A Camera is Worth Not Quite a Thousand Words (Part 3)

Hick may have been onto something, putting up a fake camera after his political candidate signs were tampered with. Let the record show that Hick installed his fake camera, and a sign borrowed from our neighbor, on Thursday.

Thursday night at 10:09, while Hick was loose upstairs, and I was sitting in my dark basement lair...I got a text. From Hick. (No, he doesn't type this much, and this grammatically correct. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and asked for more details.)

"PartyMom just called me, and said she wanted to apologize for her daughter's friend taking down my signs. She sent me a text at 9:45, asking if I was still up, and could she call me. I had to go out on the porch to get reception. She said her daughter and her friend took the signs down, and said the girl was in tears." [Her alias of PartyMom is because she hosted the kid's party, no reflection on her own activities]

"Well, it was just a prank, and a simple apology would fix the whole thing."

"That's what PartyMom did. Apologize for her daughter's friend."

"No big deal. She's a kid. Probably just showing off for each other, and neither would have done it otherwise. The kid shouldn't dwell on it, as long as she owned up to it. I feel bad that she's crying."

"PartyMom said that when she saw it on Facebook Sunday, she asked the boys what they'd done. She knew they'd all gone for a walk. They said they hadn't done anything. She didn't suspect the girls. But then tonight she asked her and the girl said, 'Well, you didn't ask ME, so I didn't tell.'"

"Wow. That's cold-blooded, standing right there while the boys are being accused, and then not saying anything. Maybe she SHOULD dwell on it! So she doesn't turn into a psychopath before it's too late!"

"PartyMom said she took her phone away for a week. She'll remember THAT!"

"That sounds fair. For the deception, not the act. She didn't even do it herself, supposedly. An apology would have been enough for the act."

"That's what PartyMom told her. She should have owned up to it, so she could have told the other girl it was wrong."

"I wonder if being a lawyer's daughter might have something to do with not volunteering info if you're not asked..."

Anyhoo...we know who it was. No big deal. (It's not like she asked for a metal fork at a barbecue and threw it in the trash!) I feel sorry for the kid having her phone taken away for a week. These kids are tweens. Having worked with that age group, I can understand. They are trying to break away from their dependency on parents, to grow up. They don't want to be treated like babies, but they don't understand that they're NOT little kids any more. That they will be held accountable for their actions. They get in trouble without meaning to, just pushing the envelope to see where the boundaries are.

Hick and I are wondering about the timing of the confession. Did it have something to do with the sign? In Val's world, that kid saw the camera, thought, "OH, CRAP!" and didn't want to be reminded of her clandestine activities every morning and afternoon on the way to and from the bus stop.

At least PartyMom has a handle on the situation. It takes an enclave to raise a tween.