them kids

I work with someone who bought my beloved Geo Metro two years ago for her 'stepson'. At the time he had turned 17 and just then procured his driver's license. Oh, the stepson bit. He wasn't the step back then, he is now, but at the time he was living with her while his father finished his overseas duty. At some point he got a new truck and the Metro went the way of the wooly mammoth, of the way of someone in Fallon who needed a very economical means of transportation. Moving on. Young man (dubbed Cabin Boy by your's truly) finished high school in the Spring and is waiting to start his military career in a few months. Over the summer he moved to his own apartment (bought my couch and entertainment center) and was set to revel in new found freedom. Fast forward to this week and a little update. He's been in and out of the house since summer, gone through some girlfriends, and decides on a weekly basis to just not get up and go to work. Apparently, it's too much work. I think he's worked every hourly job the town has to offer. His only responsibility is to pay his $225 truck payment to my co-worker (the loan is in her name)...that's it, nothing else. Well, she pays the payments every month and has grown weary of chasing him down for the money. Last weekend the ultimatum was issued: come to the house on Friday (tomorrow), by 5pm, with six months of payments (to cover him through basic training) or the truck keys. Pretty simple. As I do...I started the idea of having a BBQ at her house, starting about 4pm, and running book on the following: would he show? would he be early or late? would he bring the girlfriend? would he give her the money or the keys? check or cash? repentant or not? Lots of action all ways. So what happens? It's not Friday. Why am I typing? Well, Cabin Boy decides the way to make his feelings felt is to take his 10-month old truck out to the desert and beat the holy hell out of it. Destroyed. Unrecoverable. Just enough juice to get it to her driveway in the dark hours....where he leaves the remnants and the keys. Adjustors say it's a total loss...over $10,000 in damage. I'm gobsmacked. At the same time, I'm not surprised. Those feelings are strange bedfellows.