Keep Your Fingers Crossed Chapter 7

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“David?  You alive son?”

I blink.  “What?”

“Are you alive?” dad asks.

I think he's crazy.  “Yeah...I just spaced out for a moment.”

He starts laughing.  “Well help yourself to some dinner.”

I look at it: the mash potatoes, salmon patties, green beans, coleslaw, and a bread roll.

I take a spoon full of everything, and slop it on to my plate.  Spooning gulp fulls one after another, I eat everything until there's no more for anyone to have seconds.

I dump three to four bites of salmon onto my plate, followed by a spoon of mash potatoes, green beans, no coleslaw, and half a roll.  Everyone stares.

“That's...That's it?” Jennifer asks.

“Why do you always eat so little?” Emily asks as if I was mental, and a crazed idiot.

Dad shakes his head.  “Son, put some meat on your bones, alright?” he says softly.

My eyes bulge.

Jennifer takes my plate, and dishes more on to my plate as my eyes stay locked on my fathers'.

“You know what I mean, so don't take it personally,” he tells me.

What.  The.  Hell.

Jennifer sets my plate down.

Dad goes back to eating, as does Emily and Jennifer.  Each of the woman look worried.

I blink, look at my plate, then back at my father.

What.  The.  Hell.

I grab up my plate, B-line over to the trash can, and slam it in, breaking it into large pieces, too sharp to put back together..

“What the hell, David?!” he demands.

“I don't need to eat!!” I scream, “You can't make me!”

They do not speak.

My bedroom door slams behind me, and I fling myself onto my bed.

 

“David!  Please answer your phone!!”