by Heather Coulter

Created on: July 10, 2008

Steven sopped up the juices from his roast beef with a slice of white bread, and popped the whole thing in his mouth. Some dark pink juices ran down his chin and Harold laughed and gave him a napkin.

"You're not hungry tonight, are ya Steve-o?"
Steven grinned widely and showed some bread still clinging to his teeth. He then swallowed with a gulp you could have heard across the kitchen.

"So, how are you feeling about Claudia and your dad having another anniversary?" asked Harold, his twinkling eyes now filled with concern.

Steven just looked down at the battle ground of peas and potatoes and little red rivers on his plate and shrugged. Harold picked up his own plate and limped over to the kitchen sink. He pat Steven on the back and whispered "It's OK," as he set his plate down in the dirty water.

"Grandpa?" Steven asked suddenly. "How long were Mom and Dad married beforeshe died?"

"About a year," sighed Harold, settling back down into his plastic chair.

"Oh," mumbled Steven, turning back to his food.

"You know, your mother and father really loved each other. And she loved you so much. She was a good one. I know you think that your dad doesn't love you, but he really does, in his own way. Your dad just didn't know what to do with himself after your mother passed, and he didn't know what to do with you; you were just a baby, after all. That was why he married Claudia, Steven. I don't know if it was such a good decision, but he did it for you because he knew you needed a mother."

Steven knew all of this, he had heard it so many times before, and it didn't help him at all because Claudia hated kids and he thought she probably knew less about them than his dad. The most quality time he ever had with her was holding her "Perfectly Pink" nail polish while she sat on the kitchen counters and painted her toenails, and they didn't really talk at all: he just stood there marvelling at how her legs seemed to go on forever, and he wondered how she could even reach her toes.

The way he saw it, his dad had decided that all their family needed was a mom so that he wouldn't have to worry about "the kid".

Steven looked at his grandpa and wondered how his dad could have turned out so different from him.

At nine years old, Steven knew for a fact that he didn't know his dad at all. He never really knew what was going through his head, only that sometimes his dad was so calm it made him shiver because he knew what was coming, though it never came to him. His father only hit Claudia, and perhaps

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