For the Children.

Once upon a time not so different from your own, young Judah awoke. Bright yellow rays of sun shot through the window above his bed and shone on his wall. Off went the covers and on went the pants as Judah ran out his bedroom door, across the hallway and, slowing himself down for safety, down the stairs.

Judah arrived in the kitchen at 8:02 am, about the same time as any other day, but, where were his parents? Usually his mom would have finished breakfast by now, but she was nowhere to be found. Usually his dad would be sitting in his breakfast chair, reading the paper.

Judah checked living room, then the bathroom, then he opened up the side door and looked in the garage but he couldn't find them. He checked the front lawn, he checked the back yard, he even checked in the basement, which was more than a little spooky.

Finally, Judah ran back up the stairs and burst into his parents room. There they were alright, lying in bed! By now it was 8:30! Judah couldn't help but think what sleepy-heads his parents were. He reached forward and grabbed the covers, pulling them backwards with a quick whip of his arm. His dad let out a big snore.

"Wake up!" Judah yelled. "Get outta bed, you sleepy-heads!"

His father promply rolled over, his eyes darting awake and filling with a terrible rage. Without even a moment to react, Judah's arm is locked in a vice of bone and fury. A small shriek only just escapes his lips before a dry backhand cracks him across his eyes, shutting him up. His father an imposing monolith, standing a full 6 feet 2 inches, Judah tries to explain his fear. As though the words spilling from his mouth in a babble might quell the brutal surge clearly visible in his fathers cracked out eyes. They fall miserably to the floor, the words, as the grown man viciously assaults his fragile son.

Years later, the son rolls his electric wheelchair up the old, creaking ramp in front of his parents house. The door is unlocked, and he finds his mother sprawled on the couch, wasted and sleeping while Maury Pauvitch insists to someone or other that they're the father on the television.

Judah quietly rolls himself into the kitchen, and then to the back deck. There, he finds his old man, broken-down, sweating, sitting in an old wicker chair.

"Say pop... Do you remember that time..."

"Huh?"

"When you... beat me mercilessly?"

"A-yuh."

"Why did you do that to me?"

"I-unno."

And the moral is... don't expect all things to have satisfying endings, even if there really should be.