A Mother’s Inner Voice

Some mothers can be so overprotective…

Her 17-year-old son and his friends
have plans for a day at the lake.
“Honey, I have a strange feeling about this.
Maybe you shouldn’t go today.”
He protests.
“All right. Then go. I won’t insist you can’t.
Just BE CAREFUL!”

Teenagers six to the car -- her son driving,
speeding, laughing, passing a slowpoke on a hill.
An 18-wheeler dead ahead! He swerves…
“Whew! That was TOO close. Hey, I almost
made my mama be right.” Laughter.
They arrive safely after all.

Her son is first to the water.
Running, he dives off the end of the pier.
He is under but briefly…surfaces Medusa-like,
with a look of terror, anguish on his face.
“SNAKES! SNAKES!”
He disappears beneath the water again.
Screaming, crying...hysteria ensues.

The park rangers recover his body near the dam.
“Damn! He must have dived smack in the middle
of a breeding ball of water moccasins. Must be
a hundred bites on him. He’s bitten from head to toe.”

At his funeral his mother laments,
“My inner voice told me not to let him go.
Sometimes a mother really DOES know…”


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