Symbolic Gestures

My boy turned eighteen today. In anticipation of this event, we surreptitiously packed a suitcase for him while he was out at rehearsals last night - he has a leading role in a school production - using clothes of his we found scattered around his bedroom floor, knowing that he'd never in a lifetime notice they were missing; then later, at the stroke of midnight, my wife and I burst into his room and hauled him bodily downstairs, out the front door, down the driveway, and dropped him at the curb. We walked back to the house hand-in-hand, and casually locked the door behind us. We let him back in some minutes later - of course we did! - but our point had been made: we've promised them all that this would happen when the time came, and so it came to be.

For his part, he plans today to buy himself a pack of smokes, a lotto ticket, and some porn.

<sniffle>
    Happy birthday, kiddo.
</sniffle>