I couldnt believe the shame; being walked up our driveway in cuffs - by Miranda! Mom was going to flip!

She had obviously seen us from the window

Just as we approached the door it went up "- STEVE! What on earth is going on here?!!" she said in a very stern voice, but then the voice suddenly changed into a very motherly, friendly tone.

"-Oh, hi Miranda! What a pleasant surprise! Havent seen you in years now. Are you a policewoman now, or is that a costume?"

Mom was smiling like the sun. She had always been very fond of Mira when we was classmates in elementary school, and even when we where dating, in junior high, she always invited Mira in for lemonade or cookies and such when she came for me.

"- Hi mrs O`Malley!" Mira replied, in an equally friendly, smiling tone,

"-Yes, i was sworn in just two weeks ago, so I`m a fully fledged police officer now. And thats actually why i am here, sad to say. I found young Steve here out and about after curfew"

We where all three of us standing right by the open door now, and of course I naturally wanted to step inside, but when my foot was moving over the doorstep i felt a mild jank in my arms as Mira, who was still holding me by the cuffs on my back, pulled me firmly back to the side of her.

"- You DO know of course, mrs O`Malley, that since Steve was born in november the Whooshy-Hill Act applies to him, and he has to obey to the 10 o clock curfew until his 21?"

"-Yes I DO know this" mother replied, "- But HE doesnt seem to understand to well!" she said while sending me a stern look.

"-Actually the law says that I should take him downtown to the station and then call you and have you come pick him up there, but I thought since it was Steve, and you mrs O`Mally, that I could make and exception this one time, for you. Provided of course that this doesnt happen again...?"

"-Well, of course it wont! Or will it Steve?"

"-No mom."

"-Dont tell me, tell Mira, who was nice enough to drive you home instead of taking you to the policestation!"

"-No mira." I said in a barely hearable voice. The emense humiliation of the whole situation had given me a big lump in my throat making it difficult to even speak properly.

"-You will answer Mira in a proper manner young man!"

Mom was clearly getting upsett over what she saw as my bad manners now.

"-No Mira. I promisse that I won`t be out again after curfew."

While I was facing Mira I just couldnt make myself look into here eyes, and instead found myself staring down at here shoetips, just like the little kid I felt like inside at the moment.

"-Well, I guess we dont need these anymore then."

Mira said, while she got out the cuffkey and opened the cuffs from my wrists.

"-Have you thanked Mira properly for taking care of you and helping you get home Steve?" Mom suddenly asked.

"-Oh no mrs O`Malley, thats really not necessary" Mira said.

"-Nonsence!" My mother quickly replied to Mira, and continued turned to me in a voice that did NOT sound like one you would argue with.

"-It is absolutely necesarry for this young man to learn some proper manners!"

Once again I found myself staring straight down at Mira`s shoes, while battling with the big lump in the back of my throat;

"-Thank you for taking care of me and helping me home Mira!"

"-Finally managing to show some propper manners, Steve?" Mom said to me. "I swear, som times I just dont know how to deal with him anymore!" she continued to Mira.

"-Oh well, boys will be boys!" Mira replied, "- But if things get really out of hands you DO know that spanking a minor is still legal in this state, right...?"

I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EARS!! Was this really Mira, that sweet cosy girl that i had played with a lot growing up, and that had been my classmate all through elementary school and junior high, that I had been studdypals with, and had worked together with for days on different school-projects, that i had shared crayons with as a kid, and later shared kisses with as a fledgling teenager.

Now standing here, in police uniform, telling my mom she should spank me, ...for not comming home for a curfew much more suited for a 13-year old kid than a 19-year old man.

Fortunately my mom didnt belive very much in corporal punishment! The last time she had smacked my bottom i must have been around 6 or 7 years old.

"-Oh no, I hope it doesnt need to go that far!" my mom answered.

"-Do you want to come in for a cup of tea for your kindness?"

"-No thank you mrs O`Malley! I really can`t, however..."

Mira hesitated a bit and looked over at me, she almost looked a bit shy for a moment...

"-Yes?" Mom quikly inquired.

"-Well, you see, mrs O`Malley" Mira started

"-Since I`ve already broken protokol by bringing Steve home instead of taking him to the station, its kind of important that I do the rest within protokol..."

Again Mira hesitated for a moment, and again my mom said her "-Yees...?"

"-Not everybody knows this about the Whooshy-Hill Act, but in the pre-text to the law, the text that explains the reasoning behind the law, it says that "At such time minors should not be out roaming the streets anyway - they should be at home with their parents, and already in theire jammies!" Sooo..."

Mira looked at me with that quirky, crooked little smile that I remembered so well from before. From back when we where just to kids playing together on the playground, and later, when we where dating eachother, as two 14-year olds in socalled "puppylove".

Back when we where to equals, not a fresh 20-year old policewoman with a job to do, and a 19-year old "toddler", who still had to be looked after like a kid because of a stupid law that had set a huge agegap between me an anyone even just a month older than me!

"-...I kinda have to see Steve get into his pajamas before I leave. Both to honor the law, and so that I can tell my sergeant that I made sure he wouldnt leave the house again tonight."

I almost broke out laughing! Pajamas!? I Hadnt woren pajamas since long before Mira and I lost contact years ago! Not that I didnt have any. Thanks to a rather odd old aunt of mine who sent me a new set every damned christmas I had a whole drawer full of them. Everyone on in bright colors and with little figures printed on them, so I looked lik a five year old if I put them on.

"-But of course dear! We wouldnt want to get you into any kind of problems over this, especially since you`ve already been so nice to us."

My heart sank like a stone! Did mom really intend to show me off in that kind of attire?! In front of Mira?! Her next word shot at me like from a gun!

"-You heard her, Steve! Go and get into your pajamas!"

"-B...b...but I dont even use..."

"GO AND PUT YOUR JAMMIES ON! NOW!!"

That voice made it clear that mom was properly crossed with me now, and that answering back would be a VERY bad idea! Maybe she would even take Mira up on that hint about spanking.

As I veeery slowly walked up the stairs towards my room to put on my childlike jammies to show Mira that I wouldnt brake the curfew again tonight, I could not remember any single time in my 19 year long life I had felt more humiliated and degraded than right this moment.

Not even back in 4 grade, when accident would have it that it got out at school that I had to wear diapers at night.

Even back then I had at least a few friends that did not join in the bullying and ridiculing and namecalling that had persisted for quite a few months. One of those friends was Mira.

As I got to my room I quickly undressed and just grabbed the first pajama in the drawer. I knew better than to keep mom waiting for any longer than necessarry in the mood she was in now. The pajamas was a set in bright blue with prints of little puppies on. Trust me, that wasnt even the worst pair of jammies in that drawer.

DAMN aunt Zelma and that ridiculous taste of hers!

DAMN that bunch of hysterical women in the "Teens Mothers Interests Group" for pressuring through the Whooshy-Hill Act!

DAMN those idiots at the state capitol for making that stupid law, just because a bunch of teenagers that I didnt know had taken a party on Whooshy Hill, where I had never been, a bit out of hand!

AND GOD DAMN THOSE MORONS FOR SETTING AN ARBITRARY DATE FOR WHEN THE LAW WOULD START APPLYING TO TWO WEEKS BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Had I just been born two weeks earlier I would have been 18 before the law got in effect! Two weeks older and I would now have been an adult, out partying with my friends and classmates!

As the youngest boy in my class I was the only one the Act applied to.

All my classmates, my PREVIOUSLY equals and peers was now considered adults. And they had been already for more than a year. Mature people who could go out partying, drink beer, drive cars, take jobs (yes, also as policeofficers!), basically do whatever they wanted.

Me, I was legally still considered a minor. Just a little kid who had to be looked after an governed by strict rules and regulations, and I would still remain so for another two more years.

Not allowed to be outside after 10 pm (Unless accompanied by my parents).

Not allowed to drive a car. (In fact, the law stated that "minors should not be up front causing problems", so i had to be driven anywhere strapped down in the back seat like a toddler being taken to the kindergarden!)

Not allowed to have a job and make my own money (do you have any idea how degrading it is for a 19 or 20 year old to have to ask mommy for an allowance?!).

Forced by law to attend the school of my parents choise (This ment, of course, that the state would pay for all education up to the year you passed 21. Probably the only good thing about the whole stupid law!)

But right now nothing of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that I now had to go downstairs, in my boyish jammies, and show Mira just how much of a little kid I still was!

Mira, that sweet girl who had lived just three houses down the street for most of our lives. Until a few years ago, just before that stupid Whooshy-Hill episode.

Mira, my former playground mate. (Mom still have a picture off me and Mira, 5 or 6 years old, sitting in the sandbox down at the neighbourhood playground. Both dressed in colorful bib-rainpants, and both with a toy car in our hands).

Mira, my first propper kiss. 13 years old, behind the delivery ramp on the backside of the grocerystore down on the corner of washington street.

But now. Mira, the grown up, and the policewoman. Mira, the figure of authority, who had to put juvenile little Steve in his place, and tell me when it was time to get home to mommy and put on my jammies!

Mira had come inside and shut the front door now. She and mom was standing in the hallway chattering about their typical girlstuff, just like they had done so many times before.

They both went silent and smiled at me as they watched me walk just as slowly down the stairs as I had walked up them.

"-Now that is MUCH more like it! Isnt it, Mira?"

"-Yes mrs O`Malley! Thats how all kids SHOULD look like at 10.30 in the evening!"

My face felt like it was on fire from all the blood rushing to it!

As I was standing there, between the two womans that was now clearly my superior adults in every way - my mother and my ex-girlfriend, I couldnt get myself to look anywhere else but down my baby-blue, absurdly childish pajamas, and to the floorboard right in front of my feet.

I just wanted to rip that floorboard up and jump into the dark abyss I hoped would be underneath it.

And then things got really bad:

"-Me and Mira have had a little chat while you where upstairs, Steve." My mom started out.

"-That thing she said about spanking you is of course not happening, but you WILL need to learn a little respect for the rules young man, not to mention for your superiors, so we have decided that you shall be grounded for the next month!"

-ARE YOU CRAZY??!! -Grounded? -At 19? -NO FUCKING WAY!!! -Mira decided that I should be grounded? -She is my superior? -Are you stupid or something? -She`s barely half a year older than me for crying out loud! -Listen to yourself! -Cant you here what you are saying? -This is just fucking laughable!!

I just wanted to yell out! To tell my mom exactly how stupid an unfair this whole stituation was! To just push Mira out of my way and walk out that door and go hang out with my classmates, my peers!

But I didnt. I couldnt. Both because I knew that cause of action would come back with some dire consequenses, but most of all because, well, it was mom, and Mira. Cute, sweet little Mira.

All i could do was to stutter out a barely hearable

"- Uh..O..Ok."

"-I hope you realize that it will be a lot of work for me", mom continued.

"-For the next month I will have to drive you to school every morning, and pick you up every afternoon. All the time you are not at school your clothes will be locked away, and you will be at home in your jammies! Maybe THAT will stop you wondering off outside at all hours of the day!"

"-Yes, mother." I even bowed my head to mom as i said it.

With the downright absurd way this situation was going I really couldnt make myself do anything but play along with it, deep down thinking that this must all be a bad joke, or maybe a dream.

"-Off course your mom wont be alone about this." Mira said to me with her sweetly, yet somehow firmly and almost "motherly" voice. Like a teacher trying to explain som important lesson to a young child.

"- I will stop by from time to time, to do a followup and see that everything is working out with your disciplining!"

Disciplined by Mira. Now I had heard that too. But I still could not make myself argue with it. The whole thing was just TO absurd, so I said nothing.

"-But now I really MUST be going!" she said as she opened the front door.

"-Well, once again thank you so much for your effort Mira, and have a good night" mom said in her friendliest voice.

"-Say good night to Mira, Steve!"

"-Goodnight Mira!"

I even bowed my head for Mira as I said it.

"-Goodnight Steve!" She answered as she was halfway out the door.

"-And by the way, - cute pj`s!"

And then she was gone.