"Honey, what are you still doing in your room, don't you want to go outside and play with your friends?" Catherine said while she stood in the door opening of Lindsey's room.

Lindsey looked at her mother with a little despair in her eyes.

"I would, but I can't Mom."

Catherine looked surprised at her daughter who looked pretty serious for a 14 year old. "Why not?"

"They gave me an assignment at school. Write a story around a word which starts with the letter `M". It has to be done by Friday!"

"Why M?"

"An idea from our teacher. She used the alphabet to give everybody a letter and I was so lucky to get the M."

"Well Honey, there are lots of words starting with an M?"

Lindsey sighed deeply.

"Mom, if it was just about writing down words with an M, I would have been playing outside for hours by now. I would have copied the dictionary...It's not just finding a word or words, it has to be a story around that M-word!"

"I know that, but first you have to find some M-words you like and then you can think of a story. You must have been thinking of some words already?" Catherine replied to her daughter.

"Well duh! I've been sitting here for hours and a dozen words are running through my mind, but I can't think of a story."

"And it can be anything right. Names, places ..anything, except it has to start with an M?"

"Yes, and it doesn't really matter how long it is and my story is not going to be long, I'm afraid." Lindsey answered

"Write about your brother Max, " Catherine suggested.

"About Max? Now, that is interesting stuff," Lindsey replied. "I have a brother who's name is Max. He is almost a year old. He sleeps, eats, cries and babbles and I can't wait till he grows up! End of story." Lindsey looked up at her mother. "Mom, it doesn't have to be long but this would be a bit too short."

"Well forgive me, Honey. I wasn't good at this stuff either, when I was in school at your age. I'm just trying to give you some ideas, okay? Maybe it's better if you do this by yourself." Catherine said to her and went to leave the room but Lindsey stopped her.

"Mom, please stay....maybe we can go over some words I'd come up with."

Catherine smiled at Lindsey, glad some how that she wasn't dismissed by her daughter.

"Okay," Catherine replied and took another chair to sit beside Lindsey's desk.

"Tell me, what did you come up with so far..."

"Well.. a lot of words come to my mind but these are the ones who keeps coming back to me". Lindsey took her note book and started to read: Monday, Movies, Moon, Money..."

"Music," Catherine brutally interrupted her daughter. "Why don't you write something about music? You love music Linds. That white rapper you told us about a couple of weeks ago, his name started with and M. Let's write his name down to." Catherine said and took the note book from Lindsey.

Lindsey bursted out in laughter when she saw her mother getting all excited and she rolled of her chair when she saw how her mother wrote down the rapper's name

"What so funny?" Catherine wanted to know looking at her daughter who was laughing her socks off.

It took some time for Lindsey to breath again and answer her mother.

"Oooh, you can be so funny. It's not M&M, but Eminem. hahaha." Suddenly Lindsey became dead serious. "Mom, don't say or do these things in front of my friends, I would so not have a life anymore."

"Shees, thanks Linds!"

"Don't be hurt. All my friends are saying I have cool parents. I want to let them keep believing that." Lindsey said with a grin.

"They think Gil is cool too?" Catherine wondered out loud to her daughter and looked very surprised.

"Yes, they do. Don't ask me why Mom, but somehow they do. Probably the bugs...Anyway, Mom, you can scrap..uhum M&M, because I don't think you want me to listen to his songs. But the word music is a good idea Mom, I think about that one."

Catherine still was thinking about Gil and him being so cool. She really didn't believe he was a cool guy. "Oh God, I just don't hope he realizes it..he can be such a macho sometimes...hee "macho", another M-word," Catherine thought to herself.

"Are you still with me on this?" Lindsey asked when she saw her mother's dreamy eyes.

"Uhum, yes....so, back to your list. Monday....what do you want to say about Monday, Honey?"

"That it sucks!" Lindsey answered.

"And......?" Her mother asked

"And nothing..Monday sucks. I didn't get any further!" she answered. "How about you, what do you think about Monday, Mom?" Lindsey asked Catherine.

"Monday huh? Well I don't associate Monday as the first day of the week or that it sucks. I don't have that `Manic-Monday' or `Blue-Monday' feeling because of the different working schedule I have. So, to me Monday is okay in my book. But, if I have to give an association with Monday, it would be the song from the Mama's & the Papa's..........."

"The Mama's and the who????"

Catherine smiled at her daughter. "The Mama's and the Papa's! Way way back, different time, different place....But if you want, I can play that record sometimes."

"Record?? You mean cd?"

"No, I meant record, an LP" Catherine replied and looked at her daughter who's face looked shocked, like she just realised how old her mother really was. "Oh, don't worry Hon, I won't say this in front of your friends. We don't want them to think your parents aren't cool anymore." Catherine chuckled.

"We aren't cool anymore???" Gil said when he popped his head into Lindsey's bedroom to check on them. He gave them a quasi disappointed look.

Catherine smiled at him. "No no, Gil. Relax, they like us, they think we're cool parents."

"They?" Gil asked Catherine.

"Lindsey's friends".

"Really???...wow...Well, that's s all I ever wanted, Cath. My life is finally a success. The kids think I'm cool. Me!." Gil chuckled.

"I knoooow! Isn't it fantastic, Gil?" Catherine said quasi excited.

"Oh, would you two stop it! Shees, that's the last time I tell you anything Mom." Lindsey said.

"I ..sorry Hon, it's just...well ..never mind." Catherine responded when she kept looking at Gil.

"I want this done by tomorrow, so can we please go on?" Lindsey said with a pleading voice.

"Go on, doing what?" Gil asked and smiled at the scene in front of them. Mother and daughter sitting side by side.

"I'm trying to write a story around a word which has to start with an M." Lindsey replied.

"And have you found a word yet?"

"Nah, not yet. We're going through some words right now. Mom is helping me."

"Okay, well I'm going to check on Max then." Gil said and walked out of the room.

The girls were about to continue when Gil popped his head in again..

"Mayfly or Maybug, Linds." Gil said.

"What?" Lindsey asked surprised.

"...bugs...bugs, which names are starting with an M.' Gil replied and was gone already.

Mother and daughter looked at each other and almost simultaneous rolled with their eyes.

"I'm not going to do a story about bugs.. yikes.." Lindsey said.

"Oh forget about your father and his bugs," Catherine said.

"Heard that!!!!" Gil shouted from the hallway.

Both Catherine and Lindsey broke down in laughter. Catherine was the first one to speak again.

"Honey, what other words do you have left, let me see....movies, money.." Catherine read out loud. "Not really spectacular words."

"I know. And I don't want to write a paper. I want it to be personal, something I care about or about things I love to do. Then it would be so much easier."

"Then write a story about yourself," Catherine said.

Lindsey didn't respond immediately and kept quiet for a while. "But how does the M-word fits in?" She finally asked Catherine.

"Well, easy, the story will be around........" Catherine asked and waited for Lindsey's reply.

"Me.....me, myself......" Lindsey almost shouted out .

"There you go, all starts with an M!" Catherine said with a victorious grin on her face.

"Oh Mom..." she grabbed her mother and kissed her. "Thanks so much, I think I can do this," Lindsey said all excited.

"Oh yes you can, Honey. No doubt. I'm going to bring you some ice-tea and then I leave you to it, okay?" Catherine said when she lovingly touched her daughters cheek

"Okay...thanks again, Mom!" Lindsey said.

"Hey, that's why you have these cool parents for!" Catherine replied and left the room.

"Mom? Did you know, there are kids in my class who voluntarily took two letters?"

Lindsey shook her head in disbelief when she spoke that last line and Catherine left her room with a big smile on her face.

Me, myself and my Mother
by Lindsey Grissom

This story was suppose to go about "me." About the things I do, about the things I love, care and get excited about. And all I can think of is my Mother. So, I decided to change the subject and say what I want to say about her.

My mother is there for me, always, no matter what. She's there for me when I'm hurt, tired or angry. When I'm happy and sad. I don't have to ask, she just knows it. I wonder about that sometimes. How can my Mom know how I feel, when I don't tell her? Sometimes it's scary. Like my mother can read my mind.

I'm raised by my mother. Even when my mother had to work during the nights. She was the one who took me to bed and woke me up. I feel safe and secure with my mother. She always protected me when things got bad in our lives. No one can harm me when my mother is around.

My mother helps me with school stuff, even if she's tired. My mother is a CSI, one of the best in town and she married another one. My mother found her true love and she's happy, so happy. My mother has the brightest smile of Nevada and she can melt icecaps with that smile. That's what my father says. He also says, I take after my mother. When he says that, I'm happy and so proud. Yes, I want to be like my mother. I love my mother, she's the best.

I know this is kind of short, but I don't care. This is how I feel and wanted to write down about my Mother.

Lindsey Willows

~The End.