We continue to see the boy's memories resulting from his mother's death, as well as some of the father's memories of his son.

**********

I stayed in school that day, having missed one of my classes, my dad picked me up shortly after school ended.

We stayed home that evening, ordered in pizza, and watched a couple of movies. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the movies, I don't even remember which ones they were, but several times, seeing a woman that looked vaguely like mom caused me to burst into tears.

After this had happened about half a dozen times, dad turned the DVD player and TV off, and we just chilled for a while.

I'm not really sure, but I think I had nightmares that night about what happened to mom. Dad said that I woke him up twice.

**********

That first night after my wife Rosalie's death was a rough one for both of us. I had to sit there and watch my boy as he burst into tears several times during the evening, then I was woken up twice that night by him screaming in the midst of nightmares about the accident.

Even though he'd just lost his mom, he stayed in school, day after day, continuing to give his best efforts. Whenever I asked him about it, he would tell me that if she were still here, she would expect him to work to the fullest of his abilities, why should he stop now she was dead?

**********

School was often rough, there were several kids who used my mother's death as an excuse to pick on me even more than they had before she died. They would often taunt me saying I had driven my mother into the path of that semi, allowing her to be killed that day.

I ignored them as much as possible, but there were times when I just lost it and turned on whoever was taunting me at the time. Over the course of that first year, even though I was smaller than almost all of the boys in my grade, I gained a reputation as a vicious fighter. I don't remember the exact number, but I ended up in the office over a dozen times after a fight between November when my mom was killed and the end of the school year in mid-June. The last fight, in late May, earned me my second three day suspension from school, dad was shocked.

I believe dad was having a hard time over mom's death as well, I can remember hearing him crying late at night sometimes.

The nightmares continued on an almost nightly basis, usually once, but sometimes two or three times during a night.

I started seeing a therapist in early December of that year, not that she was much of a help at that point.

**********

The schoolwork was never a problem for my son, he could easily have skipped two grades, but chose to stay with kids his own age.

What disturbed me, though, was the reports of him fighting, I couldn't believe the tales of how vicious he was when he fought until another boy actually caught my son on his cell phone while he was laying a beating on a boy two grades above him and sent me the images.

I definitely wasn't happy about the suspensions, but when I talked with the boy who had sent those images to me, he informed me rather bluntly that about eight or ten kids in the school were deliberately provoking my son whenever they could get away with it.

I called the school the next day about it, their response was "If we don't personally witness it, it didn't happen." What the hell? I took it up to the district supervisor, who told me that without any proof of him being provoked, they couldn't do anything. That royally pissed me off.

His nightmares continued, the screams waking me at all hours. I made him see a therapist, I'm not sure it's doing any good, though.

Losing Rosalie hasn't been easy for me, either. When he hasn't been there, I've screamed and howled, I cried sometimes late at night.

**********

Dad decided that we needed a break that summer. A friend of his offered the use of his house on the Jersey shore, Dad loved the idea, so we packed a whole lot of clothes into four suitcases along with several items we could use while we were there.

We stayed there right through the summer, only returning home just before Labour Day, as school would start the day after that. I have to say that we had a lot of fun, we both got great tans and we could swim in the ocean most days, unless the beach was marked as being unsafe.

I was still having the nightmares, although not quite as often. If I needed it, there was a therapist nearby that I could see. As far as I can remember, I only saw that therapist on the shore three or four times over the summer, much less than the twice a week visits at home.

**********

Ahhhh, what a summer, a friend offered the use of his house on the Jersey shore and my son and I set off three days after school ended. That summer was great, we were both nice and brown by the end of the summer, and the swimming helped us get into excellent shape.

My boy was still dealing with the nightmares, he saw the therapist on the shore I think four times over the course of the summer. That was a positively huge difference compared to the twice a week visits with the therapist at home. In that sense, the summer was a big success.

**********

Returning to school was okay if you were asking about classes, but I was still being taunted regularly by several older kids. I lost it a few times over the course of the fall months, including my first ever five day suspension from school in November. Dad wasn't impressed at all.

Thing is, the idiot that pushed my buttons that day apparently forgot that it was the first anniversary of her death, I went nuts on him. It took three grade eight boys to pull me off him, but by that time, I'd already broken one of his arms, blacked an eye and bruised his jaw.

To say that the older boys were shocked by what I did to that boy would be a major understatement, I scared the shit out of them.

The nightmares were continuing, sometimes skipping a night or two. I saw the therapist as usual, didn't make any difference to me.

**********

When I was told about the latest fight in November, I was utterly appalled at the viciousness displayed by my son Cameron. That poor boy that he hurt, gods, the boy will have his left arm in a plaster cast for six to eight weeks. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized that the day before had been the first anniversary of my beloved Rosalie's death, I couldn't believe I'd forgotten it. I cried for a while, how I miss her!

He's still having the nightmares, maybe not quite as often now. The therapist doesn't seem to be helping him much.

**********

Oh, yes, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? Sorry about that. I'm Jameson Aaron Blackleigh, Cameron's dad, I've worked for Ramsay Tool & Die for almost fourteen years now, and I've been the Finance VP for Ramsay Tool & Die for the last two years.

Cameron Jonathan is my son, he turned thirteen last May and has been adjusting to living in a house with a woman and three girls. He's also exploring his gender identity, he spends all of his time now dressed as and acting like a girl, including going to school as a girl.