” He continued: “She glanced over at me, smiled to herself and opened her pencil case. She took out a new wooden pencil, just like this one and...twirled it around with the fingers of her left hand. Dorothy held onto the unsharpened tip like this, then slid her hand down and rested it on her leg, just as I’m doing to you. She spun it around between her legs, and then guided the eraser end up under her skirt, just like this. I watched intently as her fingers poked and prodded the pencil about.. " O.K.," Nate said. "And?" And boy, did she want to talk. As soon as we sat down, the flood gates opened. I swear, I heard her life story. She talked all about Vince, she talked about college, she talked about her childhood, she talked about wanting a career in athletics after she graduates." All right. I'm tracking so far, Jan." And of course, when we talked about Vince, we talked about Lizzie. Apparently Gabby and Lizzie have become friends since they both broke up with Vince." Jan, I don't. “Could we talk again, mom. Tonight, just the two of us,” I said to her one evening, wanting to clear the air between us. “I’ve been having hard time.”“Oh, I’m sorry, honey,” she said with a soft voice. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to, as depressed as you have seemed. I should have understood...”“It’s all right, mom...”“Yes, tonight,” she said, before one of the younger kids dropped something in the kitchen and that caught her attention.“Oh dear, what did mommy’s little rascal get up to now,”. . it was..." Seriously ... do we have to talk about it more, Mom? It's really O.K. I won't do it anymore and you won't either. O.K.?"Jennifer pondered his response. It didn't seem to her that her son was upset by what had happened. She thought that maybe kids are more resilient than she realized. And perhaps, while her behavior was drastic, it really did nip Ryan's behavior in the bud and shock him out of his weird acting out."O.K., Honey. I understand that it would make you feel uncomfortable.