Five year old Jim Kirk ran to his new home with a bleeding nose and tears running down his face. On his birthday of all days.
But this day was also the anniversary of his father's death. There had been a memorial for the death of Kelvin five years after the catastrophe, even here in Riverside. His mother had made a speech and Jim had been proud, if sad the same time.
Afterwards, some children made fun of his father, and he wanted to defend him. He really tried, but they had been older and stronger – and they had been four against one.
Because of this, he had been forced to run away. He didn't know where Sam or his mother were. Likely still at the memorial. But Jim didn't want to go back.
So he went to the farm, where they all had moved in a month ago, after his mom had married Frank.
When he finally reached the house, he could see that mom's hover car wasn't back yet. There were the sounds of a chainsaw from behind the house, which meant the Frank had left the memorial earlier.
Jim didn't like the new husband of his mother very much. Not only did Sam loathe him, the man was rather gruff and short-tempered. Besides, he was very big and smelled of sweat and alcohol most of the time.
But he was the only one home. So Jim went around the house, where his stepfather was shredding fire wood.
Frank switched off the chainsaw abruptly when Jim went into his line of sight.
"What the hell happened to you Jimbo?"
Jim hated this nickname, but nevertheless he ran to the man and held on to him.
"There, there," a bit awkwardly Frank picked him up and padded his back. That was all encouragement Jim needed to wrap his arms around his neck and to cry in earnest.
Frank didn't really seem to know what to do, but at least he held him and rubbed his back until the tears stopped.
Still, he appeared rather relieved when he could put Jim back on his feet.
"Now tell me what happened," he prompted.
Jim told him obediently, while Frank dressed his minor injuries.
"I don't understand why they did that," the boy ended. "I didn't do anything bad to them."
"Well, I'm afraid that is how the world works. The sooner you learn that, the better. And the most important thing is to learn to defend yourself the next time. There are some tricks I can show you."