‘Now you take good care of yourself,’ headded.
‘I will,’ said his mum. ‘And it was lovelymeetingyou.’
Watching their exchange, it was all way too civilised for Dan’s liking. He felt powerless, as if he was the only one who could see what was wrong with thisscene.
‘You ready, Dan?’ she simply asked, moving towardstheexit.
Dan looked from her, to the police officer and back again, waiting for someone to tell him what was going on. Surely he deserved an explanation as to why his mother had been rounded up with a bunch of drug-dealing, drug-takingthugs?
The police officer remained silent as he stared backathim.
Obviouslynot.
Lost for words, Dan realised he’d no choice but to follow hismumout.
‘Well that was an adventure,’ she said, once he’d caughtherup.
‘An adventure?’ said Dan. ‘An adventure? Is that all you can say? Do you know what you’ve just put me through? I’ve been worried sick in there. Not that anyone seemstocare.’
His mum laughed. ‘Oh, don’t be such a dramaqueen.’
‘A drama queen. Mum, this is serious stuff. You’ve just been locked up. I mean do you plan on tellingmewhy?’
‘Of course, I do. I just thought it would be nice to get home first. It’s been alongday.’
She could say thatagain.
‘Now where are weparked?’
Dan felt at a loss over the whole thing, he indicated to his car. As they began making their way over he told himself he was going mad, he’d inadvertently crossed over into the twilight zone. None of this was really happening and he just had to gowithit.
‘What’s that?’ his mum suddenly asked. She pointed to thewindscreen.
Dan’s stomach sank as he spotted the parking ticket. In hindsight, illegally parking on police property probably wasn’t the wisest of decisions. He snatched the yellow packet from under the wiper and, without a word, turned back towards the policestation.
‘Where are you going?’ his mumcalledout.
‘To try and sort this,’ he replied. ‘One criminal in the family is enough, don’t youthink?’
* * *
Dan handedhis mum a glass of whiskey before taking the seat opposite with a glass of his own. He knew alcohol wasn’t really the answer, for either of them. But after the day’s excitement he told himself one drinkwouldn’thurt.
‘So, about today?’hesaid.
He felt like this should be the other way round and waited for his mother to speak. He watched her twirl her glass backwards and forwards between the palms of her hands as she gathered her thoughts. She looked tired. In fact, more than that, she lookedweary.
‘There are over fifty museums in Amsterdam,’ his mum began. ‘Did youknowthat?’
‘No,’ Dan replied. ‘Ididn’t.’
‘It would take days to get around them. Then there are all the art galleries and historical sites likeDam SquareandOude Kerkto take in. That’s a church in the Red Light District.’ She paused for a second. ‘You should go one day. It’sinteresting.’
Dan insisted she was advocating he visit the place of worship and not thebrothels.
‘I can imagine,’hesaid.
‘That’s where Missy and I were when we decided it was time for a break.’ She sipped on her whiskey. ‘We went into this coffee shop. You know the kind I mean. Brown cafes, I think theycallthem.’
