Page 25 of South of Nowhere
Maybe someone was nearby and—
Suddenly, startling them all, Kim began to scream. She was thrashing in her seat.
She accidentally walloped her brother on the nose.
“Ow, bitch.”
“Travis,” Sonja warned and she spun toward the backseat and said to her daughter, “Honey, no! It’s okay. We’ll be all right.”
The screaming continued.
“Mom, make her stop!” Travis was crying now.
In his profession George often saw such emotion. But his role then was conciliatory. He was kind, he was gentle, he was persuasive.
He presented the same George Garvey to the children, day in, day out.
And conflicts worked out. Harmony returned.
But now. This was different. He had only one thought in his mind. That they survive.
And screaming away the little oxygen they had was not acceptable.
He spun around, grabbed his daughter by the shoulders and raged, “Stop it now!” He shook her hard.
She gasped, her eyes wide. “Daddy!”
“Now!”
Sonja and Travis stared in shock.
This broke his heart. And, if they survived, it was possible that he’d just created an irreparable rift between them.
But a parent’s role wasn’t to coddle. It was to raise, and raise right.
He would rather she hate him and live than love him and not.
“You’re hurting me!” Another scream.
“You understand? Stop it!”
“Honey…” Sonja was speaking to him now. She touched his arm. He didn’t brush it away but he stiffened and she removed her fingers quickly.
“Understand?” he growled, struggling to keep from bawling like his son.
And he controlled the urge. Because his family needed him. George had thought that a husband/father’s role was to be a breadwinner, and—along with coaching and attending plays and the like—that was all he was put on earth to do.
But those missions seemed trivial, even silly.
Now, he had to become somebody else. A despotic king.
And with a sharp sudden breath, his daughter controlled the panic. She continued to cry, but softly. She nodded.
He released her quivering shoulders.
“Thank you.”
She ignored him and hugged herself.
