Gun Lake Read Online Free PDF Page B

gone
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    “That’s been the problem all along, you know,” Ted said. “He spends as much time as possible away from home. At someone else’s place.”
    “That’s what I mean,” she said, turning down another street. “He needs to know the consequences of breaking rules.”
    “He knows.” A pause. “We’ve tried.”
    “So we’re going to try harder. He can’t keep doing this to me—to us.”
    Ted sighed. “Be careful.”
    “I will. I’ll call you if—if anything happens.”
    “Okay.”
    Michelle pressed the “end” button, laid the phone on the passenger seat, and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as she stared through the night. She still couldn’t believe they were planning to send their sixteen-year-old son off to boarding school. But they had no choice. Nothing else they had tried had worked.
    Jared was already grounded for the summer. That was after he came home from a party and threw up all over their kitchen. But grounding didn’t seem to faze him anymore. Nothing did.
    They had tried everything. Talks, church, books, grounding, taking things away from him, bringing in counselors, arranging talks with other high schoolers. But in the end, Jared didn’t care. He just didn’t care. They could tell him he was on his way to becoming a bum and that his soul was on its way to hell, and he’d juststand there and shrug. They could lock him in his room and he’d stay there for days without contact, without food, without anything, and Jared still wouldn’t change. She and Ted would never abuse him, but Michelle sometimes wondered if
that
would even do anything.
    He was stubborn and rebellious, sure. But he was something worse than that. Jared was indifferent. Not just about her and Ted and their rules, but about everything. About every single thing that came in contact with him.
    About the only thing Jared seemed to care about was getting high. And Samantha provided him with this opportunity. Samantha from the city. Samantha provided this and who knew what else.
    If I have to literally drag him out of her apartment, I will
.
    She had cried enough tears over her eldest son, enough to know she didn’t have to worry about any tonight. It was her rage she needed to control. The urge to grab him and shake him and ask him why he hated her so much and why he didn’t listen to anything anybody said.
    What would Pastor Young think of me, sitting here with these thoughts?
    She had talked to her pastor and to so many others in her church. All of them had wonderful children, kids who were going to go on and be accepted into places like Wheaton College and Covenant College, who were going to become doctors and lawyers and pastors and change the world for the better. Kids who were good, Christian kids.
    What did we do wrong, God? How did he get so far away from us?
    Gripping the steering wheel of the Cherokee, Michelle forced herself to strangle the thought. She and Ted had not failed as parents. They had two other wonderful, beautiful children who were doing fine. And Jared was not lost. He was just searching, just going through a bad patch.
    Jared had the most potential of all of them. Michelle had always known this. That was why his behavior hurt so much. He was blowing that potential. Frying that first-rate brain, using his charm and good looks to get what he wanted. Michelle knew thatSamantha, who was going to be a sophomore in college, was not interested in Jared because of anything more than that charm and those looks. Jared had so much going for him—
I’m so tired of thinking about all of this
.
    The July night needed air conditioning, and Michelle kept it going at full blast. Turning onto Orchard Avenue, she found herself surprisingly unmoved to spot Jared’s red Toyota parked in plain view.
    She stopped the Cherokee and stared at Jared’s car for a moment, then bit her lip, put the Jeep in drive, and went looking for a place to park.
    The buzzer sounded, and Michelle opened the