The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

too, she didn’t like bloody Mary’s,” Harry said with a trace of bitterness. Fran nodded.
“Like I’m supposed to use up all my junpars making her damned drinks! If she wants a junpar daiquiri, why doesn’t she bring them to date nights,” Harry muttered as he cleaned up the dishes. He felt tears come to his eyes and wiped them away. He was really getting tired of all of his friends treating him this way.
Spring came and they all took to the fields to plant once again. They rotated fields and Harry planted an extra field on his farm and everyone was surprised when he brought out some rye seeds and asked him where they had come from.
“Jake and I were checking out our bakery and they were in there along with some wheat seeds. That’s why we have some different varieties this year. Our wheat should be stronger and we should get a higher yield,” he told them and everyone looked pleased.
“Well, we could certainly use that,” Steve remarked and everyone smiled. It didn’t take them too long to pick up the rocks and plant the new field. All the kids loved picking up the rocks and laughed at Dr. Jackson kicking his digger every time he had to pick up one.
“Man, granddad is sure funny,” Jackson giggled and Harry ruffled his hair.
“I know, you should have seen him the first year when we had a ton of rocks to pick up, I thought he was going to wear his foot off,” he teased and all the kids laughed.
After the crops were planted, Harry fooled around with his purple crystals and black ones and a security field and tried to work on some kind of force field that would protect the crops from flying bugs but allow the sun to come in. He was having no success when his mother interrupted him on Saturday afternoon.
“Henry, we have to talk,” Kate said and walked into the barn where he was working. He glanced up and Danny giggled. She smiled at the boy.
“Is he going to be stuck up your ass for his entire life?” she inquired sarcastically. Harry shrugged.
“Well, at least I’ll know where to find him,” he replied and Danny giggled again. “Darling, why don’t you ask Fran for an apple or something,” he told his son who nodded and ran off. Kate nodded.
“You lied to me, Henry, and I want to know why,” she said calmly. Harry sighed and dropped his screwdriver and faced her.
“My life is none of your business, Mother, what goes on in my house is none of your business. You have a big mouth and you like to blab my business to other people who have no right in knowing my business so if I said any untruths to you then I would hardly call it lying,” he said just as calm. She gasped.
“You’re my son, of course what you do is my business,” Kate snapped. Harry shook his head.
“I’m thirty-two years old, Mom, I stopped being your business a long ago and you have no right in my life. You are nothing but a simple observer and all you need to know is what I choose to let you know,” he told her and she was shocked.
“I can’t believe my own son would speak to me this way, how dare you,” she yelled. He sighed.
“Oh, give me a break, how dare you march in here and demand things from me like I was a twelve year-old child. I’m an adult and I don’t have to tell you a thing that I don’t want to. You have no right to come in here and demand anything. Who in the hell do you think you are? Just because you’re my mother doesn’t give you any special rights to my life. This is my life, not yours; you would think after all these years you’d understand that but obviously you haven’t gotten the point yet. I love you, Mom, but you need to butt out,” he told her and she nodded.
“Fine, I’ll butt out, but I still think you were lying about the rye bread mixes, there were no rye bread mixes were there?” she asked. He shrugged.
“That’s none of your business,” he told her and she pursed her lips.
“You sneaky little bastard, somehow you’ve got flour and you don’t want to share it with the rest of us. Where in the hell did you get flour and rye flour? No one has ever seen rye flour on this planet. Where in the hell did you get some?” she snapped. He shrugged.
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Mother,” Harry said calmly and she stomped her foot.
“Why won’t you tell me?” she yelled, her face getting all red. He looked at her like she was crazy.
“Mother, you’re going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down, now really, you need to go home and lie down,” Harry told her and she turned around and walked home muttering about ungrateful sons. Harry giggled and went back to his project.
“She’s going to figure it out,” he told Jake while they were cleaning up the dishes. Jake nodded.
“Oh, yeah, once she gets over the anger part she’ll remember where the rye seeds came from and put two and two together and remember the bakery,” he said. Harry giggled.
“Oh, well, let’s just hope she doesn’t call an emergency town meeting to discuss it in front of everyone,” he said and Jake grinned and kissed him.
The next day they were eating dinner when the doorbell rang. Harry jumped up to answer it. When he saw it was his mother and the rest of the farm he wasn’t too surprised.
“Hello, everyone, your timing stinks, we’re eating dinner, come back in an hour,” he told them. Kate shook her head.
“We need to talk, Henry,” she declared. Harry shook his head.
“Didn’t you hear me, Mother, we’re in the middle of eating dinner, you’ll have to come back in an hour, now goodbye,” he said firmly and shut the door. They all looked shocked. Kate banged on the door and rang the bell a few times but Harry didn’t come back and they were left with nothing to do but leave and come back.
After the dishes were done, Harry sent the kids to their room and prepared the living room for the meeting. Jake looked at him.
“What are you going to tell them, babe?” he asked. Harry shrugged.
“The truth of course, honey,” he said and smiled. Jake smiled and kissed him. Fran retreated to her room and Harry giggled.
“Chicken,” he teased and she nodded.
“You betcha,” she declared and escaped. Jake let everyone in and they all took a seat. Kate started to speak and Harry held up his hand.
“I’ll talk for a minute if you don’t mind,” he said calmly. He looked around at the angry faces and wondered what the fuck gave them the right to be angry. And he noticed who was missing and smiled.
“I see Sarek and Myla have decided not to join you,” he observed and a few looked uncomfortable. “I can guess what they told you when you informed them that you thought I had flour and wasn’t sharing it with you, he probably told you that one, it was my flour and I didn’t have to share if I didn’t want to and two, if I wasn’t sharing that probably meant that there simply wasn’t enough flour to go around and so I wasn’t sharing with anyone. And he would have been right if that’s what he told you.” Harry paused and Kathleen glared at him.
“What do you mean there wasn’t enough?” she asked. Harry shrugged.
“When Jake and I went to the bakery and opened the bin, there wasn’t enough flour to share with everyone. We couldn’t give even a fifty pound barrel to every house so we decided to not give any to anyone and we kept it all,” he told them.
“But we’re your friends,” Mike protested. Harry nodded.
“Yes, that’s true but there wasn’t even enough flour to give a fifty pound drum to each of our friends. How could we pick who was going to get flour and who wasn’t? Whoever we didn’t pick was going to be angry and hate us so we couldn’t give it to anyone, we couldn’t play favorites,” he said and Kathleen sighed.
“You’re right, Harry, if you had given me some and not April, she would have cried for a month and I would have felt so guilty I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it,” she said and jumped up and hugged him. He hugged her back.
“And, Kathleen, darling, if you want a junpar daiquiri at date night, bring a junpar, don’t expect me to bring them for you, okay?” he said and she looked surprised.
“I’m sorry, did I do that?” she asked and he nodded. Kate sighed.
“That’s it, he says there wasn’t enough and we’re supposed to believe him?” she asked and they all looked shocked.
“Of course, Harry wouldn’t lie,” Mike snapped at her. She glared at them.
“He lied to me,” she snapped. Kathleen giggled.
“Well, no offense, Kate, but sometimes you’re so rude, we lie just to get away from you,” she confessed and the woman looked shocked.
“I’m rude?” she asked and everyone nodded.
“Sometimes I talk frankly and bluntly but how is that rude?” she demanded. April giggled.
“Marching in here and telling us to murder our children was kind of rude,” she reminded her and everyone laughed. Kate rolled her eyes.
“Oh, that was years ago, no one cares about that,” she declared. Harry shook his head.
“Every time I look at Jackson I care about that, Mother,” he told her gently and she looked surprised again.
“You young people carry a grudge too long, you need to get over it,” she snapped. “So I guess this means, Henry, you’re not going to share any of your flour with us?” she asked and he shook his head.
“You know, Mother, my job on this planet is not, I repeat, not to make your life easier and more comfortable nor is it to share every single thing I’ve got with you,” he informed her. “There are going to be many times during the next thirty thousand years that I’m going to have something that I’m not going to share with you. The sooner you realize that the easier time you’re going to have.” She shook her head.
“I cannot believe what a selfish child you’ve grown up to be, if I had known this I would have never given birth to you,” Kate snapped and Jake laughed. She glared at him. “You think that’s funny?” she sniped. He nodded.
“You didn’t give birth to him, Kate, he’s a Dolphin remember, you and Simon created him and birthed him in a chamber,” he reminded her and everyone laughed while she flushed.
“Oh, go to hell all of you,” she snapped and walked out slamming the door on her way. Harry giggled.
“I’ll tell you what I will do,” he told them. “Tomorrow Fran and I will bake rye bread and I’ll give everyone a loaf okay?”
“Sounds great to me, I love rye bread,” Jan said and everyone agreed that would