Mason had just finished climbing up his ladder built into the end of the kitchen counter when his mom came in the room, putting her earrings on as she zoned out while going through her mental checklist of errands she had to run today after work. “Hey Mom,” he called up at her, causing her to jump in surprise as he yanked her from her train of thought.

     “Oh!” She breathed a sigh of relief; her tiny son startled her a lot, which obviously wasn’t his fault, but she’d still never grown used to the momentary frights. “Hey Mason, whatcha doin up here bud?”

     “I wanted to ask you something and I knew you were probably gonna come in here before you left for work,” he answered, and she smiled down at him and his adorable thinking-ahead mentality as she set up her espresso machine.

     “Mkay, what’d you wanna ask me?”

     He’d been thinking about asking her for months now, and it was a request that he had asked a dozen times before—each time garnering the response of an emphatic ‘No.’ But he was hoping that now, on his 19th birthday, she might finally relent and change her mind. “I was wondering if now that I’ve turned 19, I’d be able to go outside on my own today? Just for today.” He’d practiced the request dozens of times over the past few weeks, knowing that she’d almost definitely say no, but wondering if there was some reality where she might agree with him, and what the exact phrasing his words would need to be to get him there. But that wasn’t their current reality.

     “I think you already know the answer I’m gonna give to that honey,” she replied with a grimace. She wished she could say yes, but Mason’s life was infinitely more fragile than anyone else’s in the house, and she couldn’t bear to imagine the kind of pain that other parents felt after losing their children—which would be made even worse if she was the one responsible too. “The very fact that you even have to ask me should be evidence enough.”

     “I’m just trying to be polite by asking you; technically, I’m an adult and should be allowed to leave if I want.”

     Nicole sighed and turned to face her son as her coffee started brewing, a hand on her hip. “Fine. You’re right, you’re an adult. So if you really want, then you can leave.”

     He was stunned, wondering if it was somehow a trick. “Really?” She didn’t smile, but nodded anyways, staring down at him to see what he’d do. He smiled and laughed, unable to believe she’d finally said yes, but still suspicious of how she was acting. He turned to head back down the ladder, but then realized that he had no idea how he’d even get himself outside in the first place. Unlike some households, theirs didn’t have any mini doors built into the main ones. He was too big to fit under the cracks, but obviously far too small to reach any door handles and turn them.

     He turned back around, and opened his mouth to ask her for her help, but she’d already thought it through more than he had and knew what he was going to ask. “Nope, you’re not allowed to get any help from me.” His heart sunk, but he wondered if he could technically get his sisters to let him outside instead. “And you’re not allowed to get Mikayla or Skye to help you either. If you wanna head out into the world on your own, you have to do the work on your own.”

     He looked up at her with pleading eyes. “I don’t need you guys to babysit me like you normally do, I’m just asking for you to open the door for me or something. Cuz otherwise I can’t.”

     She nodded, “Exactly. You can’t. What happens if you need to come back inside?”

     “I’ll just wait by the front door til you guys come back home.”

     She shook her head, “No, you won’t. Not if there’s an emergency. I could leave every door in the house unlocked, and you still wouldn’t be able to come back inside if something or someone was after you. Or if you got hurt. Or scared, or tired, or whatever other reasoning you have.”

     “But that’s my risk to make!” he insisted. “I know you care about me, but every parent cares for their kid and every kid does stuff in life that’s risky sometimes or might even be dangerous. But it’s their life to live.”

     Nicole was beginning to get frustrated now that her son still didn’t get it. “But those other parents can’t stop their kids from living their life.” She reached out with her hand and pointed out her finger, pushing it gently but firmly against his torso, toppling him over. But before he could get up, she lowered her finger down and held it on top of him. A mixture of confused and angry, he tried pushing her finger off of him or rolling out from beneath it, but it held firm, pinning him to the counter without even using a tenth of her finger’s strength. “If you can’t even get out from under my finger, Mason, then how should I have any confidence whatsoever that you’ll be fine without me or one of your sisters watching over you?”

     “But that’s not fair!” he protested, squirming to try and gain his freedom from his mother’s pathetically simple trap for him.

     “No, it’s not. But life’s not fair, and me not wanting to escort you out to a world that could kill you a million different ways is a lot more fair than life.” She took her finger off him finally as her coffee finished, and he scrambled to get up, blushing from the sheer humiliation. She squatted down so her face was level with his, and leaned in close, sympathy washing over her as she saw Mason tear up from anger and frustration. “Look,” she said, taking a deep breath, “despite how effortless it is for me to keep you pinned down, I can’t really stop you from living your life how you want to. In my opinion, the rest of the world will be able to do that on its own. But I don’t keep you locked up in your room or your toy house all day, you’re free to go wherever in the house you want, whenever you want, however you want. So if you really, really, really wanted to, and you found a way to go outside on your own… I wouldn’t be able to stop you.” She stood back up, grabbing her coffee pitcher and pouring it into her travel mug. “But I’m certainly not gonna help you.”

     He nodded in understanding, sitting down right where he was on the counter, not even feeling the spirit to head back down the ladder. “I’ll see you later tonight,” she said, turning to leave for work. “Love you.” The feeling was mutual, but for now, he didn’t feel like saying it back.