Mask of Celibacy

Chapter 10

Apart from my utter refusal to converse with my biological mother, I'd never been one to hold onto grudges. I never had the patience for that. Pettiness bored me. Not to mention that people who did that kind of shit lived in the past. 

Me? I lived for the future. 

Why did the Web matter to me anyway? Who would I contact? What would I do? 

Sure, the Internet was a cool nerdy thing, but the websites took forever to load. Thirty minutes didn't leave me much time to explore back then. In 1998 only a couple of million websites existed, a paltry number compared to the couple of billion today. If they worked at all.

I wasn't gonna kick up a stink long-term over access to some stupid computer software. Back then, video games were more entertaining. 

So I'd forgiven Grandad for our epic fight. Instead, Mom became public enemy number one. Especially since it had been her idea to invade my privacy in the first place.

Once Grandad fought for me to have a summer job, I put his role in that Eric debacle behind me. Without him on my side, I wouldn't have had a shot in hell of earning my own money. Mom argued against him. Until I hit eighteen, my fate would be decided by my guardians.

And them alone.

"Carm, she's seventeen years old now." He argued with her in the kitchen once we'd finished breakfast. I eavesdropped from my bedroom. "It's time she started earning her own money."

"What for?" retorted Mom. "We give her everything she could want."

"It's about learning the value of money."

"She has all the time in the world to work once she's eighteen," Mom insisted. "Until then let her enjoy her childhood."

"Jess wants to work!" he roared. "You heard her."

"I don't want our baby growing up too fast."

"What could she possibly do?" asked Grandad. "She doesn't drive, party, or hang out with anyone but Carolyn. And that kid's harmless."

"Where would she work?" asked Mom. "At a fast food restaurant or some retail store? With a bunch of strange people? How would that help her to get a meaningful job later?"

"It's character building."

"It's beneath her dignity and intelligence," she countered. "She should focus on getting good SAT scores and earning an excellent scholarship for Holy Cross. That'll help her get a good job later."

Good God in flipping hell!

Did she expect me to study even during the summer? I could never catch a damned break.

"Besides, I don't want any young men trying anything with her," she added. "You know how naive she is."

Oh, yes! I'm the stupidest human on the planet.

Hurry, get me a brain case in case my last cells fall out of my ears!

"Nothing will happen to her," said Grandad. "You have to trust her."

"Says the man who won't even let her use email under supervision."

"Jess can do that once she turns eighteen," he roared. "Until then, no! There are too many perverts online. You hear the news."

"You hear about people getting raped, mugged, or kidnapped on the bus or walking down the road."

"We could drive her."

Did I live in real life or in an action movie? Who the heck committed any crime of any note here in our secluded neighborhood?

That's right. No one.