Don't We Have Enough?

"Susie! Get in here RIGHT NOW!" a young mother yells at her five year old playing across the street at a neighbor's house. Susie was keeping company with the German Shepard who live there. "Did you hear me? I said RIGHT NOW!" The mother's voice was growing more and more imperious with each word.

"Okay," Susie said so quietly not even the German Shepard could hear her. The dog licked Susie's face and gave her an imploring look. "I have to go, Dallas," the girl said to the dog. She kissed the animal's head.

"SUSIE!" called the mother for the last time.

"I'm coming!" Susie yelled, racing across the street. She saw her mother standing on the front doorstep.

"Susie, what did I tell you about crossing the street! Look both ways before crossing! What am I going to do with you? You drive me crazy!" Susie entered the house without a word and went into her room.

An hour later ten boys get off a school bus at the street corner, six of whom head to Susie's house. They are her older brothers who attends a boys' day school in town. Susie loved her older brothers. In fact, she felt much closer to them than anyone else in her family, since she spent most of her time with them. The six boys enter the house and race upstairs to see their sister.

"Boys!" their mother yells at them. "Learn to walk! You sound like a stampede going through here." The mother lounged on the living room couch, cigarette in her mouth. "Those kids are going to drive me to drink. Sometimes I wonder where they all came from. Grommets." She shook her head, looked at he watch. In one hour her husband would be home from work. He was a patent lawyer at a company at the state capital. Upstairs, the boys played with Susie. One of them placed a toy tiara on her head. The others told her jokes. Finally John, the oldest boy, spoke up and asked his siblings: "Why is Mom always yelling at us lately?"

"Maybe she's tired," asked the second oldest boy. "I mean, seven of us, only one of her, and Dad's away at work all day....

"She yelled at me to come home," Susie piped up. "I was playing with Dallas when she yelled." She looked at John's face. John had a dumbfounded look on his face.