A shocking talk about his future

"Come in, Jamie." His Momma's voice echoed from within her study moments after the boy knocked hesitantly on the door. With a sigh, he reached for the handle and delicately opened it, careful not to make too much noise and have her accuse him of acting too ladylike. His large, green eyes flickered up, to find his Momma sitting at her office chair with her back to him, staring at her computer instead. Jamie hovered in the doorway for a moment, his hands working anxiously in front of his belly. "Come in, I said." She repeated sharply.

"Yes Momma." The boy darted forward, feeling like he was walking into a dragon's lair. Momma didn't call him into her study often. It was her private workspace, the one place in the house where she wrote her bestselling novels, and he still carried lasting nervousness even being here after the sharp scolding she'd given him as a child when he'd snuck inside looking for her one day after a scary nightmare woke him. He closed the door carefully behind him and stepped forward into the center of the room, standing there and awkwardly rubbing his arm as Momma still made no move to even look at him.

At last, she straightened from her desk, and turned the chair round with her, raising her head to stare across the room at her only son. Jamie took far more after his Father, so she was tall to his short, stocky and well-muscled to his slender, with fashionably short blonde hair and icy blue eyes. He knew she was very handsome. When he'd had a small sleepover on his birthday, she'd come by his room in the middle of it to snap at them to keep the noise down, and the rest of the night all his friends would talk about was how hard it had made them getting scolded by her and how hot she was, the stern, wealthy older woman who knew what she wanted and would just take it from them. Meanwhile he'd blushed furiously and stammered at them to stop. He doubted they'd be quite so eager if they knew just how strict she really was. None of their Mommas still spanked them, or only allowed them to wear such stuffy, boring clothes like his did.

"Jamie." She smiled gently, her eyes meeting his. It seemed like she was in a good mood for now, which made the boy sigh with relief. At least that meant his clothes had passed her strict standards this time, a loose shapeless collared shirt and long skirt down past his knees, both of which he knew weren't about to help his reputation as the walking fashion disaster of his school. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine Momma." Jamie replied, the lie slipping easily from his lips even though he really hadn't. It wasn't worth telling her the truth, when she'd just find a way to blame him for it.

"Have you eaten yet?" She asked, sounding concerned in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. Momma didn't show obvious affection for him often, so it was quite hard to know what to do with it when she did.

"No." He shook his head. "Dad told me to come straight down." Which was why he was hoping this conversation wouldn't take too long so he could at least grab some toast before he had to scurry off to catch the bus to school.

"That's alright, isn't it." She replied, with another thin smile. "You boys are always skipping meals, aren't you? Trying to look skinny for the girls?" There was a moment of silence as she just stared at him, and Jamie couldn't help but feel rather awkwardly that she was expecting him to laugh or agree or something. He never really...spoke to his Momma much. She usually just told him what to do and he did it, or else scolded him over something. Dad was the friendly, bubbly one, always chattering, while even at dinner together Momma offered little more than curt comments no matter how spoke to her. It often left Jamie wondering how they'd even ended up married at all. "There's something I've been wanting to speak to you about." She continued at last, leaning forward in her office chair. "Now that you're eighteen and leaving that silly school soon, it's past time we started thinking about your future, or rather I started thinking about it."

"My future?" Jamie gasped in shock.

"That's right." She nodded, a serious look on her face that made him instantly pay attention. "I've raised you eighteen years, taught you to be a good, respectable boy, and sent you to a school where you could learn the things a boy needs to know. That's all coming to an end now, but even once you've graduated it's still my responsibility as your Mother to keep you on the straight and narrow until I find you a wife to do it for me. A lot of parents don't realize that nowadays, they think their sons are all grown up now and they can let them go off into the city, find a job, even live alone or with others like them. Single boys, living alone." Her lips curled as she spoke those words with obvious distaste. Momma was very old-fashioned about this, like most things, so Jamie wasn't exactly surprised at what she was saying, even if he'd secretly nursed dreams of his own of living the single life in the city like those glamorous boys he saw on TV, shopping and partying and dancing with handsome women in nightclubs. "Then everyone acts surprised when the silly boy gets snapped up by some totally unsuitable woman, she gets pregnant out of wedlock and when she obviously dumps him like so much trash he ends up with the baby in his lap and has to come straight back home to his Mother in disgrace. I've seen it many times. Well, I'm not letting that happen to you, Jamie, understand that?" Her eyes flashed.

"Yes Momma!" He nodded frantically, even the hint of her anger sending cold chills through his body. Angry women were always scary as a boy, and she was even more so because he knew what she'd do to him if he did make her mad.

"Good." His Momma nodded, leaning back in her chair. "You've always been a good boy, Jamie, not like those loose sluts I see strutting about nowadays in their low-cut tops and tiny shorts, hopping from bed to bed and not even caring what it does to their families to see them behave that way." She sighed with disgust. "I can trust you to be a bit more responsible than most boys, so I'm going to give you a chance to think about things for yourself. It wasn't like that in my Grandmother's day, I can tell you. Boys back then did as they were told, and when their Mothers found a suitable wife for them they were married off without even meeting her themselves until the day." Something in the tone of her voice suggested she far preferred things that way.

"I don't understand Momma." Jamie fidgeted nervously. Why was she talking about weddings now? Of course he wanted to get married, what boy didn't, but...that had always felt like something far-off in his future, even as he heard of the odd boy his age who was rushed into it, usually because the girl had gotten pregnant and then his family had **** her into taking responsibility for it.

"I'm looking for a wife for you, son. I have been for the past month or so." She explained simply, like that wasn't the most shocking thing she'd said to him in his entire life. Jamie froze in place, his mouth dropping open. A wife....for him? "When you get home from school later today, I'm going to have a list of suitable women for you, all of them older, established ladies of good character who are ready to start families of their own. We can sit down together and go through them, choose the ones you want to meet for yourself, chaperoned of course and together we'll settle on the one who'd be best for you. The final decision's mine of course, but I'll take your preferences into account. Isn't that modern of me?" She chuckled like she'd made a joke, while her son felt like his world was collapsing around him. A wife...already? He'd only just turned eighteen, and now Momma wanted to marry him off straight away and send him off to some other woman's home? "Well, Jamie, aren't you happy?" She glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. "I thought it was every boy's dream to have a nice wedding, isn't it? You'll just get to have yours a little sooner than most of the other boys in your class. They'll all be so jealous, I'm sure."

"Yes Momma...thank you." Jamie breathed listlessly, too shocked to even argue. Not that it would have made a difference, when Momma made a decision like this, there was nothing in the world that could change her mind. This just felt...too much. It was his future...his entire life once he got married would depend on his wife if their marriage was anything like his parents'. From what he'd heard, Momma hadn't even asked before moving Dad and her across the country just before he was born, away from both their families, and Dad had been perfectly okay with it.

"Then we're both happy." His Momma gave a satisfied nod. "I'll see you after school then, son, with your Father as well, and together we can decide who you're going to meet first." She paused a moment, staring at him with those piercing blue eyes that made it so hard to even speak. "I know you're nervous about this, Jamie, but this is going to be the best thing that's happened to you, I promise." Her gentle smile returned, and there was something almost sympathetic in her stare as she looked at his face. "These women I've found for you, I chose very carefully, and they all know just how a boy your age needs to be treated. And you're such a treasure. Cute, good around the house, and very well-behaved now you've grown up some, just what every women wants in her husband. There was a lot of interest from some very eligible women when I started suggesting I was looking for a wife for you."

"Yes Momma." Jamie replied, a little shocked at that. The girls he'd shyly been interested in his own age, the handsome jocks and musicians who every boy in school wanted, none of them had ever shown the slightest interest in a stubby, unfashionable nerd like him. Now Momma was telling him all these older women really wanted to marry him somehow? It felt...a little nice to hear that, even as scary as this all was.

"Okay, run along to school now, darling." Momma nodded, waving her hand towards the door. "We'll talk more later, okay?" Then she turned her chair back round and leant over her computer., leaving Jamie still standing there in shock. After a moment's stunned silence, the boy spun and hurriedly darted for the door, still hardly knowing what to think about all this. Getting married...him? And it sounded like Momma wanted it to happen as soon as possible, so he didn't doubt it would just be a few months before he was already dressed in white walking down the aisle towards his new wife. What about Dad and his older sister...what did they think about all this?