Arnold roared back, and just as the two of them were about to erupt into a full-blown argument, I snatched the phone away and hung up.
I rubbed Arnold's back, trying to calm him down, while sending Jacob a text telling him to think long and hard about whether what he'd done was right.
The message went through. Jacob never replied.
My son had always been a well-behaved kid growing up. Arnold and I loved saving money, sure, but we'd never shortchanged him. Not once. I just couldn't figure out what had happened to him in the six months since he'd left for college—how he could say things like that to the people who raised him.
Once Arnold had settled down, we pulled ourselves together, grabbed our suitcases, and headed for the airport.
I got carsick easily, so I couldn't look at my phone during the ride. But the thing wouldn't stop buzzing. A bad feeling crept over me. When I finally pulled it out, my stomach dropped. Jacob had messaged every aunt, uncle, and distant relative we had, telling them Arnold and I were mistreating him—that we couldn't even cover his basic living expenses, and yet we had the nerve to blow money on some extravagant vacation.
The messages kept pouring in. Some relatives were clearly just there for the drama. Others were scolding me for being a bad mother. My vision went dark as I watched notification after notification pile up. I dialed Jacob's number.
On the other end, Jacob sounded downright smug.
"Scared now, Mom? You and Dad are only forty. You have no business retiring and blowing money on vacations. If you ask me, you're both perfectly healthy—you should be working until you're seventy. Save up another ten million for me at least. I'm going to need money when I get married and have kids someday. I'm your only son. You owe me that."
I let out a cold laugh. Did he really think he could manipulate me? His own mother?
"Jacob, starting today, your allowance drops to fifteen hundred a month. When you figure out what you did wrong, I'll consider raising it back."
As for whatever Jacob had told the relatives, I couldn't have cared less.
What I cared about was how my once-obedient son had turned into this overnight.
I was about to hang up when Jacob blurted out, "Four thousand isn't even enough! And I have a girlfriend now—how can you cut my allowance? You promised me! You said if I got a girlfriend in college, you'd double it!"
"Double it?" Arnold grabbed the phone from my hand. "Fifteen hundred. That's it. Not a penny more. Your mother and I worked ourselves to the bone raising you, and look at how you've been talking to us. Look at what you've been doing. You sit down and think about where you went wrong. Once you realize your mistakes, then we'll talk about your allowance."
He hung up and powered off my phone for good measure.
"We're about to board. We spent half our lives grinding away. It's time we enjoyed ourselves."
When we arrived at our destination, Arnold dragged me straight to the sights. He loved taking photos—snapped dozens of me and posted every last one to social media.
Jacob's call came almost instantly. His voice was sharp with accusation.
"Have you two lost your minds? You actually spent twenty thousand of my dollars on a vacation? Send me the rest of that money right now! Do you seriously want me to starve to death at school?"
"You're both going to get old someday, you know. If you treat me better now, maybe I'll treat you better later..."
He didn't get to finish. Arnold hung up. After a long silence, he took my hand and sighed.
"Honey, what do you say we have another kid?"
That night, Arnold and I had a very long, very serious talk.
