Rick, of course, was more mature for his age than Linda wanted to admit, and his handsome, almost rugged, features made him even appear older than sixteen. He had no difficulty passing for eighteen, and there were times he had even succeeded in passing for twenty-one. His good looks had aided him in gaining experience beyond his years, but for his mother, he still feigned more innocence than he possessed.

Linda had food out of the refrigerator and ready to cook by the time Rick joined her in the kitchen, and she was so engrossed in getting dinner ready that she had forgotten that he wanted to talk about something important. "How was school today, dear?" she asked.

"Fine, Mom, fine…" he answered sitting down at the kitchen table, a serious look on his face. "What I wanted to talk about… Well, with this three day weekend: it's a great chance for us to do something different…" He stopped, realizing his mother was hardly listening as she arranged pots on the stove. "Mom, could you hold up a minute? This is important to me!"

She remembered and blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, dear. I'm so hungry, I was wrapped up in the food here." She pushed a pot off the burner, and then smiling at her son, sat down beside him at the table. "Now, what is it again?"

In his most serious voice, Rick started again. "I was thinking, what with this three day weekend, that we should take the opportunity to get away…" He hesitated, "To a place like Big Sur…" Then his words rushing out, "There's a camp where cabins are very reasonable this time of year, and the change of scenery would be nice for a change. It's really beautiful there you know, and the weather forecast says warm and sunny all weekend… It would be great, Mom, really great!"