Running in to my mother's double

Some kids are angry at their parents from the start. Not that this picture is a good example, just part of what forms the psyche.

Monday Night, 7:40 PM

Sitting in Empire Tea & Coffee, Newport RI

Young guy, 9th or 10th grade, comes in with his mom and her mom. They order at the counter as I watch the backs of their heads from my table.

She orders an English Breakfast tea, he gets hot chocolate. Grandmother is along for the ride.

The table in front of my seat is set up to accommodate the creamer urns, sugar and swizzle sticks. Mom comes over for a little of each, spilling the creamer all over. She starts laughing in the way people do who don't give a rip about what others think with them and who can revel in their own amusement.

Her son, however, didn't seem so carefree. "Mom, please," he said, embarrassed. I smiled at the sentiment I remember sharing at one point (or more) in my life. She looked at me and smiled. "That's my son," she said. He stepped behind her so I couldn't see him.

"Mom's pretty nuts huh?" I asked his outline.

She looked amused, he looked mortified, from what I could tell.

"My mom's the same way, she'll talk to anyone," I said to her. "Don't you hate that, when she talks to strangers? Pretty annoying huh?"

No response from the outline.

"It's okay, few years from now college girls will like that you love your mother," I said.

He was outed from behind her back, because she turned to face him.

"See," she said. "Now I'm going to embarrass you even more. You're my son, you have to take it."

He smiled.

He'll be fine.