And "Baby," I'll tell her "don't keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, I've done it a million times, you're just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him."
February 2039
"Dad, wait until you meet him. You're going to love him," Katy babbled to me on the phone as she called from her dorm in New York. "He's really a great guy… maybe a little lost, but he's just so amazing."
"What do you mean lost?" I asked while Kurt stared warily at the phone, which was on speaker. He was sitting on the couch, searching online for scripts for his community theater to perform when he heard her say that.
"Well, he's been through a lot. He lost his family and his house in a fire when he was little, so he's a little… distant, but I love him so much Dad. I'm bringing him home for Easter. Just you wait and see."
June 2039
"The last time you said we were going to love him, it was disastrous," I said, starting to become concerned with Katy's ability to go through 'projects' (what Kurt and I referred to her boyfriends as).
"I know, but that's because he wasn't trying to fix himself and become better. He was absorbed in the past. Now, my new guy, Josh, he's a winner. Sure, he was kind of like Puck's dad in high school, but I'm helping him pull his act together. At least, I think I got him off marijuana."
That's when we knew that things were going to go wrong. There was no telling Katy that, though. She had to learn for herself.
