A Golden Moment for Mona ---------------------------------- a Half-Life Lesson
By Ned Sane

Mona was excited.

She and her husband were to leave town that morning and spend the night at a skiers condominium in Vail, Colorado. They had been invited to tour the condominium with a salesperson. In return they would receive free meals and lodging for that one night. Accepting the invitation had meant that she would have to leave her high school aged son, Brian, alone at home for the night.

It was not that she was worried about the personal safety of Brian.

Quite the contrary.

She was reasonably concerned about the safety of her own home against the disrespect of her anarchist son and his equally repugnant friends.

The parents waved goodbye to their son as they drove away in the family sedan. He was standing on the porch, smiling and waving. She tried to identify that smile. Was he scheming? No, she thought, they had warned him sufficiently of the penalties involved with house destruction.
The car climbed the geographic slope of the foothills along Interstate 70. While her husband drove, Mona had slipped into deep thought.

Memories.

So many good ones. And so many bad ones. Like the time that darn kid had set fire to the basement recliner at the age of ten. Or the time she had found champagne and Playboy magazines in his clubhouse when he was only twelve.

The skin on her forehead wrinkled at the thought. She closed her eyes, hoping to relax.
What about the time, when he was fifteen, and she had come home to find a family-sedan-sized hole in the garage door. Oh sure, after that episode she had smartly began recording the car's mileage to see if he was driving it. But soon she realized that the odometer was not changing at all. So she had her husband check it out. He found that the odometer cable had been disconnected. When confronted with the issue, Brian merely suggested that the cable must have fallen off.

The wind was lashing her hair a bit much, so Mona closed the window and leaned her head backward to rest. Sleep's mercy soon found its way to take Mona away. She began to dream.
There was a house in the dream. It suddenly burst into flames and was soon being ravaged by flames. Parts of the house began to collapse, consumed inward by the hellish heat of fire, as if Satan himself was bursting up from within the innocent home. Mona realized that it was her own house that was on fire in her dream. Then she saw him. Brian was standing in front of the blaze. He had a beer in one hand, a marijuana cigarette in the other, and a large, defiant smile on his cackling face.

She awoke screaming at him.

After her husband had calmed her down, Mona was able to put all worries aside. They soon arrived at the scenic mountain town of Vail. They enjoyed a quick lunch at a small sidewalk café. The air was thin, however a bright sun warmed them. The condominium tour was pleasant. Afterwards, they ate dinner and spent the remainder of the evening shopping and walking along the quaint European style walkways and shops of the ski village.

The next morning, Mona awoke from another bad dream. She had once again seen a vision of her house. But this time, instead of being on fire, the house was standing soundly, while various items were flying out of the house, crashing through windows on all sides.

First there had been waves of beer bottles and marijuana pipes crashing through the double-paned glass. Then came full beer kegs and baseballs. Finally, hordes of limp, drunken bodies began erupting through the wooden sides of the house, blasting jagged holes completely through the wooden planks as the wasted bodies exited, propelled by some sort of demonic force. A power beyond her control.

Mona was ready to leave Vail. But the next day was to be spent sightseeing and deciding on the condominium options. It turned out to be a grueling process for Mona.

That evening's drive home was an endless cruise through anxiety. She gnawed on her fingernails while imagining different scenarios involving broken glass, splintered wood, and crushed brick.

They arrived home and walked through the front door. Mona stopped and looked around. All seemed normal. They proceeded into the kitchen, where they encountered Brian. He was beaming happily. Mona noticed that the house felt a bit chilly. Especially in the kitchen. But everything else seemed normal enough. Mona smiled with relief.

This was a golden moment.

Moral-1: Worrying will get you nowhere.
Moral-2: Never listen to only one side of a story
Hint: Read "A Golden Moment for Brian"