Sean is alone in the kitchen. He sprays cleaner. The mist soon drenches the table\u2019s top. He wipes furiously and then stares out the kitchen\u2019s bay window at a couple walking by on the sidewalk. Just right there. The way they hold hands, fingers interlaced. Sean grips the cleaner\u2019s nozzle, the rag. Next he sees a million little bubbles whirl inside the plastic bottle.<\/p>\n
Sean finds his dad, Patrick, watching TV from his recliner. There is another empty recliner next to Patrick\u2019s, also facing the TV. Sean\u2019s mom\u2019s spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want for dinner, Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick gazes at a commercial about a lawyer who rides a motorcycle. And because of the leather jacket and all, this lawyer will fight even harder for his clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s past six. You need to eat,\u201d Sean says. \u201cYou\u2019re getting weaker and weaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to know something,\u201d Patrick says and grins in a bent way. \u201cMy strength is one of my many attributes. Just so you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
That word reminds Sean of what Patrick used to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember when you taught that parent\/child psychology course?\u201d Sean can\u2019t help it, his voice rises. \u201cHow I\u2019d come to class, and you let the students ask me questions. How I\u2019d tell them you chased me around the house, whipping your belt at me. All because I wouldn\u2019t put my hands flat on the bed so you could easily take your swings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick mutes the TV. He chortles. \u201cYou put on a show for those students,\u201d Patrick says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that happened today,\u201d Sean says, \u201cstudents would call someone. They\u2019d\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re fine.\u201d Patrick\u2019s skinny fingers try to gain a purchase on the wide cushioned arms, his rangy legs splay out in front of him. Then he strikes a cushioned arm twice with his fist, his grin tightening. \u201cWhy that woman kicked you out is beyond me? You turned out just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll make you a sandwich,\u201d Sean says.<\/p>\n
As the TV\u2019s volume grows louder, Patrick says, \u201cI should thank her; you being here with me… helping out.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the kitchen, Sean stares down at the pieces of bread on the paper plate, the thick mustard, the jumble of turkey slices. He places the pieces together, squeezing his fingers around them. And when he is done, he washes his hands and takes out two more pieces of bread from the bag. Gently, he starts over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat do you want for dinner, Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-dan-crawley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16729,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16580\/revisions\/16729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}