Dad put the laptop on my desk and opened it. The screen glowed alive.
“I had Charlie put something he called a key-logger on your mom’s computer. You know what it showed? It showed she was chatting up somebody by the name of BaBeeBoy69 on a site called…” Dad took a slip of paper out of his breast pocket and read: “ShyBoys4Cougars.com.”
I could only shake my head and open my mouth without a sound even making an attempt to come out.
Dad continued. “Now, if it had just been me, the trail would have ended there. But, not so for Charlie. This stuff’s easy for him and he does it all day long. He traced BaBeeBoy69 back to a 57-year-old guy living with his own mother right here in town. Turns out he’s on parole and wasn’t hard to convince to give up his computer in return for not enforcing about a dozen parole violations he had. You can’t imagine how cooperative people get when you’re the Chief of Police.”
I had to believe it now. For some reason Mom was on some weird website.
“This guy was pretending to be an 18-year-old virgin who was so shy he couldn’t even talk to girls in person, but was looking for an older woman who would be an understanding mom-type. Your mom fell for that role in a big way, and wanted to nurture him and help him grow up.”
“Maybe you should just leave her alone, Dad. You’re never home, always working, and ignore her while you ARE here. So, maybe she wanted some attention. Is that so bad?” I was surprised I even knew what I was saying. A minute before I hadn’t even thought of Mom’s needs. I was also surprised Dad didn’t haul off and whack the back of my head like usual.
“I’m really happy you’re concerned, BaBeeBoy69, because you’re taking over the chat duties with Mom!”
“WHAAAA?” was all I could say.
“Oh yeah. Your mother’s going to be nurturing an 18-year-old boy, but, that boy will really be her son.”
“I won’t do it,” I said, and folded my arms.
“Well, I tried,” Dad said while closing the laptop and picking it up. He turned to leave my room.
I thought to myself “Whew! That was easy!”
That’s when he turned back and said, “Remember that arrest of yours last year, the one for selling pot, the one that we never told your mother about, and the one where the case file got lost?”
“DAD! That was one time. A mistake I never made again like I promised!”
“Just wanted to tell you I found that file, and if it got into your permanent record, that big fancy school you got accepted to-and, all those other schools-would have no trouble saying so long to your college career. But, on the bright side, I hear they’re hiring down at the shipping depot: 12-hour shifts at night. So, you have THAT to look forward to.”
He put the laptop down again on my desk along with the slip of paper. It had the website, username, and password. Dad didn’t have to tell me to login, which I did. There was a red number one showing BaBeeBoy69 had a message.
“See what it is,” Dad said.
I clicked it and it showed: “Can’t wait to talk with you tonight at 8.” It was from LilRedRyder. I looked at the clock at the bottom right corner of the computer: 7:10.