Page 60 of Guitars and Cages

“He’d better not; you’re not supposed to yell at kids like that.”

“Mom yells sometimes” he said, his lower lip quivering a bit. “But I still miss her.”

“I bet you do, but I’m sure she’ll come back soon to get you. Sometimes finding a new place to live takes time.” I was gonna leave it at that, but what he’d said nagged at me. “Why does she yell at you?”

“To pick up my toys or not leave my clothes on the floor. She yelled really loud when I made a painting on the living-room wall in our last apartment.”

I nodded then, ’cause that sounded like typical mom stuff. “My mom used to yell at me about that stuff, too. I think all moms do.”

He looked at me, curiosity in his eyes. “Really? So it’s not like Uncle Cole’s yelling?”

“Nah, it ain’t the same as Uncle Cole’s yelling. Sometimes moms yell at us because we don’t do the things they ask the first time they ask it and they lose their patience.”

“But you said adults shouldn’t yell at kids.”

I chuckled; he had me there. “They shouldn’t, even when they lose their patience, but it does happen. You know how you can keep from getting yelled at?”

He shook his head. “How?”

I leaned in close, like I was gonna share this big secret with him. “Do what they ask the first time.”

He pouted, and I laughed.

“But that’s hard!”

“I know, kid, I know, but it really is the only way.”

“So would Uncle Cole have stopped yelling if Uncle Alex had done what he said?”

Oh boy, I’d walked into that one, hadn’t I? “It’s, um, different with adults.”

“Why?”

“It, uhh, just is. When you’re a kid you have to do what you’re told because you’re little and you haven’t learned to make your own choices, but when you’re older, you get to make your own decisions, and you don’t have to change them because someone else might think you should.”

He sat there, looking thoughtful for a bit, mulling over what I’d said. “Oh.”

I reached over and ruffled his hair, and he scooted back, blowing raspberries at me and fixing his hair back in place, or at least trying to. “Enjoy being a kid while you can, Rory. Sometimes it’s easier to let someone else tell you what to do.”

“Why?”

I grinned. “’Cause if you do what you’re told and something goes wrong, it ain’t on you.”

He frowned, and I could tell he didn’t get my meaning.

“It means if you’re doing what you’re told and it turns out bad, then no one can blame you for it, because it wasn’t your idea in the first place.”

He shook his head. “But that’s not true.”

Now he’d taken me off guard. “Huh?”

“When Todd and I made mud pies and tried to bring them in the house, we both got yelled at, even if it was all his idea.”

I laughed at that, ’cause I could picture the mess. I’d made a ton of mud pies in my day.

“It’s different when the person giving you the idea is the same age as you.”

“Oh, well, that’s too many rules.”