~Jennifer

4 comments:

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

Wow..that was gutsy of your sister/daughter.

Was her night worth it?

JPW said...

Hah, my brother would've beat me down! Like the blog guys...got you in my reader, keep it up :)

llnrs4ever said...

ha ha...I can't wait to ask Carolyn about her night out. Great Job guys, so is the next post going to be about Jen?

Unknown said...

Oh my Lord. My girls are 15 months apart....I see this exact night in my future. Why couldn't you have said that both of you had a long thoughtful conversation and decided it was not a good idea to sneak out. Oh bother.