It was late at night. Clouds were covering the sky and only sometimes the moon forced his way through them to bring his light down to earth. Who knew how long this would be possible? Nobody, despite of them. They had to fight in a war against the time and against their own demons. Sometimes it was hard to combine their social duties with their duty of saving the world and sometimes this awareness hit them hard.
"Where is your problem?" Neil asked his father irritated.
"That you are ditching school!" Chuck barked at him.
"Okay, yeah, sorry, but…" Neil didn't get a chance to justify. As usual. He was the ass and his father was correct. One would think at the age of twenty-two your parents stop to domineer over you. Far away from that!
"There is no sorry! We had this before and I'm not going to let you get away with this." Other would have been frightened by this cold, military voice, but he wasn't. He was used to it.
"The circumstances got changed and you know that either!" Neil began to yell back. His father had to accept this fact. He had to accept the fact that the scum of the family in reality was a twenty-two year old astronaut who really hasn't to worry about his graduation from school. He would get it, no matter whether he was there or not.
"But that is no excuse for ditching school! If you flunk, we're going to sit in a nice mess and only because you're too cocky for going to school!" Chuck's voice was close to flip over. This volume was probably audible in the whole neighbourhood. Now they got something to talk about behind their back.
"No, it's an excuse, because you told me to do this fucking research, although I told you…" Again his father cut into his sentence.
"You'd better learn how to organize your time!" This wasn't fair.
"Do you sometime listen to yourself? I mean it's not like I have time like a dime a dozen!" Organize your time, what the hell was going on in this head? At least his father was the one who had a nice, easy life while he had to work his butt off to carry out all his duties. Neil do this, Neil do that…Neil you have to, Neil you must… Neil here, Neil there. He really was fed up to the back teeth. His life got a raw deal and as a reward his father folded him flat.
"School is only a revision for you, so stop whining!"
"If you see it that way, then why is it such a big problem that I ditched this single day?" Neil yelled back. For a while there was silence. Neil had caught him, but he'd better had piped down, he knew that and he would feel it after a few seconds.
"Don't dare talking to me like this!" Now his father went postal. If one thought he had been in rage before, he had failed that had only been his warm up.
"Why? I do your job and you kick my ass for it!" he was close to freak out, because of his father's behaviour. At least this wasn't the first time his father gave him shit about something he had done against his taste. Nearly everyday his father found some reason to yell at him because of some mysterious mistake. He waited for his father flying into rage only because he was breathing. But as he judged this fight, his father wasn't far away from that.
"Neil, I don't want this language at my home." Great, now his Mum had to horn in too. The only one missing was Marc, but he won't a long time coming.
"Your father is right and if you don't change your behaviour, we are going to discharge measures." This cold, threatening voice of his Mum wasn't something one would get to hear often, only when you were named Neil, a born Taggart and the scum of the family.
"What in fucking hell is this here? A freak show?" Sure, he shouldn't talk like this and let the matter rest, but he didn't want to let his parents pick on him as they always had done. They had to realize that they couldn't treat him like dirt, sometime. His father should be the one to understand his situation and the one who encourage him, at least in some situations, but no, far away from that. He had to knife him, as if he still was the looser, he intrinsic never had been, and let him feel that he would never be able to hold a candle to him or Marc. At least his father should know better, but he still hadn't learned his lesson and this was exactly what drove him up the pole. The fact that his father knew that he would make it, but still treated him as if he wouldn't be able to.
"Neil, one further word and you get the shock of your life!" his father went on.
"Which one fuck or hell?" He screamed. Yes, he should have seen it coming eventually it wasn't the first situation like that, which ended this way. Only that he now wouldn't put up with it, as he had done the first time round. Too much was too much and he had reached his limit.
"I hope this was the last time, because I'm no little boy and I won't allow you to put your hand on me again. Got it?" he hissed at his father, while he looked into his eyes. He knew what his father hated, and this was exactly one of these things. Not hiding for fear, but standing there and looking into his eyes.
"Stop talking that way to your father!" his Mum began to flip.
He took his jacket and went to the door.
"Yeah." he answered.
"You're not going out this night!" his Mum went on. His father only stood there in silence.
He didn't care. He was only in hate and frustration. He could do what he wanted, what they wanted, they never would stop cavil at him and showing him that conversation like this one, was the only thing he deserved. He had entered NASA, but he only had met with criticism and rejection.
"If you go, you don't have to come back again!" his Mum yelled, when he had opened the door. But he already had made his decision.
"Don't worry this is not going to happen." he had calmed down. Why screaming? It wouldn't make things better, as anything would do. He had made his decision and it was time. He had to, before they would break him. He was sure that they didn't count on something like that and they won't believe it, until they hadn't witnessed it. He only had been the weak, but he wasn't and now he would show them. Yes, he was fed up by them, by this time travel, by this whole situation, by this life.