One of my earliest, most powerful memories is when I was a little older than Accalia, I suppose. We were living in the trailer park. It was a summer evening and I knew it would be time to go inside soon. When my dad called for me to come inside, instead of running to him as I normally would I ran around to the other side of the trailer and just waited. I don't know why I did that. I don't remember having a particularly strong urge to stay outside and keep playing. I knew that if I didn't come when Dad called he would be angry with me. Still, I just sat there and waited until he found me. He was really mad. I was really scared. He brought me inside, and my mom began washing my dirty feet in the kitchen sink. Dad was still really upset and standing right by me yelling. I was crying and still scared to death. My mom finally said something along the lines of "Dan, stop it. Can't you see how scared she is?" That's what I remember.

I don't know if I remember this so well because it was probably the first time I defied my dad or if it's one of the only times I remember my mom standing up for me in front of me and my dad.

Now I really don't know why I felt like writing this tonight. I don't know that I've ever written it before or even told anyone. Well, there you go.