The Scene:  A mother is driving home from work. After eleven miles, she is back in her town, and remembers that she had driven her older son to school that morning instead of having him ride his bike because it had been raining heavily.  She turns around, goes back to the high school, and pulls up to the curb in front just as her son, who is already outside,  starts looking around for her. He gets in and the mother starts driving home. Then she remembers that she needs to go to the post office to check the mail, since they do not have mail delivery to their home, and she turns around and drives back towards the post office. She parks and gets out of the car while her son waits in the passenger seat. She goes in the building, opens and looks in the box, and there is nothing there. Realizing that now she is late getting home to let her other son, the bus-rider, in the house and that he is probably waiting in the rain, she jogs back to the car and gets in.

Mother: Well, that was a waste of time.

Son: No mail today?

Mother (backing out of the parking space): Nope.

Son: You should have made it a second thought.

Mother (pulling out of the parking lot): A what?

Son: You should’ve made getting the mail a second thought.

Mother (pauses as she turns onto the main street, somewhat flustered): I don’t know what you mean by “second thought.”

Son: You know how you people are always saying things like, “On second thought, maybe I won’t . . . go to the post office.”

Image credit:  Young Tran