Patricia McLaughlin was taking a short break in her kitchen. She had enjoyed her lunch with Alexandria and the impromptu shopping trip that came after it. She had returned home around 4 that afternoon. She got most of her housework done before leaving that morning and now only had the laundry to do along with the evening meal. The dishes were finished an hour or so ago. She had decided to have a coffee before sorting out the clothes, dreading the state of Kathy's clothes; she was only a few years younger than Tom, but somehow she always seemed to make more of a mess of clothes than he did.
That was when she heard the front door slam not once but twice in quick succession. For anyone else, this might have given them something to worry about, but it was just the way her two wonderful children entered the house.
“Give it back.” Kathy could be heard saying in the sitting room.
“No way, brat.” Came Tom’s reply.
Patricia knew that this marked the end of her quiet time as she got out of her seat and moved towards the sitting room.
“What is going on here?” She asked as she entered the room.
“Tom has taken my phone from me, and he won’t give it back,” Kathy said while still trying to reach for her phone that Tom was holding just out of her reach.
“Why did you take your sisters’ phone, Tom?” Patricia asked her son.
“She had it sticking out of her bag where anyone could have grabbed it. I was just trying to get her to more careful.” Tom said.
Patricia knew that this had nothing to do with trying to get his sister to be more careful with her stuff and was all to do with tormenting her. “Well, now she knows you can give her phone back.” She told him.
“Here you go, brat,” Tom said as he handed the phone back.
Satisfied that World War 3 was stopped for the moment, she started back towards the kitchen.
“Typical girl, you start crying and get mum to come running to defend you. This is why boys are better than girls,” She heard Tom say.
“I wasn’t crying; she came to see what all the noise was about. Anyway, we girls stick up for each other, you wouldn’t understand.” Kathy said in a voice that sounded like she was sticking her tongue out at Tom.
Patricia started on the laundry while thinking about what Kathy had said. She was right that Tom would never understand women, but she had a way of helping her son understand them in her grasp. The school project, if she let him take part in it, he would have a better understanding of what women went through every day, well, some of it anyway.
