The Volcano Game, Part 1
The clouds were low and grey when Diane pulled into her daughter's driveway. She looked at the clock and was happy that she had a full two hours with them before they left on their week-long anniversary trip to Hawaii. They'd asked her to be at the house by 1pm and she was. Perfect.
She got out of the car and grabbed her suitcase from the back seat, just as Sarah, her daughter, and Ben, Sarah's husband, walked out the front door to greet her.
"Mom! How was your drive?" Sarah asked as she walked up to her and the two hugged.
"It was long, as usual, but no problems at all," Diane said.
Ben hugged her, then grabbed the suitcase from her. "When did you leave?" he asked.
"I don't know... 6am or so. It was early," she smiled. "But I beat a lot of traffic."
"Hopefully there wasn't much since it's Sunday," Ben smiled.
"You never know down there."
"Come in, come in," Sarah said. "Justin will be so happy to see you."
Justin was just coming into the living room as they walked in the door. "Justin!" Diane said, excited to see her grandson. It had been a couple years since she'd seen him. And he was just the young man she was here to see.
"Hi Grandma," he said as he came over to give her a hug. He felt a little uncomfortable getting close to her. She was wearing a summer dress... very much too early in the season for such an outfit... and it was very low cut. Her DDD-cup breasts were practically bulging out, ready to rip through the thin material.
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, giving him a big hug herself. But his mom saw his hesitation, how he looked at his grandmother, and knew why. It was always the same reason and, ever since Justin hit puberty, it always embarrassed him.
"Mom... you're not 20. You're 63 for heaven's sake," Sarah said, when Diane broke her hug.
"Thanks for reminding me," Diane smiled. She knew where this conversation was going. It seemed like Sarah always complained about the way she dressed. Ben started walking upstairs to finish packing, knowing the argument was starting again.
"It's just... you should dress, you know... your age."
"What's wrong with this?" Diane asked. "How exactly are people my age supposed to dress?"
"I don't know..." Sarah said, stopping to try to think of the right way to express how she felt.
"Frumpy?" Diane spat. "That's what I thought you'd say anyway. I'm not dead, you know. It would be nice to have a man in my life again."
"Yeah, but..."
"No 'yeah, but'... If I want to attract a man, I need to dress the part," Diane said.
Sarah just shook her head. Her mom was just going to have to grow up some day and act her age. "Whatever..." She never liked her mom's cavalier attitude toward sex. She was far more conservative, more like her dad, while her mom was very liberal... definitely a child of the sixties and seventies.
"Well," Sarah said, "I have to go finish packing. Make yourself comfortable."
*****
An hour later, Diane came down again, holding a piece of paper. "I thought about some rules that I want Justin to follow this week while you're here."
"Ok," Diane said, understanding. They'd left him alone last year when they went on an anniversary trip and he totally went wild and wrecked the place. It was his senior year in High School and all his friends came over, partied, had liquor when they weren't supposed to... and girls. They asked Diane to stay the week this year to make sure that didn't happen again.
"The first is that Justin has a 10pm curfew every night. I want him to be home by then with no one over after 10pm."
"Ok," Diane nodded.
"He has the keys to our car and will only drive our car, not yours," Sarah continued. "He can drive himself to school and anywhere he needs to go, but I want him home by 5pm to have dinner with you." Diane nodded when she glanced up. "He can do whatever he wants between dinner and 10pm as long as his chores and homework are done. He's not allowed to have more than one friend over at a time... no parties at all! And I want you to make sure he does his homework and chores every day."
Diane nodded. "Ok. That sounds reasonable enough."
"He has his phone and computer to work on... just make sure he stays off the adult sites," Sarah said. "We've punished him several times for that already so he should know better."
"Gotcha," Diane said, smiling.
"I'll put the list on the fridge to remind him, so you can just tell them they're my rules and I can be the bad guy. Ok?"
"Yeah, that'll be perfect," Diane said. "Are you all packed?"
"I think so," Sarah said, watching Ben bring the last of the suitcases down the stairs.
"I'll go put these in the driveway," Ben said. "The cab should be here any minute." Just as he reached the rest of the pile of luggage in the driveway, the yellow car pulled in from the street. "Honey! The cab's here!"
"Oh! Ok Mom," Sarah said, giving her mom a hug.
"Have a safe trip and a wonderful time!"
"Thank you. Justin! We gotta go, honey." Justin walked into the foyer from the kitchen and gave his mom a hug. "You be good for your grandmother, ok? Remember what we talked about."
"I will Mom."
She held his shoulders firmly, looking right at him to make sure he understood. "Really. Remember what I said."
"Ok! I will Mom."
Diane wasn't sure what the fuss was all about, but obviously there was something Sarah was concerned that Justin would or wouldn't do.
"Ok then... I think we have everything," Sarah said, quickly looking around as she walked to the door. "We'll see you in a week."
Diane and Justin stood in the doorway, watching his mom and dad put the suitcases into the cab, then waved as they got in and drove off. Justin then went back into the kitchen to finish making his lunch, while Diane went up to the bedroom to unpack her suitcase.
*****
It was two hours later when Diane finally came downstairs again and found Justin laying on the couch, looking at his phone.
"Your mother has left you in the best of hands, kiddo," Diane said. "Did she go over her list of rules with you?"
"I'm eighteen!" he complained. "I don't need a freaking babysitter!"
Diane nodded. "She has left you in my care to make sure everything goes well. She said last time, you had a lot of friends over for parties and absolutely destroyed the house. The police were even called. That won't be happening again. There will be no trouble this week. You understand?"
"Yeah, yeah," Justin said, not happy at all about the situation. He loved his grandmother, but she didn't have to babysit him and enforce... rules.
"So, have you done your homework?" Diane asked.
"Yeah," he said without even taking his eyes off his phone.
"For real done your homework and not just saying it?"
"Yeah... almost all of it," he said, sounding less sure this time.