Sarah Ota
January 23, 2007
English
The Frustrating Truth About My Parents
The process of asking my parents if I can go anywhere is a challenging one that takes much lying and staying calm.
"Uh mom, can I go out today?" I asked with hope of receiving a positive answer.
"What?" she responded.
"Can I go ou..?" I always have to repeat the question twice, even though I am sure she could clearly hear me especially since I was standing two feet away from her asking the question. She cut off my second approach to ask the question in finally understanding what I was saying.
"Ohh, did you finish your homework?"
"Yeah, I'm like basically done, just gotta do a few more problems for math."
When asking my parents if I can go out, they always need the reassurance of knowing exactly who will be attending, and exactly what time I'll be back, being the overprotective parents that they are.
"I'm gunna go beach with like kelc, kylie, tiana guys, we're going to Walls," I said even though we still hadn’t decided where to go and who was coming.
"Im the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. Its awful."
"Who are you going with?" my mom asked the irritating repeating question.
Trying to not get mad, I calmly answered through gritted teeth, "Kelc, Ky, and T."
"Who?" she said.
Now it was getting to the point where it was just plain ridiculous.
"Ohh, Tiana, ohh I get it. What time will you be back by?"
"Hopefully around five, not sure yet but Kelcie said she could give me a ride back to her house so you can just pick me up from there, so I gotta leave the same time she is getting picked up."
As soon as that long phrase left my mouth, I regretted not just saying "Oh around five" knowing that my mom is going to make this even harder than it is.
"Wait so you are going to catch a ride back home with Kelcie," she inquired
"YES MOM," I tried to be in control of my frustration that was slowly overtaking me.
"I guess so, try ask you dad," my request finally received approval of one parent, task half way completed.
As I ran up the stairs to where my parent's room was, I reviewed my plan in my head. If he has any questions try to just stick with, "Mom said its okay to go."
"Hey dad?," I shouted over the sound of running water as the smell of shaving cream passed by my nose.
"Yea," he responded knowing I was asking for something.
"Uhh so I asked mom if I can go to the beach today and she said okay so can I go?" I asked hopefully once more.
"So mom said okay?" he asked shouting over the sound of the faucet, which was surprisingly louder to him than expected.
"Umm yea, she said that its fine, so can I go?"
"Wait I cant hear you… What?" he yelled as I thought about all the times when I talked back quietly to him and somehow he could catch every single word of what I would say.
"SHE SAID ITS FINE!" I said the feeling of frustration once again erupting in my system.
"There is no need to get all excited and mad," he said testing my patience.
"So when will you be done at?" he asked.
"Probably fiveish," even though I wasn't sure at all when I would be through.
"WHAT? SIX?" he asked. "WHAT?"
"Dad," I took a deep breath and tried to sound calm. "About five, is it okay?"
"I guess so."
Finally with the approval of my parents that enjoy making me repeat everything twice or sometimes three times I went to the beach. Its like they don't understand how frustrating it is to talk to them, and its not only for things like going out its for any question I ask them, we establish what I say about two times before they answer. Here's the thing, its not like my parents are deaf, they aren’t stupid either, it's just that sometimes they just have this "selective hearing" that really bugs me. It's a good thing that I can usually make up a pretty good lie to sugar coat the truth and make the story seem the way my parents want it.
Comments:
I like the dialogue. I think you could add a little more non-dialogue parts inbetween the rest of the dialogue.
