CH 105
Calvin
He sighed on the heavy side when he got a message from Cal and Vin, about their mother having lied to them about losing the phone so they couldn’t use it to talk to him. She’d told them she’d dropped it in the creek when it had been in her office the whole time. ‘She was is so mean‘ had been the wording of one of their
texts.
It came through for him while he was in the middle of a meeting, and he couldn’t just get up and walk out of it to answer them. Just sent ‘I’m in a meeting, can’t talk boys. And left it at that.
Now he was in his office after that meeting was over and standing looking at other messages that came through from them. They were also grounded to their rooms, and she’d come and taken away their tablets and remotes for their Nintendo.
Calvin knew that she had not lost the phone. She’d told Wil she’d confiscated it. He didn’t exactly know what to do about what was going on over there at their house. He wasn’t a full–time dad, and wasn’t technically anything to either of them at this point, even though he was their dad. And it wasn’t like he could just drive out there to see them.
He thought about that only for a moment and realised it wasn’t his place to do so, even if he was a full–time dad to them. How Marilyn opted to parent them was her choice. Her rules would be applied in her house. He’d likely have his own set of rules as well. So even if they wanted him to do something about this, the answer was going to be no.
He also didn’t like that they had called her mean or a liar. All parents had to discipline their wayward children at times. Hell, he was from the generation where he got smacked and sometimes with a belt or a wooden spoon, depending on which parent was trying to hit him, his mother or father.
He did know that most parents nowadays, from this new generation, frowned upon that, some wouldn’t even say the word ‘no‘ or ‘don’t‘ no negative words. He’d also seen some bad results of that style of parenting; some of those tiny children, they ran rough shod over their parents, and were, as far as he was concerned, brats with hoodlum tendencies in the making. They respected no one, not even their parents.
She’d grounded them to their room, a fair punishment, which to him meant she used the word no, or deemed their behaviour as punishment worthy, which for her right now it was likely to be. He had no right to go against how she wanted to punish them. He was also not going to overstep that boundary. Calvin sat down at his desk and thought about how to reply to what he’d read.
He didn’t want to take sides but, in all reality, they had done something wrong, and even he knew it. “Did you boys not lie to your mother first?” he sent because this had started he knew, with them taking that phone away with them, which allowed for him to know exactly where they were, and they’d even told him it was their new house. All things Marilyn didn’t want him to know about.
He didn’t really get anything back from them, though he could see they had read it. Didn’t like his response, he thought. Maybe they thought he’d be on their side. “Please tell me Callum, Vincent, that you didn’t call your mother mean to her face/ He sent after a full minute of nothing from them. They weren’t getting the response they wanted from him, he knew.
Whatever was going on over there, they were the two underlying problems. The boys had clearly breached her
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trust and, although she had lied to them about losing the phone. He could, he supposed, see it was her way of teaching them a valuable lesson, about how much lles could hurt another person, especially one that trusted you completely.
It’s not what he would have done, but she was the one to raise them for the entirety of their lives. She knew
them and he didn’t know them at all. Just a few texts over the course of the weekend was all. That did not
mean he knew them.
“We only did it so you knew where we were.” Finally came back to him.
“Yes, but you still took that phone, which your mother clearly didn’t want you to… Boy’s even I knew it was wrong, so did you…” Calvin texted them, “the minute you hid that phone from her. That showed you knew it was wrong, and although I enjoyed talking to you, it has upset your mother now.”
“She’s just being mean.” He got back.
“No, this is a consequence of your actions.” He had no idea about their vocabulary, or if they’d understand the words, it would be easier to hold this conversation over the phone, but he wasn’t about to go and call them, he also wasn’t allowed either. “Of course you’d get into trouble. I’d say I’m in more trouble than you are with her.” he sighed into his office. If she was this mad at them boys, then just how mad was she going to be with
him?
“What did you do?” they asked him.
He shook his head. Maybe they didn’t actually understand what they’d really done. “I played the game with you.” he sent, and he had. He could have stopped it or let Marilyn know, but had been completely selfish and let that phone stay hidden with the boys so he could talk to them, because it had made him happy.
“What game?” they sent.
“The keeping it a secret game. Which means I encouraged you to keep talking to me without her knowing.” He was as much to blame for this mess as they were. “You two and I, all need to apologise to your mother. We are the ones at fault, in the wrong,” he sent to them.
He’d not hidden the conversation by having the boys delete all those messages, nor had he deleted his side of that conversation to say he’d not responded to them, knew that would just show on her end Message Removed. So she’d still know he’d responded to the twins. He’d made the decision not to do that, so when she did see them she could in fact see what they had talked about. It wouldn’t be a secret.
Mostly it was just the twins telling him stuff and him responding with ‘I’m glad you’re having fun. Or ‘That’s good.’ He’d kept it simple because he didn’t know their reading level. Today he’d just typed what needed to be sent, and if they needed to have their mother read it to understand it, then she would again know what he was saying.
See that he did understand it was their and his fault, that he didn’t blame her for being mad and that he didn’t like they’d called her mean, told them they had to apologise even. Technically, he was on her side, he supposed.
“She lied to us about the phone, dad.” He got back.
“You also lied about the phone, boys.” He sent right back. “You two lied first. Now you know it’s not a nice feeling to be lied to.” Ah, he thought after he read his own message, that was what she was doing, making them or trying to make them understand how it felt to be lied to. It wasn’t a nice feeling at all.
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“Please boys, go downstairs and apologise to your mother. Do not call her mean, parents have to discipline their children for lying.” He sent back and put his phone down.
He wanted to tell them that being grounded was nothing compared to getting a belting, like he had back in the day. To keep him on the straight and narrow. Wil had stated a child like himself would be easy to raise. But he’d not been, never accepted he was wrong even back then. He’d also gotten bored easily, and had pulled things apart to see how they’d worked.
The T.V. his dad’s radio, the microwave. He’d gotten in real trouble for that one and not only gotten a belt to his backside, he’d been grounded as well. None of his behaviour had really changed until his parents had bought him his first computer at 10. That had solved all his boredom.
He doubted very much that taking away their tablets and Nintendo meant they had nothing to do. They probably had a TV, and they had that phone which they would likely know how to download games on because they had tablets, they could do that on already. They probably had a million boardgames and colouring in books, puzzles for their age bracket, and likely had Lego and cars to play with.
It wasn’t that harsh a punishment, and she’d given them back that phone… it had only been three days, not the week she’d told Wil it would be. She’d punished them on one hand but still given them what they wanted with the other. A means to talk to him. He now also wondered just how much those boys were into technology. Were they in fact like him and Marrin? Or did they just have games on there to entertain themselves?
He wondered if he could get Marilyn to actually talk to him, have the boys give her the phone with a message from him to her on it. Though the boys would read that themselves and could decide not to pass it along if they didn’t like it, and he knew it. So he left that one alone. It was probably just best to wait and apologise in
person.
He could also send flowers, he supposed. He did know her address, but then again he wasn’t supposed to know that either. It would just remind her that he’d breached their agreement. Which would in all likelihood just make her more annoyed. There was nothing he could do he realised, or not right this minute.
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