My mother tells me over a cup of tea and digestive biscuits, that she played hooky once in her life.

"Oh yeah, Mom? what did you do?"

She launches into the story, saying first it wasn't her idea, but she went along with it.

"Hmmm," I interrupted, "sounds fishy already, Mom."

Then the story unfolded about the day my mother ditched classes at her all-girls Catholic high school in Brooklyn where Mother Superior intercepted a note passed in the hallway, naming the culprits. Mother Superior immediately put in a phone call to my mother's mother, a teacher at P.S. 201 in Dyker Heights.

According to my mother, she and three girlfriends went into the city to the Paramount to see a movie and a show. Frank Sinatra or Tommy Dorsey, she couldn't remember.

"Wait, what do you mean...you saw a movie and live show both in one place?" I asked for clarification.

She said yes, that's how it was done back then, a whole orchestra played too. "I have the ticket stub somewhere."

My mind blown, "so what happened?"

"Well, I walked in the door, rather giddy, was greeted by my mother who said,' Mother Superior called. Marian, I thought I raised you with more sense. I'm disappointed in your lack of judgment.'"

I had to ask,"did you ever do it again?"

My mother put down her empty tea cup, and had another McVitie's, "Heavens, no! At least not during school. We girls couldn't get enough of Sinatra. I have the ticket stubs somewhere."


BrevityQuest12 (260 words)