John woke to his dog stepping on his face.  “Samson, get off!” he groaned.  John got up, and  Sampson jumped happily at his feet.  As he went downstairs, his father stopped him.
“So, I trust you found a job after all that hard work looking for one in your room,” his dad growled.
“No, Dad, couldn’t find a job,” said John blandly.
“You know, son, you’re 30 years old and still living with your parents.  Get a life!” his dad snarled.
John bumped into his dad as he walked past him.  He walked into the kitchen, grabbed his mom’s bagel and went outside.
After opening the garage door, he looked at his dad’s car and then at his dad’s keys that he held in his hand.  Pickpocketing his dad was so easy, and his dad rarely figured it out.  As John got into the car, he thought about his dad’s words, “Get a life.” 
His parents had never asked him to do anything before.  It was only recently that his dad had started bugging him about getting a job.  What was his problem, anyway?  He had a life.  And it included friends, fun, and usually food.  “I think it’s time for some more fun,” he muttered to himself.  Time to pick up Joey and the guys.
As he stopped at the red light, he noticed a woman with a small child sitting at the corner.  Her cardboard sign read, “Help.”  One of his friends leaned out the car window and yelled, “Get a life!” as they turned the corner.  Snickers filled the car, followed by a slightly uncomfortable silence.  As they cruised past a fast food place and smelled fresh French fries, Joey piped up and said, “Hey, let’s get something to eat.”
“Okay,” said John, “How much money we got?”
“I’ve got some money down the barrel of my pistol,” smirked a guy in the back seat.
“Sounds good.  Let’s go,” John said as he turned onto the main drag toward town.
As they walked into the store, he saw the smiley young clerk, who cheerfully called out, “Hi.  Let me know if I can help you with anything!”  He seemed genuinely interested in helping them.  Suddenly, John didn’t feel like ruining the guy’s day, so he said to his friends, “I’m gonna go wait in the car.” 
He jumped inside the car and locked the doors.  His pulse quickened, and thoughts about what his friends might do made his head swirl.  They were such jerks.  They should get a life, he thought.  For what seemed like an eternity, he heard only his heartbeat, pounding faster and faster in his ears. 
Then he heard the shot.  “Oh no!” he thought as he looked toward the windows of the store.  The windows were tinted, so he couldn’t see what was happening inside.  Then, his friends rushed out the door with donuts, soda, and big grins on their faces.  Their grins quickly washed away when they saw the three police cruisers in front of them.  Almost in unison, all eyes shifted to John, who still had his phone in his hand.
He felt worse than ever when he finally had his day in court.  As his eyes crossed the sparsely populated courtroom, he did not see his parents – small wonder – but he did see a woman who looked vaguely familiar.  When the judge asked the prosecutor for input, he introduced the woman.  Then John remembered that she was the one with the sign by the side of the road.  The store clerk had been her older son.  John felt sick.  Here she was trying to make ends meet for her two boys, and his friend goes and kills her older son.   John wished he had a different life.
At first, he couldn’t look at the woman, but as the proceedings continued, he risked a few glances her way.  Each time he saw such peace on her face, he thought he was looking at an angel.  He did not understand how she could be so peaceful.  Her son had died!
He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard what the judge had to say.  Since he had been the one to call the authorities, the judge let him off with only probation.  No problem. 
When the proceedings ended, he went up to the woman, who was slowly making her way to the back of the courtroom. 
“Ma’am,” he tapped her on the shoulder.  She turned around.  She didn’t shun him when she saw who it was.  She didn’t yell at him, either.  She stayed very calm.
“Yes?” she said.
“I’m very sorry about your son,” John said.
“I am, too,” she said with a sigh.
John walked away before she could say anything more.  He couldn’t stand to look her in the eyes.  It was a lonely walk home.
When he reached the house, he hesitated slightly before trying the door.  It wasn’t locked!  After stepping into the living room, he saw his mother on the couch.
“Where’s Dad?” he asked, sitting next to her.
“I don’t know,” she said, “When he heard about you, he just left.”
“Oh, okay,” said John.  An uneasy silence hung between them.  He looked at his mother, noticing for the first time how gray her hair had become.  The wrinkles around her eyes looked deeper.  And, the tear stains on her cheeks gave her face a haggard look.  John got up and headed toward his room.  Thoughts swirled through his head.  His dad’s voice saying, “Get a life!”  His friend’s laugh when he talked about his pistol.  The aura of hopelessness that enveloped his mom on the couch just now.  And the dead clerk’s mom – her peacefulness.
“I’m 30 years old and living with my parents.”  The thought no longer brought him selfish satisfaction.  He sat down in front of his computer, but instead of playing Meteor Blaster, he opened up the internet and typed “college” in the search box.  Throughout the night, he researched hundreds of schools.  It was starting to feel like the beginning of something.  Something real, something new, something that might actually work.  John was excited, and a little bit scared, about what the future could hold.
Over the course of the next seven years, John’s focus was on that something.  He made new friends, helped his mom out around the house, and tried to forget about his dad.  He earned his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering and found a steady job.  He bought a good, medium sized house and helped his mom move to a condo, where she seemed to find new hope.  His life was looking up.
Then, one night, as he sat on his own couch (after a hard day’s work), he thought about that woman, the dead clerk’s mother.  He had thought about her often over the years, though he really didn’t like thinking back on the way his life used to be.  Troubled by the images from his old life, he decided to focus on something else.  So, he turned on his high definition TV. 
The woman he saw on the screen startled him – could that be the same woman he was just thinking of?  The story, “An Upside Down Life,” was a news feature about a local woman who had overcome drug abuse, then homelessness, and even the death of her oldest son, only to later develop ovarian cancer.  She had recently lost her battle with the disease.  She left behind an 11 year old son – David -- but no other living kin.  The reporter shared photos of the woman as she fought the various battles she was faced with in life.  There was a picture of her with then 4-year-old David outside the cemetery where her older son was buried.  John’s eyes widened when the story explained how she lost her oldest son during a robbery.  When he realized that she was that woman, John nearly fainted.  His breathing quickened, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the screen.  The reporter said that David had been taken by Social Services to a group foster home, St. Francis.  When the commercial flashed on the screen, John raced up the stairs to his computer. 
He typed in the website address for the foster home.  Then, he found their “Waiting Children” section and clicked on it.  He typed in the kid’s name.  David.  When David’s profile came up, John could hardly breathe.  He carefully filled out the survey and clicked “submit”.  Then he sat, staring at the wall, until late into the night.
About a month later, after submitting a whole pile of paperwork, attended adoption classes, and answering endless questions, he received the response he had been hoping for.  Social Services held one more meeting and asked him a bunch more questions.  When it was over, he left knowing that he was in the green. 
The next year went by very fast, with at least five home visits and one overnight stay.  When it all ended, he felt covered in peace when he heard the words, “David is yours.”