Aria

I think my neighbor needs an exorcist for her teenage daughter ..while I don’t believe in medicating troubled adolescents ..it's gone way beyond a ‘talking cure’. Yesterday she took her mother’s new BMW for a joyride ..without permission ..and smashed it into a tree on a winding road. The car was totaled but fortunately no one was hurt. I drove the daughter, Aria, home while her mother rode with the police officer. Aria was in the twilight zone, as you might imagine ..but she did manage to tell me what her two biggest concerns were: “I wonder what my mom is telling the cop ..” and “I don’t want to go to jail”. I tried to assure her that she wouldn’t go to jail for this ..although things could get awfully tense around the house ..she might prefer jail. She didn’t laugh ..instead she went on to explain that one of the conditions of her probation was that she not drive. I asked, probation for what .. bad driving ..? No, for assaulting an officer. Did you slap him ..? No. I kicked him. Like, in the shins ..? (I’m thinking traffic stop). No, in the face .. I knocked him on the ground first. Was he giving you a ticket ..did he get out of line ..? No, it was at the police station ..he grabbed my arm before I could kill my mother. Turns out she was being released to the custody of her mother .. after being held for assaulting her mother ..and when mom arrived ..Aria attacked her in the lobby of the police station. It took three officers to restrain her. Although Aria is only 16 ½ years old ..she’s six feet tall ..athletic and well-ribbed ..with the temper of a mad bull ..she regularly uses her mom as a punching bag ..and trashes the inside of their house so often that the building department has condemned it ..the mother has been staying at her office (she’s an architect) ..while Aria stays with the only boyfriend she hasn’t beaten up ..at least not yet anyway.