Suspending Disbelief

Suspending Disbelief

“You’ll never believe what happened.”

“Of course, I will,” Kimberley sat down at the table with another cup of coffee and looked at Jake expectantly.

“Come on Mom! You always say that. Takes all the fun out of telling you.”

“It’s true. I’m good at suspending disbelief when it comes to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I couldn’t, what fun would our conversations be?”

Jake stared at her.

“When do we have full conversations, without you telling me to do something?”

“We’re about to have one right now, if you’ll stop trying to avoid talking to your own mother!”

Jake opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

“How interesting! When did you become a ventriloquist's dummy?”

“I’m gathering my thoughts like you always do,” her son said.

“Okay, I’m ready!”

“I’m sixteen now. I want to quit school and start my own game software company, a couple of my friends asked me to join them,” he blurted.

It was Kimberley’s turn to open her mouth and have nothing come out.

“I said I would suspend disbelief, but that’s not happening! Are you out of your ever-loving mind!” she finally managed to say.

“I think I can do it...”

“Without advanced coding courses and animation techniques?”

“I can learn them on my own,” he said stubbornly.

“What if your company fails? It happens all the time, Jakey,” his mom insisted.

“But it won’t!”

“What about start-up capital? Where’s that coming from?”

“You could give me what you were planning on spending on my post-secondary education, couldn’t you?”

“I wasn’t planning to do anything like that. I’m expecting you to work, take out student loans like the rest of us did.

“What? “

She nodded and he was quiet.

“Can I go school shopping without you?” he wondered aloud.