No choice

 

After the police brought Sety home – again …

…and AJ hit the Downey house again, this time with a flaming bag…

…Andy and I sat at the kitchen table and prepared ‘the talk.’ We were eating the PB & J sandwiches Toya had prepared, when the subject of AJ and Sety came up. 

We can sit there for hours and say absolutely nothing to each other … and sometimes, we can say absolutely everything to each other. 

“Andy, we have to do something,” I began, trying to get a crumb of bread unstuck between my teeth. 

Andy still didn’t say anything.  But this time, he didn’t have to.  The expression on his face told the whole story. 

The other night, when Sety came home in a cop car, he and Sety got into a shouting match so serious that the Brookses, the neighbors to my left, called the police.  They left after a few minutes, and assigned us to a social worker, but the visit still stung me. 

And he and AJ are barely speaking. 

This is the reaction we usually get when we try to talk to him. 

The policeman tried to talk to him, he laughed in the guy’s face. 

We kept telling AJ that he needs a serious attitude adjustment.  And Andy and I agreed that Fort Starch Academy was the place that was going to give it to him.

So, Andy and I put in a call to Lt. Barksdale at Fort Starch Military Academy and set the wheels in motion to enroll our wayward sons there.  It’s the most difficult phone call we’ve ever had to make.