Family Dinner

One of our routines this semester has been meeting once a month in Thomasville for a family dinner. With my parents traveling all over the U.S., my siblings and I worried that we would lose touch, so we started this new routine or tradition. This past Monday night was our November gathering. My parents were back in the South for the winter, so they joined us. (All names have been changed to protect the embarrassed.)

When Wes and I arrived in Thomasville, my parents were there as was my niece, Nicole, who works in Thomasville. We were waiting for the rest of my niece's family (my brother's family) and my sister's family. Anyway, Nicole told us that my nephew Lee, the same one who lived with us for three months last year, has a girlfriend. This was good gossip indeed (his first girlfriend), so we asked lots of questions. Finally, we decided to go inside and eat chips and salsa while we waited for the rest of the family.

They all arrived about ten minutes later, and the noise level rose. My mom looked at Lee, smirked a bit, and announced, "Lee has news." Lee looked at her blankly. "He had a first," she continued. Immediately, Wes and I thought she was teasing him about the new girlfriend, so we looked at him expectantly. He had no idea. "In your car," she prompted him.

"Oh my gosh!" I thought. "Mom knows Lee had fun with his girlfriend in his car!" I looked at Wes, unsure what to do. Wes reddened a bit, then struggled to swallow his drink, not wanting to spew it on his mother-in-law, but needing to laugh out loud.

Lee blushed and looked down. Now everyone was laughing except Mom, who seemed a little confused by the laughter. We couldn't stop laughing, and Lee shrugged as if to say, "I don't know what she's talking about."

"Your ticket!" Mom said. "You got your first speeding ticket."