The Complication

Bryan completed two years of community college. Transfer /acceptance to a four year UC or CSU was guaranteed under California law.

He made it. An A student with honors and accolades. His parents were so proud. A business major! How could they not be proud. They paid his tuition every semester directly to him in cash.Easier than checks, his dad believed. “ Cash is king! No complications,” his father always said.
Ryan’s last semester brought complications, unbeknownst to his parents. A very pregnant Catholic girlfriend. Oops. What to do?

The semester fees his dad provided paid for her abortion. Neither wanted such a solution but the alternative wasn’t an option. Both were destined for different lives.

How to tell the parents? Hmm. Just don’t, they decided.

She took a few days off from school, stayed with a friend to recover from the procedure and spent the rest of her life as a doctor, married woman with three beautiful, accomplished children and repented. Because repenting, that’s what Catholics do best. She lost count of her hail Mary’s.

Bryan, well he returned to his classes but not to college. Fortunately for him, state universities have computer glitches.

By the time the university figured out he wasn’t registered for his last semester, graduation was over. Bryan simply appeared on stage with everyone else in a rented cap and gown. He handed a card with a counselor’s forged signature authorizing the Dean to shake his hand and anoint him graduated. The charade provided a graduation day for his parents and photos of his achievement for a portfolio.

Since nobody really verified if a diploma was valid in the business world, he went on to sell insurance and became a millionaire, married a devout Christian woman and had four lovely children.

Repentance wasn’t part of his make-up. Business majors just aren’t so inclined. He had taken care of his oops, his parents saw him graduate, and he made a lot of money to support his family. No student debt. Yep, cash was king indeed.

— Mugsy