Week 14 Story: Told You So
Watching your kids grow up is one of the greatest things you will ever experience. Sometimes they can be a real pain and make you question everything, but I can't imagine doing anything else. Take it from me. I'm a father of three. Courtney is 25, Brooke is 23, and Luke is 18. Now, all three are now adults and soon Luke will be off to college (finally). Over the years, we've had a few bumps in the road, some much larger than others. One of the bigger bumps was when Brooke dated Jack. "You're just being overprotective of her" is probably what you are thinking. But no. Everyone in the family can agree that he was absolutely horrible and we are all glad they aren't dating anymore.
It all started when Brooke left for college. Her dream school was a smaller music school in southern California. Her musical talent is expansive, ranging from singing, to piano, to guitar, bass, and flute (although that phase was in middle school). We knew that although Texas is so far away, we needed to let her live her dream. What we didn't expect, although we really should have, was Jack.
Jack is your typical band boy who thinks he is really cool but is a parent's worst nightmare. Now, I would consider myself open-minded, but he really just rubbed me the wrong way. When Brooke brought Jack home for Christmas her sophomore year, I was really excited to meet him. She talked so highly of him and I was overjoyed that she had found someone she cared for so much. But within ten minutes of meeting him, my mind had completely changed.
Jack just looked dirty. I can't really say if he actually was or not but he just looks like he does not have good hygiene. He has a single dread (???) on the right side of his head, has tattoos on his face (!!!!) and talks like he is in a gang. He is not polite, has zero awareness of social cues, and has absolutely zero filter when he speaks. As much as I love honesty, the last thing I want to hear come out of my daughter's boyfriend's mouth is what they do when they are alone (obviously??).
Despite all these things though, I was trying my best to see the good in him. I raised Brooke incredibly and was trying desperately to see even a glimpse of what she saw in him. I could tell it was really important to her, so I decided to let the Christmas party be the deciding factor.
The next night was our annual Christmas party. It's a huge party that all of our family, friends, and neighbors come to every year. It's our family's favorite event, so we really go all out for it. I'm talking full catering service, open bar, formal attire, DJ, small gifts for each of the guests, the whole shebang. So you can only imagine the small fire that lit inside my body when Jack and Brooke showed up so hammered they could hardly walk. Courtney got to them before I did and tried to tell them to shape up, but with the open bar, everything went downhill very very fast.
Remember when I said Jack had zero filter? That was when he was sober. When he's drunk, it is one hundred times worse. He managed to say something inappropriate to every single one of our family members and close friends that Brooke introduced him to, all the while stumbling around from person to person and really invading on everyone's personal space. To make this worse, his breath smelled like Fireball and he had a small patch of fondue cheese on his upper lip that he seemed completely unaware of. I thought this was the worst of it.
Nope. An hour into the party he was somehow fifteen times drunker than he was when he arrived. He stumbled up to the DJ, requested him to stop, and took the microphone. At the stop of the music, there was silence. Jack was wobbling back and forth looking like he was about to fall. He steadied himself by leaning on the speaker next to him, which crashed to the ground. Everyone gasped, but Jack seemed unbothered by it. He began talking about how much he loved Brooke and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life waking up to her. Something that would be so sweet to hear from anyone else, in nearly any other situation. I was tense from head to toe, dreading what was coming next.
Jack asked Maggie to come up on the stage, but when he was attempting to get down on one knee, he vomited all over her, and then fell off the stage. The fall was pretty high and he was so drunk he didn't even attempt to catch himself, so he hit his head and was unconscious. We had to call 911 and ten minutes later our Christmas party was full of paramedics. The whole party was turned upside down in a matter of minutes.
Needless to say, the party was a disaster. Although that was the absolute turning point for me, it took a few fights and moral/ career differences between the two for Brooke to realize that Jack was not the one. If I ever told you "I told you so" she would refuse to ever talk to me again, but really, that relationship was doomed from the get-go.
Author's Note:
I based this story off "The Treacherous Chameleon" in Jataka Tales, by Francis and Thomas. In the original story, A lizard king has a son who becomes friends with a chameleon. The king does not like chameleons and forbids his son from seeing him, but his son doesn't listen. Because the king is aware of the danger that the chameleon may bring, he decides to prepare for an emergency. The lizard son eventually grew to be much bigger than the chameleon, and the chameleon was scared that the lizard would kill him, so he plotted to kill all of them before they could get to him. He had a hunter kill them all and at the end, the king says that the one treacherous chameleon brought the end of all the lizards.
I liked the plot of the story and wanted to turn it a little to be humans and more contemporary. I thought something similar would be a daughter bringing home a horrible boyfriend and just went with it. My initial inspiration was from the movie "Why Him?" but changed the story's details and ending significantly so it would fit better with a short story. I didn't want it to be as extreme as the boyfriend plotting to kill everyone, so figured a good alternate ending would be ruining an event or embarrassing himself/ the family.
Bibliography:
"The Treacherous Chameleon" Jataka Tales, by H.T Francis and E.J. Thomas
It all started when Brooke left for college. Her dream school was a smaller music school in southern California. Her musical talent is expansive, ranging from singing, to piano, to guitar, bass, and flute (although that phase was in middle school). We knew that although Texas is so far away, we needed to let her live her dream. What we didn't expect, although we really should have, was Jack.
Jack is your typical band boy who thinks he is really cool but is a parent's worst nightmare. Now, I would consider myself open-minded, but he really just rubbed me the wrong way. When Brooke brought Jack home for Christmas her sophomore year, I was really excited to meet him. She talked so highly of him and I was overjoyed that she had found someone she cared for so much. But within ten minutes of meeting him, my mind had completely changed.
Jack just looked dirty. I can't really say if he actually was or not but he just looks like he does not have good hygiene. He has a single dread (???) on the right side of his head, has tattoos on his face (!!!!) and talks like he is in a gang. He is not polite, has zero awareness of social cues, and has absolutely zero filter when he speaks. As much as I love honesty, the last thing I want to hear come out of my daughter's boyfriend's mouth is what they do when they are alone (obviously??).
Despite all these things though, I was trying my best to see the good in him. I raised Brooke incredibly and was trying desperately to see even a glimpse of what she saw in him. I could tell it was really important to her, so I decided to let the Christmas party be the deciding factor.
The next night was our annual Christmas party. It's a huge party that all of our family, friends, and neighbors come to every year. It's our family's favorite event, so we really go all out for it. I'm talking full catering service, open bar, formal attire, DJ, small gifts for each of the guests, the whole shebang. So you can only imagine the small fire that lit inside my body when Jack and Brooke showed up so hammered they could hardly walk. Courtney got to them before I did and tried to tell them to shape up, but with the open bar, everything went downhill very very fast.
Remember when I said Jack had zero filter? That was when he was sober. When he's drunk, it is one hundred times worse. He managed to say something inappropriate to every single one of our family members and close friends that Brooke introduced him to, all the while stumbling around from person to person and really invading on everyone's personal space. To make this worse, his breath smelled like Fireball and he had a small patch of fondue cheese on his upper lip that he seemed completely unaware of. I thought this was the worst of it.
Nope. An hour into the party he was somehow fifteen times drunker than he was when he arrived. He stumbled up to the DJ, requested him to stop, and took the microphone. At the stop of the music, there was silence. Jack was wobbling back and forth looking like he was about to fall. He steadied himself by leaning on the speaker next to him, which crashed to the ground. Everyone gasped, but Jack seemed unbothered by it. He began talking about how much he loved Brooke and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life waking up to her. Something that would be so sweet to hear from anyone else, in nearly any other situation. I was tense from head to toe, dreading what was coming next.
Jack asked Maggie to come up on the stage, but when he was attempting to get down on one knee, he vomited all over her, and then fell off the stage. The fall was pretty high and he was so drunk he didn't even attempt to catch himself, so he hit his head and was unconscious. We had to call 911 and ten minutes later our Christmas party was full of paramedics. The whole party was turned upside down in a matter of minutes.
Needless to say, the party was a disaster. Although that was the absolute turning point for me, it took a few fights and moral/ career differences between the two for Brooke to realize that Jack was not the one. If I ever told you "I told you so" she would refuse to ever talk to me again, but really, that relationship was doomed from the get-go.
Author's Note:
I based this story off "The Treacherous Chameleon" in Jataka Tales, by Francis and Thomas. In the original story, A lizard king has a son who becomes friends with a chameleon. The king does not like chameleons and forbids his son from seeing him, but his son doesn't listen. Because the king is aware of the danger that the chameleon may bring, he decides to prepare for an emergency. The lizard son eventually grew to be much bigger than the chameleon, and the chameleon was scared that the lizard would kill him, so he plotted to kill all of them before they could get to him. He had a hunter kill them all and at the end, the king says that the one treacherous chameleon brought the end of all the lizards.
I liked the plot of the story and wanted to turn it a little to be humans and more contemporary. I thought something similar would be a daughter bringing home a horrible boyfriend and just went with it. My initial inspiration was from the movie "Why Him?" but changed the story's details and ending significantly so it would fit better with a short story. I didn't want it to be as extreme as the boyfriend plotting to kill everyone, so figured a good alternate ending would be ruining an event or embarrassing himself/ the family.
Bibliography:
"The Treacherous Chameleon" Jataka Tales, by H.T Francis and E.J. Thomas
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