The Water Year

by Max Howard

  I know I did well. I stayed out of trouble. I kept a small circle of friends. I made my parents happy.

  Sometimes, my mom would get in a mood where she’d yell at me. Maybe my essay for school wasn’t quite finished. She was very serious about school. I’d sit there and listen to her lecture me, and then my dad, minutes later, would come to my door. “Don’t worry about it,” he’d say.

  He knew it was okay to take breaks sometimes. He’d invite me into the living room to play video games for a while. My mom would sigh, telling him it was waste of time. My dad would then very gently remind her, “He’s only a kid once, Jin.”

  The argument would end there. “Well. Maybe just for today,” she’d say. She knew I needed a break from schoolwork and a quiet life. And that’s how it went, for years.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Max Howard lives in Wisconsin and is the author of Fifteen and Change. Every day, Max tries to remember three things: a) the pen is mightier than the sword b) the first step toward building a better world is having a dream of how things could be different c) the second step is inviting other people to share in that dream.