19

I moved in with Dad. After Dad had dated Eileen for months, they got married. My parents had been divorced for a year and a half by then. I had been perfectly happy with my parents together, but if they didn’t want to be together, I could accept that. I could accept that Dad wanted to marry someone else. Now that he was no longer married to Mom, it didn’t matter.

    At the wedding, I met Eileen’s friends who were two wizards and two witches. They seemed to be happy for Eileen and her chance to be a mother again. They were still distant, but they didn’t seem to have a problem with me or Dad. So far, I was getting along with Eileen. We both wanted to get along and we made the effort. 

    I tried to talk to Eileen about the ghouls attacking me the last time they attacked the city. I told her why.

    “You should stop protecting people,” Eileen said.

    “But they’ll get hurt or killed,” I argued.

    “What does that matter?”

    I couldn’t grasp that. I didn’t think Eileen was kidding, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe that my stepmother thought it was okay for people to be killed.

    “I have to protect innocent people,” I said.

    “Just protect yourself.”

    “What if others get attacked?”

    “The only thing that matters is protecting yourself. Why do you even care about others?”

    I couldn’t believe Eileen didn’t understand compassion.

    Later, we played a board game. My heart wasn’t really in it, but I tried. Hopefully, I misunderstood what Eileen had said earlier or I could change her mind. 

    I was confused as to why Eileen didn’t want to bond with Dad as much as with me. She cared about Dad and was happy with him. She spent time with him. She was always talking to me and playing games with me, but she didn’t seem to want to spend as much time with Dad. Dad and I exchanged a look. He also seemed to think that was weird.    There were other things that Eileen and I talked about, but I couldn’t connect with her the way I connected with my parents or my friends, including Christian, because Eileen sometimes made it clear she didn’t care about other people. Whenever someone got hurt, it didn’t matter to her. Whenever I told her I protected someone from the ghouls or that I sympathized with someone who wasn’t a friend who had gone through something difficult, she didn’t understand why I cared.