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in boys and Mom spending ninety percent of every day lost in
some other world where her art actually mattered.
    "Okay,
Dad. I'll think about it and I'll start cleaning the kitchen
tonight."
    "You
can wait to start until tomorrow, sweetie. How bad off is your arm?"
    I'd
forgotten that Janessa had scratched me. The school nurse had patched
me up while I'd been waiting in the office.
    "It's
okay. It probably won't even scar up or anything."
    Dad
pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me in a fierce
hug. "I'm just very glad that you're okay and that things didn't
end up worse than a scratch on the arm. I love your mother, and I
love Cindi, but you feel things more deeply than either of the two of
them and that makes you special to me."
    It
was hard to talk past the sudden lump in my throat, but I nodded. "I
love you too, Dad. I'm sorry if I was stupid about everything today."
    "It's
okay. We're not going to talk about it anymore until you have had a
chance to think about those questions. The important thing will be
what you learn from today's events."
    The
rest of the night passed by in a blur. Cindi was faster than normal,
so the dishes were already done by the time I left Dad's office.
    Dad
fired up his work laptop and logged back into work for the rest of
the night. He paused for a few minutes when Mom came out from her
cave to eat, but she just wolfed down her food and then fidgeted like
a little kid until Dad gave her a hug and sent her back to her
darkroom.
    Cindi
finished up her homework and then spent most of the rest of the
evening texting people on her iPod. I stared at my textbook for
another hour or so, but I didn't really make any progress on my
chemistry homework.
    I
finally just put everything away and got ready for bed. Dad looked up
absently at me when I padded into his office to give him a hug good
night.
    "You're
going to bed already?"
    "Yeah,
I haven't been sleeping very well lately. I thought maybe I'd just
turn in early tonight and see if it helps."
    "Your
headaches are still bothering you, aren't they?"
    It
was like Dad had developed some kind of weird sixth sense to
compensate for the fact that Mom was so oblivious to everything going
on around her.
    "They
seem to be getting a little better. They don't bother me as much as
they did."
    It
was a lie, maybe even more than just a white lie. The headaches were
worse than before. I was just getting better at ignoring them lately.
Well, better most days at least.
    "Well,
I'm glad to hear that they are a little better, but if they are still
bothering you next week I think you should ask your mother to take
you to the doctor. She can take me into work on Tuesday or Wednesday
so that she has the car to drive you to the clinic."
    "I'll
be fine, Dad. It's just a little headache from time to time."
    "I'm
serious, Adri. I want a promise out of you that you'll be responsible
enough to ask for help before things get worse."
    Right.
I had to be the responsible one because Mom certainly wouldn't be. I
hated when Dad made me promise him something. It was pretty much the
one thing guaranteed to get Cindi or me either one to do what he
wanted. Unfortunately he knew it, so he wasn't averse to using
promises to get his way whenever he thought we weren't taking care of
ourselves or that we were going to get into trouble.
    "Okay,
Dad. If things don't start getting better soon then I'll go see a
doctor."
    I
kissed Dad on the cheek and then went into the small room I shared
with Cindi. We actually had bunk beds—black metal
monstrosities—of all things, so I climbed up to the top bunk
and closed my eyes.
    "You're
really going to sleep already, Adri?"
    "Yeah.
It's been kind of a long day."
    "Okay,
I'll just put my iPod on silent then. Good night."
    "Good
night, Cindi."
    I
fell asleep instantly. It didn't make any sense, but once I was
dreaming it was actually easier to remember some of the other dreams
that I'd been having recently. Remembering didn't particularly