“God damn it Megan I am at my wit’s end with that girl!” Exclaimed Rob, slamming the bedroom door behind him.
“Robert, please, mind your language” replied his wife Megan as she looked up from her book.
“Yeah, fuck you Robert!” they both heard through the bedroom wall, this set Rob off again.
“Would you have the tiniest bit of god damn respect for your father?!” he screamed in response.
“Respect is earned you fucking prick!” came the muffled reply, followed by the blaring of heavy metal music from their daughter’s room.
Seeing her husband visibly seething, Megan put down her book and gng her husband visibly seething, Megan put an put down her book and gave him a hug.
“What has she done this time?” she asked, already half guessing the answer.
“The car” he said through gritted teeth “she took it again without asking, then when she finally brings it back it reeks of pot smoke and there’s a scratch down the passenger door!”
Megan and Robert had been dealing with their increasingly rebellious daughter Bonnie since late on in her high school career. She had fallen in with a bad crowd in their view and seemed quite happy to laze around the house all day eating their food and using their electricity. That was of course until her parents came home from work, she seemingly couldn’t stand to share the same house as them. She would stay out until the early hours, if she bothered to come home at all.
Rob was putting it lightly when he said he was at his wit’s end, Bonnie was unable to keep a job for more than a few weeks due to her bad attitude and she had flat out refused to attend college. All in all, Megan and Rob were facing the very real prospect that their daughter would fail to launch.
“Listen” said Megan reassuringly as she held her husband “I know things look bleak with Bon sometimes but I really feel she only does it because she gets a rise out of you.”
“Too right she gets a rise out of me!” replied Robert huffily
“I honestly think if we give her some space and just let her do her thing she’ll get bored of antagonising you and she’ll come around”
“Give her some space?! I’m sorry Meg but if we give her space she’s gonna wind up in jail you mark my words!”
“Well screaming at her and slamming doors isn’t working so what’s your plan?”
“I... I don’t know” replied Robert dejectedly.
Staring at the floor with his wife’s hand in his, he sat at the edge of the bed.
“I just wish she was more like you, ya know?”
Megan smiled at her husband.
“Oh hun, while I'm extremely flattered that you’d have our daughter turn out like me, you have to realise she’s her own person, she’ll find her own way.”
“Oh I know, it’s just so hard dealing with her now she’s like this, she was such a well-mannered little girl, where did I go wrong?”
“If I had to fault you in at all I'd have to say you care maybe a little too much” joked Megan, trying to put her husband at ease. She managed to wrangle a smile from him.
“Well I wouldn’t fault you at all” he replied before they shared a kiss “you’re my perfect gal”.
The next day at work dragged by for Rob, he was still down over his delinquent daughter, a fact that was not lost on his friend Vasily when he went for lunch at his café.
“Why so glum today Robert?” he asked when bringing out his order.
“Oh it’s nothing, just my pain in the ass daughter”
“She’s causing you mischief again?”
“When isn’t she?” he retorted
“Ah, she sounds spirited that one.”
“Spirited I could deal with! She seems determined to ruin her life and take us down with her.”
“She’s young, she’ll come around sooner or later, you mark my words.”
“You sound like my wife.” laughed Rob over his panini “I just wish she were more like her”
“You really wish she were like your wife instead of her own person?”
“Well it’d be a lot less stress for me that’s for certain!”
Vasily paused and stroked his chin as if he were contemplating something.
“What’s up?” asked Rob, sensing his friend’s change in demeanour
“Oh, nothing. I just thought of something that could help you with your problem, but it’s silly, forget I said anything.”
“Oh well you have to tell me now!”
“No, you will think I'm crazy for suggesting it.”
“Seriously man I am willing to try anything!”
Vasily thought about it some more before finally taking a seat at Rob’s table.
“Well, my uncle has a friend, he’s a little weird, they emigrated here together about 40 years ago”
“Okay?” asked Rob
“My uncle says he has certain talents, you know? Things always work out fine for Alexei! Is what he says.”
“I’m not sure I follow”
“Aye, he has ways of making things happen if you catch my drift?”
Rob just stared at Vasily blankly.
“He could help your daughter see things a little differently perhaps?”
“Seriously?”
“It’s not something I would share if I did not think it were for real my friend”
“Why do you think it’s real?” asked Rob
“Well I’ve not known Alexei to do a day's work in all the time I’ve known of him so he must know something, right?”
“I guess?” replied Rob sceptically
“Listen, Alexei visits this pub daily” said Vasily as he scribbled down an address on his order pad, “he sits at a table outside with his dog, you can’t miss him, big fat man with a strange beard”
“A strange beard?”
“You’ll understand when you see it” laughed Vasily, “what do you have to lose anyway?”
“I suppose you’re right” sighed Robert
“You’ll see, Vasily is always right!” he laughed as he went on about his business.