In the Blood
“Puck?”
By the look on his face alone, I could smell his guilt. A pair of wide hazel eyes stared back at me from the kitchen table, from a young man who should have already been finished with his breakfast yogurt and banana about ten minutes ago. Fortunately for moms, there are two different kinds of guilt. The guilt that is genuinely deserved, and the guilt that is unnecessary, but self-inflicted.
“Why isn’t your breakfast done, sir?”
Puck just motioned to the project in front of him. Sometimes he distracts himself.
“I, uh … well, Mom, I kind of just … cut up this stethoscope? But I wanted to make something new, so … yeah.”
The remaining carnage of the genuine stethoscope – a birthday gift per his request from years ago – was split into pieces on the table, where he had Scotch-taped part of it to a dead pocket camera.
“For experiments,” he told me, raising both eyebrows. “Very important experiments.”
It’s January. January means the old baseball blood gets boiling again, six weeks out from Spring Training. It also meant that Carrie-Bri and I were resurrecting the podcast. Considering that Dad listened to every episode fresh off the press, we concluded it was something he would want us to continue. So we did, and wrapped up Episode 78 while Yali snoozed through a 90-minute nap upstairs with Mom.
During the half hour that Puck, Heidi, and little Yali ran around the playground together after I school, I gradually learned more and more about Puck’s run-ins with the law during class that day. Something about belching during gym because he “couldn’t help it”. I figured there was more to it than that, however. And because it’s always somehow difficult for Puck to remember exactly how he got into trouble, as we walked back to the car, I just cut to the big one:
“Did you have to go see the principal today?”
His jaw sank to the asphalt; his shock was acute. “MOM! I am HURT that you would even think I would EVER DO ANYTHING THAT BAD! I take OFFENSE to that COMPLIMENT!”
We had a talk about respect and obedience and other general good-things-to-do on the drive home. There’s also plans in the works for a “How Many Times Per Day Can You Say Yes Ma’am/Yes Sir?”. The kid’s half-Texan. It should already be in his blood somewhere.