Guest author Cliff has submitted this story. Enjoy.
Growing up, my Mom managed the Dairy Queen in my home town. I played Pop Warner football when I was 12 years old. Normally, we had practice on Mondays after school. On Monday morning, the coach's son let me know his Dad had to make an emergency trip out of town and practiced was cancelled.
Our house was only a few blocks away from school and I got home about 3:15. My mother usually worked until at least 5:30 PM. She did not like phone calls at work and being home early was not anything I needed to let her know about. Shortly after getting home, I was in my room and heard my Mom come through the front door. I started to come out of my room and I could hear she had someone with her.
I cracked my bedroom door and saw it was a cute girl named Cheryl, who worked for her at DQ. I had talked with Cherly a few times when I went up to my Mom's work. She was very pretty and had a nice personality. Even though she was 19, she did not seem to mind talking to a 12 year old boy. Talking with Cheryl, I learned she was from Iowa to attend school on an academic scholarship. I saw Cheryl was in Jeans and t-shirt, so she must be off work that day.