Reach for the Stars by The Nameless Narrator

<p><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Oh!</em></p><p><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>What was that hidden up the sleeve of his school sweatshirt?...</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The morning after Ben's thirteenth birthday our Nameless Narrator finds something which changes their lives forever.</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Was it some sort of percussion instrument? What on earth was it?</em></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>She balanced it on her palm bewildered. She smelled it and it smelt like her uncle's pipe used to smell.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Is it her fault the third of her four sons has turned out the way he has? She thinks it probably is...</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>After all her first marriage was on the rocks when Ben was conceived. She was already mother to twin boys. She didn't have Ben baptised. She didn't breastfeed him...</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And our Nameless Narrator knows she drinks too much...</span></p>