Jesse

After we left the hospital we went home where we all spent the rest of the day. And now it was dinner time, 5. We were all sitting around the dinner table, even Kate as much as she didn't want to be. On the table was a big bowl of pasta, parmesan cheese and a basket of garlic bread.

"What happened that you were needed for?" Mom asked Dad, looking at him while putting her forkful of pasta in her mouth.

"Someone intentionally set fire to a tree. We had to rescue a kitten that was in the tree. The fire had spread to nearby trees. Took us awhile to put it out," he replied.

Kate looked down at her pasta and twirled it around her fork. She was trying to be inconspicuous. But id caught on.

"How was work?" Dad asked Mom looking at him..

"OK. Still trying to prosecute that perpetrator."

"Rape case right?"

"Yeah."

Kate gasped.

'You ok?' I mouthed, looking at her.

'Yeah, fine' she mouthed back.

"What does 'rape' mean?" Anna asked looking at mom.

"It's something very awful," Kate answered, taking a sip of her water.

She looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh. Do people go to jail for it?"

"Yes. That's what we're trying to decide right now, if the guy's innocent or guilty," Mom told Anna.

Dad looked at me.

"Whan are we going to meet this young lady?" he asked.

"You already met her," I returned.

"Who?" Mom asked.

"The girl he was talking to at the hospital," Kate replied.

As usual mom didn't have any idea.

"Oh. She nice?"

"Yeah."

"She had on green earrings," Anna recalled.

"Oooh green."

"Just like Anna's coloring page," Dad said.

"You'll have to show me after dinner," Mom told Anna.

And yet mom was interested in annas day.

"Ok," she said.

"How was your day hun?" Dad asked Anna.

"Good. I colored. We're making leaves."

"Are all the 4th graders doing that?" Dad asked, turning to Mom.

She nodded; "yeah."

He often wasn't sure what was going on at annas school.

"I'd like to see them sometime," Dad told Anna.

"How'd the transfusion go?" Mom asked me.

"Good."

Kate pushed her chair back and stood up. She walked out of the room. Mom turned her head. She walked down the hall.

"Kate!" she called; "come finish your dinner."

There wasn't an answer just the slam of Kate's bedroom door down the hallway.

Dad's beeper beeped.

"Hey, I have to go," he told Mom, standing.

"Another fire?" she asked, looking up at her.

"Yeah."

He bent down and kissed her.

He left.

I stood up, pushing my chair back.

"Excuse me," I said.

"Sure," Mom said.

I walked down the hall to Kate's room. As I was walking I heard the front door open and close. Dad had left the house. It was a short dinner.