Alone in the Dark

                   The Snow White Syndrome

   The telephone rings. “Brrrring.”

   My voice is tired and cranky. I had just been vast asleep when the telephone rang. I closed my eyes and breathed. Now what could have been so dire important? I managed to slip out the words…

   “Hello?” I knew that I probably sounded worse then what was in fact reality.

   “”Mom. I’m sorry to wake you up, but something terrible just happened.” Those are the words that every parent dreads of hearing from their child. Especially when they urge their one and only child to go to college, locally. Instead she has to head off to the California Coast. I could only imagine what went on at California State.

   “I didn’t wake you, did I?” Gretchen’s voice was soaked with dread.

   It was pointless to even pursue that point. Yes, she had woken me up from a dream, and yes, she did call at an inconvenient time. But that was not the issue. The issue was that something “terrible” had happened at school. Here my twenty-two year old daughter is calling at 3:30a.m., so it had to have been important. I stretched up my upper body and leaned against the pillow, that I had placed up against the wall. I had put the receiver to my ear and asked:

   “What's happened dear? Start at the beginning.” I knew what ever it was I didn’t want to hear it. At this point there stood awkward silence. Not like the phone had gone dead, mind you, but more like there was something Gretchen didn’t want to tell me!

   “Mom?” Gretchen whispered.

   Again with the Mom thing. What had she done? What could she have done to make her think that by saying my name, over and over again, that it was going to reassure me. In fact, I was slowly beginning to wonder if I should have answered the phone at all. But she was my child, after all, and she deserved my full attention.

   “Are you sitting down?”

   Why is that always the next phrase out of someone’s mouth, to” try and sit you down.” My daughter and I were very close, and she knew me better than this. She was stalling for some reason, and I couldn’t quite figure out.

   “Just tell me what happened? You know that if I am upset, we can talk about it. But sitting here on the phone with awkward silences, and weird rhetorical questions only makes me even more agitated. Now come on take a big breath, and tell me what happened?” I had hoped I had sounded as reasoning as I had thought I had. Years of going through your child’s first scraped knee, or her first fight, her first kiss, and then after the infamous “Birds and the Bee’s talk”, everything seemed to be an uphill battle with her. She was smart, beautiful and charismatic as hell. Who would not want to be 5’7, 125 lbs, with a “B” cup and size 7 feet. She was everything this “Pop-induced headache” of a world wanted in young, hot white women. Did I mention blond and emerald eyes that you could get “lost in.” (That last part about the eyes comment, is actually from her boyfriend.