Early morning phone call

My day started with a phone call before my alarms had even started to go off. Even if it had come after the alarms had started to go off, it still wouldn't have been good.

Caller	Who is this?
Me	Huh? (Ed: just because I answered the phone, do not be under the illusion that I'm awake.)
Caller	Who am I speaking to?
Me	You called me. Who are you?
Caller	This is Brandi's mom.

Uh-oh.

E has been talking to Brandi non-stop for a couple of weeks now. At all hours of the day and night. I didn't worry too much about it because it was summer time.

I had asked E about her. He said she's 17 and she lives in "north TX." Where ever that might be. Again, I didn't worry about it because E doesn't have enough money to buy gas to get to church once a week, so he's sure not leaving the state.

As you can probably imagine, the mother had a whole different take on the situation.

For starters she did not appreciate all the calls in the middle of the night. (CR used to take the kids' cell phones to bed with her to prevent that sort of thing. I'm not sure why this mother hasn't thought of that since her daughter was equally the callee as the caller.)

Also, she had blocked E's cell phone number for "threats he'd made." I wish I'd have been more awake to probe that statement a little more. Sorry, folks. I don't have any more details on that one.

Ultimately, I told her I'd talk to E and we hung up.

I was on my way to work before I remembered about the call again. So I decided to call CR and see if she had any more details.

Other than remembering the name, she didn't. Oh, wait. She thought that Brandi was around 14. Whoa! That's a waaaay different number than 17! She also had a funny story about C. It seems that C takes great pleasure in tormenting E's female callers. Once she's aware of the fact that she's gotten under their skin and knows they don't like her, she calls them members of her fan club. CR said she thought Brandi was a member of C's fan club, so maybe I should ask her.

While she had me on the phone she decided to yell at me, "What are you planning with my daughter?" This is exactly why I try not to call CR. "Who? S? Nothing! Why?" Her tone still accusatory, "She keeps giving us a count down on the number of days til she's leaving." Well, duh, labor day is just around the corner. That date hasn't changed.

And then she recounted all the different ways she keeps trying to convince S to stay. For example, pointing out that she didn't used to want to be in the same room as E, why would she want to move where he's living now? I could really go off on a rant here, but I think you all know what I'm thinking, so I won't. Back to the original story...

I did talk to C, and other that remember the name and fan club status she didn't have any additional details either.

So E called later and was bummed because Brandi's mom had blocked my number. (She's quick, eh?) I told him that she had called and gave him the Reader's Digest version of the early morning call. (Which is something of a misnomer since I really don't remember that much of the call to begin with.) I really didn't want to have this conversation over the phone. E does much better when we do the serious stuff face-to-face. But here we were...

I asked E how old she was again. He said, "She's going to be 17." Ah. Clever trick. I won't be falling for that one again. So, is she a senior? "No, she's a junior." Oh, E, this is not good.

Then he wanted to know what the supposed "threats" were. I didn't have that info. He was like, "I WANT TO KNOW!" He was going to call her to find out. I tried to explain what a very bad idea that was. I guess I'll find out when I get home if he actually called her or not. (Yes, in case you're wondering, my lashes {that had just grown back} are falling out as I type this.)

Then, without hardly a breath between topics, "I want to move back to TX."

Announcer: In this corner, wearing blue trunks, the wallet: "The HELL you are going back to TX! I filled up my credit cards buying parts for your truck, furniture, clothes... you will stay here and PAY RENT!"

Announcer: And in this corner, wearing red trunks, the conscience: But you were so unhappy in TX...

Yes, he was unhappy, but he misses his friends. [sigh] I tried to tell him that it would get better after he started working. "But," he whined, "Brandi is the only one who knows me."

Anyone want to trade places tonight?