Page 60 of The Surprise
Ethan
Oh, shoot. Day one, and I’ve already been caught. Living with my mom has always been a bit. . .overwhelming. She’s intense.
Once, when I was like five? I decided to pee in the guest bedroom trash can. I have no idea why—why do five-year-old boys do anything? Anyway, I insisted it wasn’t me who did it, but she pressed. I was so proud of myself, because no matter how hard she came after me, I didn’t buckle.
Until she told me about the cameras she had installed in every single room of the house. She told me if she had to go back and review all the camera footage and found out that I was lying, she’d be way more upset than if I just confessed.
Yeah, I broke.
I didn’t find out for years and years that the whole thing was a total lie. There were no cameras, but she said it with such conviction that we all believed her. Later, my sister was caught with the same gambit. I think that camera thing got us all, at one time or another.
You don’t lie to my mom.
And I just tried.
In my defense, it was temporary. It’s not like I was going to try and make her think I had moved to Houston when I was, in fact, staying here. It’s just the timing I was trying to control.
“So, we probably need to talk,” Mom says.
“Yeah.”
Izzy runs, the coward.
“You can pee first. I’ll wait.” Mom closes the door, but her face says it’s game on.
I wash my hands more slowly and thoroughly than I ever have in my entire life, and I lived through the Covid mess. Sheesh. But eventually, I have to dry them off and face the firing squad.
“So.”
Mom tosses her head toward her room.
There’s no saving me. Not if I’m getting sent to the inner sanctum for my trial. No jury. No appeals. I sigh as I follow her.
But when we get inside, Mom’s storm-cloud face lifts. “What’s going on?”
I sigh. “I don’t want to move back to Houston, Mom.”
She nods. “I know. So?”
“Jeff and Kevin are going to try and put an offer on the ranch, and they told me I can stay and work it with them.”
She taps her lip with one finger. “Do they have financing?”
I frown. “I mean, I think so.”
“Do they have a down payment?”
Oh, I know that one. “Yes.”
“How much?”
I blink.
“And what’s your share?”
“I was hoping to use my college fund,” I say.
“There’s a penalty to pay if you do that,” she says. “You’d need to calculate what that is and then withhold that much for taxes.”
