Just a short chapter where Seth talks to Sandy about the bullying. Seth aged 6. Next chapter will be Seth's Birthday and then there'll be a chapter on Sandy & Kirsten's 10th Anniversary, woooh! Peppers in the chapter refer to the vegetable, which I think people in the US call capiscum?

Sandy had collected Seth from school as usual and was looking forward to spending some quality time with his little boy. Kirsten was away on business again and wouldn't be back until the end of the week. They'd made the most of Kirsten's absence by having Nintendo game matches, ordering pizza most nights and just generally being crazy together. They'd played a game which had involved them pretending to be lions, giving them an excuse to roar very loudly and run round the lounge at top speed. Once Sandy had caught Seth, he'd tickled him, saying that was what daddy lions did to their cubs.

They'd played a long game of Super Mario on the Nintendo, as Seth wanted a rematch after Sandy somehow managed to beat him.

Then Seth had done his homework, they'd had a dinner of Meat Feast pizza, the one Kirsten didn't like much, as she said it was far too unhealthy, as it had no vegetables on it. To get around the problem, Sandy had asked for an extra topping of red pepper on it, explaining to Seth that pepper was a vegetable, so they weren't really disobeying Mommy, but it might be best to not tell her what sort of pizza they'd eaten.

Seth nodded in agreement and declared that it could be his and his daddy's secret.

To get out of having his bath, Seth had started showing Sandy the comic strip he'd drawn at recess that day.

It depicted a dark-haired hero with blue eyes whose thick eyebrows earned him the moniker of Sir Monobrow and his superpower was the ability to talk the villains to death. Sir Monobrow was committed to helping people in distress, who had no money, no friends or no nice Mommy and Daddy to make them feel better when they were sad. His arch-enemies were many, and took many forms. The scariest by far was the evil Dragon Lady whose evil glare of disapproval would make her victims burn up on the spot. There was also an evil businessman, who, to Sandy's pleasure, looked quite a lot like Caleb. This villain's power involved taking people's mommies away and making them work all day and all night, so they never got to see their children. The little boy in that particular strip looked a lot like Seth and the mother who was being dragged away to do work looked suspiciously like Kirsten, Sandy thought.

The last strip showed a little boy who was being teased by some people of his own age, only to be rescued by Sir Monobrow who gave him a cuddle and then told the other children off for being nasty.

"Wow, Setheleh, these are amazing! I never knew you were such an artist!" Sandy exclaimed, picking Seth up to give him a proud hug. He kissed the top of his little boy's head, hoping that the school yard scene Seth had drawn was not a depiction of his life. Still holding Seth and murmuring encouragement and praise in his ear, Sandy entered the kitchen and put the comic on the fridge door, holding it in place with a Spiderman magnet.

"Now it's... bath time!" Sandy declared, holding his son tightly so he couldn't squirm out of his grasp and avoid getting clean. Seth protested and tried to get away for a few moments, and then decided it was better to obey and get it over and done with.

Sandy began soaping Seth all over once he was in the tub. He stopped suddenly, noticing a bruise on Seth's right leg.

"What happened to you today, huh, Setheleh? You look like you've been in the wars, my darling," Sandy stated gently, pointing at the mark with the washcloth.

"It's OK, Daddy, it doesn't really hurt anymore... I was just standing in the playground and some boys came past, they were running really fast and they bashed into me, but it was an accident, Daddy" Seth said by way of explanation.

"Did they say they were sorry then?" Sandy questioned, upset that someone had hurt his son, be it accidently or not.

"No, but I'm sure they were, Daddy... You always say people deserve second chances and that I should forgive people when they hurt me, so I did." Seth commented, repeating what he'd overheard his father saying on the phone about his clients and what his parents had told him.

" And the teacher came to see me anyway, to make sure I wasn't hurt, and she'd know whether they did it on purpose or by accident, wouldn't she?" Seth continued, using his six-year old logic skills that baffled everyone over that age.

" Seth, will you tell me next time you get hurt, please?" Sandy asked of his son. "I got worried when I saw you had a bruise and I didn't know how it happened, so you have to tell Mommy or me about things like that, OK?" Sandy finished, speaking in a tone that was firmer and stirner than the one he usually used with his son. Seth nodded and promised he would.

"Now we've got to wash your hair!" Sandy uttered, making Seth squeal as he poured a jug of water over his head and scruffed his son's dark curly hair.

Once Seth was clean and dry and had run around his room in his pyjamas, wearing the towel he'd been dried in like a cape round his shoulders and had saved Captain Oats from falling from the bed to his death, he went to brush his teeth and then chose a story for Sandy to read to him.

The two dark-haired figures, one large, one small, curled up together on Seth's bed. Once the story was over, he begged his father for a real story about when his Daddy was a little boy and had done something silly. Sandy told him about how he'd been out with his father to a baseball match when he was about Seth's age. His father had bought him a hot dog, cotton candy and a Sprite, and they'd jumped about excitedly when their team had scored a run. He told Seth how he'd fallen asleep on the subway and his dad had had to carry him home and that The Nana had been mad that Sandy's dad hadn't given him any proper food that day, just junk.

Sandy sighed slightly at the memory, as it was one of the few he had of his dad before he'd left him, his mother and his younger brother and sister. He hadn't mentioned this to Seth yet, though Seth had been told that Grampa Cohen didn't live with The Nana anymore.

Sandy tucked his little boy in, proud that he was his son's hero. Seth hadn't said so, of course, at least not in so many words, but his admiration was evident in the way he looked at him, asked him questions, utterly convinced that he held the answers and then there was that comic, undeniable proof that his son thought his Daddy was a great guy. He kissed Seth and Captain Oats with incredible tenderness, smoothed Seth's hair and said goodnight, told the bedbugs not to bite, wished him sweet dreams and promised he'd see him in the morning.

Later that night, Seth woke up from a nightmare, crying his eyes out after having thrashed around in his terrifying dream.

Sandy held Seth close, pulling him into his lap for a cuddle.

"What's the matter, Setheleh? What were you dreaming about?" he intoned, smoothing Seth's hair and rubbing his tummy as he did so.

"It was scary, Daddy... You and Mommy were gone and I was all by myself in the yard, at recess at school and then lots of big kids came over to me and started making fun of me, of how I still like Spiderman and stuff... And you and Mommy couldn't hear me, even though I was shouting really loudly, I was frightened, Daddy," Seth sobbed, clinging to his father for comfort.

Sandy squeezed Seth lovingly, then grabbed a tissue from his povcket to wipe Seth's eyes and then told him to blow his nose. His hand went from rubbing his little boy's tummy to his back, soothing him with his touch.

"Have the big kids at school been making fun of you for real, Setheleh?" Sandy asked his son, letting him rest his head on his chest.

"No, Daddy, but some of the boys in my class have though... They're mean, they never want to play any of my games," he uttered, between hiccups that had replaced the sobs.

"Who do you play with at recess then, huh?" Sandy enquired, needing to know that his little boy had some sort of group of playmates he hung around with.

"Uh, sometimes I play on my own, but I play with the 1st graders from time to time, they're nice and they like playing pretend and superheroes with me, Daddy, just like you..." he trailed off, hoping he didn't sound disloyal to his best playmate, who was of course his father.

"You'll always play with me, won't you Daddy?" he added, tugging not only at the sleeve of his Daddy's robe, but at his heartstrings too.

"Yes, Setheleh, I'll play with you for as long as you want me to... But remember you need friends at school too, OK?" he declared, cuddling Seth closer still.

"Yes Daddy, I know," Seth replied, putting his arms round his father's neck and giving him a kiss.

Sandy returned the gesture and offered to stay with Seth until he fell asleep. Seth nodded happily, let his dad tuck him in again and held Captain Oats to his chest for extra comfort.

Sandy hoped Seth would make friends at school soon and that Seth would tell him if the situation got any worse. He hoped that the kids in his class came to their senses soon and welcomed his delightful little boy with open arms soon, but he dreaded that it might never happen, as the kids here were so much snobbier and spoilt than the ones Seth had left behind in Berkeley. With Tom and Carl, his nursery school playmates, they and Seth had had to use their imaginations to pretend they were in a castle, a pirate ship or on a desert island, whereas here, the kids seemed to have plastic creations depicting their chosen scene , which was killing off their creativity and costing their parents stupid amounts of money, he surmised. Seth was still happy using a stick as a pistol, a sword or as a strange device left by the enemy, and was content to use the contents of his dressing up box to pretend he was a superhero or a pirate, which was full of costumes Kirsten had designed using old material from decorating jobs. He'd never asked for a pony (though had gone through a phase of wanting a puppy, but was over that now), still enjoyed going to the beach for an ice-cream or a shell search and was certainly not spoilt, at least not compared to some of the brats in his class. He was so proud of his little boy on that front, but was glad he could give him what he wanted, without it being too great a financial strain. He was glad he could provide for his son, thus making up for everything his dad had failed to give him when he was growing up. Again, he vowed to never become like his father as he watched his angelic little boy sleep soundly.