Remember Texas

"COLE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Jack Williamspounded on the closed bedroom door. "I have to leave for work. Come on, I'll drop you at school on my way.""I'm not going."His voice was muffled but determined. Jack gritted his teeth and silently counted to ten. "Come on, buddy, you know you have to go. It won't be so bad once you get to know some of the kids."Cole opened the door and glared at him with eyes the color of whiskey. His mother's eyes, except Cynthia had never looked at Jack with such venom in her gaze. "I don't want to know them. This place sucks. I want to go home.""Don't start this again. Aransas City is home now. And we don't have time to mess around. You're going to be late, and so am I.""Like I give a -- ""I'm waiting, Cole," he said, interrupting."And put on a pair of jeans that fit. Don't forget you're working at the Institute after school."Cole was a skateboarder and wore baggy pants that always looked like they were one breath away from falling off his butt. Why they never did, Jack didn't know. But he was damned if Cole was wearing those pants to work. At least the T-shirt was one of the milder ones, so they wouldn't have to fight over it as well.Finally, they were able to leave. Cole hadn't changed his clothes, but Jack blew that defiance off in the interest of getting to work on time. The new research scientist he'd be working with was due at the Institute this morning for her first day, and Jack wanted to arrive before she did."I don't see why I have to work at the same place you do," Cole said on the way to school."You tried the grocery store and there were no bag boy positions left. It's tough to find a job when you're fifteen. You're lucky Dr. Long hired you." The director had done it as a personal favor to Jack but Jack didn't tell his son that. He thought it would do him good to believe he'd got the job on his own. He might try harder if he did believe it. "I'm nearly sixteen," Cole said sulkily. "If I had wheels I could work any place I wanted.""Wheels cost money," Jack said. "Insurance, gas, not to mention the cost of the car itself." He didn't mention he had his eye on a car he intended to give Cole for his birthday in a couple of weeks. It was the next thing to a junker, but he was confident that he could keep it running. And he and Cole could work on it together, which he hoped would bring them closer.Abandoning the car argument, Cole said, "You don't trust me, that's why you want me there. You're treating me like a baby, wanting to know where I am every minute."It was an old refrain. But Jack had learned his lesson in Galveston when Cole had fallen in with a bad crowd because his father was working all the time. That was the main reason Jack had decided to move and leave his charter fishing business for something with more regular hours and more free time.He intended to do better here. He'd be the father Cole needed whether his son liked it or not. "You know what happened in Galveston. If I'm hard on you, you've only yourself to blame. You're going to have to earn back my trust, son.""I told you, I only smoked weed once. If you hadn't come home early you'd never even have known. We'd still be living in Galveston and not in this nothing town. Why are you making such a big deal out of it?""Because it is a big deal. You're lucky it was me who found you and not the police." Besides, he didn't totally buy that that had been the first time the kid had smoked. No, he wasn't that naive, even if he had been too clueless to see the signs before he'd busted his son and his friends.Cole shrugged, but didn't speak, so Jack continued. "You need to work after school because you need the experience. Not to mention the money.""Gimme a break. I bet it sucks. It's probably boring as sh -- ""Watch your mouth," Jack said wearily. Thank God they had arrived at the school. "I'll see you later." Luckily, the Institute was only a short walk from the high schoolGaddy, Eve is the author of 'Remember Texas ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373713677 and ISBN 0373713673.