The little ways in which technology made everyday life easier were what caught the public's attention the most. That is the reason why having the ability to see who was at the front door was the best thing since sliced bread to Mike Noll. After hearing the doorbell he took full advantage of the future being now. Neither he nor his wife Anna were expecting visitors so why waste the time and effort walking to the door. He could just see who it was and find out what they wanted while staying in his favorite spot, next to the love of his life, in their loveseat.

Mike used the remote to change the feed on his smart TV to his doorbell camera. The new image on his screen was that of a nervous disheveled lady rocking back and forth with her face out of view and a teenage boy who looked beaten but not defeated. The anxious lady did not want to be there and the stoic boy stood close to her offering his protection and support.

These strangers needed help but Mike wondered why they picked his home. His wife was just as perplexed as him. Their home was in the middle of a large generic housing estate, lost in a sea of mass-produced waves of ranch, cottage and contemporary homes. There was no way that two people adrift should have gone to their home for a lifesaver to grab onto.

Mike coming off as neutral as 7 on the pH scale asked how he could help them. The tone and wording of his inquiry were so he did not scare or encourage the visitors. His standoffish demeanor changed when the mystery lady turned around and he could see her face. The visitors were no strangers but their estranged daughter and her son. The teenager had to be her son. Mike and Anna have seen those two together before from afar in their travel around town for him to be anyone else other than their flesh and blood.

Before Jill could start giving her response, the sound of two of the most welcoming voices she ever heard was coming over the intercom. One was inviting her to come in and the other was saying I will get the door for you.

**********
Troy was sitting at the dining room table drinking tea while looking at his phone. Every action he was taking was to form a protective barrier to hide his anxiety attack from the world, mainly his family. His wife did not need the added stress of having to coax him back to calmness. The Big Guy, his son, needed him to be strong. Finally, his daughter should not be able to see cracks in his resolve. Kaya would use his feeling of anxiety as doubt about how he reacted to her forcing Lynn to wear a dress.

Troy’s line of protection did the job of forming a comfortable pocket of protection around him. The table hid Troy bouncing his right leg. The cell phone having his attention did the dual job of stopping anyone from interacting with him and not letting his family see the tears of frustration in his eyes. Even sitting was helping to hide his true feelings. Standing up and walking would give away his weak knees. Troy’s stomach tossing and turning more than an old unbalanced washer was being calmed down by his tea.

Troy’s only regret about his fortress was the tea. Puking his guts out would help get rid of his anxiety. That was how he would be able to regain focus and control from his feeling of doubt before a big game. The expulsion of everything in his stomach would also somehow be expelling all the distraction which came from him not having faith he could meet the challenge at hand. Keeping his fragmented family together was the biggest challenge Troy ever had.

As soon as Alana saw her husband sitting at the table she knew what he was doing. There was no way she was going to let him retreat from having to face the family crisis they were in. The time to act was now. Kaya needed to know that her dad still had faith in her. That her mistake of putting Lynn in a dress did not lessen his love and care for her, and that him thinking the best solution to her acting up was giving up on her would only be making the situation worse. Their eldest child needed their support now more than ever. Plus, the best time to act and fix an issue is as soon as possible and Alana was not going to let this issue get stronger making it harder for the entire family to overcome it.

Kaya started the conversation to get Troy away from pulling himself away from his responsibilities as a parent. “Hun, you need to go up and tell Kaya you need a little time to think of the right way to discipline her. That she is not going to get away with her actions today.”

Troy closed his eyes to get rid of tears forming in them before he looked up to engage his wife. “If you don’t want Kaya to get away with her actions today then you punish her.”

“We don’t punish our children. We do not hurt our children and that is what a punishment does. We discipline them so they learn from their mistakes.”

Having to confront the issue got rid of the jitters and anxiety Troy was feeling. The concerned father had to be game ready and being inactive when one needed to take action only led to negative outcomes. “Discipline has not been working on Kaya. I am done disciplining her. She has caused way too much damage to our other kids. I need to look out for them. I cannot spend all my time dealing with her antics.”

“I can’t believe you are giving up on our daughter. She needs you now the most and you are just turning your back on her.”

“She gave up on our family a long time ago. I have had many talks with her about treating her younger siblings with respect. That she needs to treat them how she wants to be treated. I have taken away her privileges too many times when she did not listen to what I said. I do not have enough energy to deal with her and also be a good father to Lynn, John, and Lindsey.”

“She did not give up on her family. She is a teenager and is just trying to find out who she is. She has been messing up lately, but she is a good person. You know that, and even if she did give up on her family, that doesn’t make it right for you to give up on her.”

Troy was trying to not have to admit defeat again, but had to. With something as important as raising your child, defeat was nothing more than a total failure. One could not acknowledge the failure and throw in the towel until it was way too late. A parent needed to always keep on having the hope, strength, and determination to keep up the good fight and come out victorious towards their goal.

“I am not giving up on Kaya. I failed her and I cannot do anything to make it right. That is why I am done. I failed her. I was not a good parent to her. She needed the right guidance and I was not able to give it. I will only make the situation worse.”

Alana’s heartache was intensified by hearing her husband’s surrender. She knew he was a fighter and not one to easily lay down. For him to say that he failed meant at this moment he was broken. That he somehow needed to regroup before he dusted himself off and got back up on his feet. The best course of action was in giving him a reprieve from dealing with Kaya for a short while. She was not going to be nice about it. At this moment he needed some tough love, tough enough to see the truth. That he did not fail Kaya; he needed to understand that she was going to mess up and learn from her mistakes. “Fine, be that way. I am not going to discipline Kaya. I think you turning your back on her is enough for her to see how bad she messed up.”

*******************
Jill’s nerves were getting the best of her. After ringing her parent’s doorbell she became as jumpy as an overexcited kangaroo. While waiting for them to answer the door she took another drag from her cigarette to try to organize her scattered thoughts and feelings. This was going to be the last hit of her smoke because the last thing she needed was to have another thing for her parents to be disappointed about.

Jill felt like she let them down by picking her husband over them. All the bad ramifications from that decision were just more ways she let them down. The first one after Jill left home was her having to get a GED instead of a high school diploma. She had to drop out of school to take care of her son. Her not going to get a higher education was second. Her mom and dad stressed that they wanted her to have a good education that would add to all aspects of her life. The worst way she let them down was today with her mom and dad seeing their grandson for the first time.

After leaving home to become a teenage mom, Jill never went back until today. At first, it was because she felt like they did not support her decision to keep her son and stay with the father. Then when she saw how bad of a choice she made, Jill could not confront having to admit to them she was wrong.

Instead of hearing the door open, she heard her parents’ voices from the intercom. Hearing the verbal hug from them welcoming her back home took away any doubt she was wrong in this homecoming. How they talked to each other brought back sweet memories of how they bumbled and stumbled over each other, both trying to do the same thing. They were always eager to do whatever they could for each other and their family.

Mike opened the door but Anna was the one who greeted Jill and Richard. She said, “Come in, come in.”

Jill responded “OK mom and dad. Don’t worry, I know the rules of your home, and I will be putting out my cigarette before you open the door.”

Then why Mike and Anna stepping on each other’s feet when doing the dance we call life was so sweet happened. They showed their world-class step of being a true couple as in unison they said “Don’t be silly, you are an adult now. You can smoke in your home.”

Anna then hugged her daughter first. Jill started to cry and said, “You were right. He hit my son.”

Anna pulled back from the hug to look her daughter in the eyes. She then said, “No, we were not.”

Both Anna and Mike now had to face how they disappointed their daughter and all the bad ramifications which came along with it. They forbade her from seeing the man who got her pregnant. Their non-negotiable ultimatum made it so they could not be there for her when she made the decision of choosing him over them. Jill had to drop out of school to take care of her son, she did not have the support to get a higher education and they were not able to help her with raising their grandson. Mike and Anna made the wrong calculation that an education would be more important than what their daughter had mistaken as love.

Mike explained his wife's honest answer, “Jill we let you down. We gave up on you. We forced you to make a decision that you should not have had to make. We were not there for you. If we were you would have never stayed with that man for so long. We tried to force you to live how we wanted you to.”

Richard stayed silent. How foreign this interaction between a child and parents was captured his curiosity. The observant teenager was seeing how a functional family worked. This was the first time he saw a father admit to his child he was wrong. A man also letting his wife take in the lead was virgin territory to him. It was like they were working together. He swore that they had the same goals and both were willing to put what was best for the couple above their personal wants. What his grandparents were doing seemed right yet felt like a fantasy.

Before this moment, the real world to him, was the man trying to be the dictator of his home and working so hard to make his wife subservient. The wife was always having to pick and choose where, when and how to defy any edict or orders. She had to somehow figure out how to get the most from the crumbs which were left on the husband’s plate after he gorged himself.

How much his mom was able to get from such a greedy ruler made Richard a momma’s boy. Some of the wrong lessons from his dad might have stuck, but there was no way he was going to disrespect his mom by being like his dad in a relationship. It might be the stuff of a fantasy but Richard the dreamer was going to treat his girl like the queen she was. That was why he went overboard on Lynn today. His queen wanted some alone time with her king so Lynn should have just quit playing for a while. She was his sister and should not have been put in charge of Lynn and not be able to have her own privacy. If her parents trusted Kaya enough to watch Lynn then they should have trusted her enough to be alone in a room with her boyfriend.

As his wife welcomed their daughter back home, Mike went and introduced himself to his grandson. Richard saw his granddad come toward him so he put his hand out to offer a handshake. Mike grabbed Richard’s hand and pulled his grandson in for a warm hug. Mike said, “My name is Mike, and I am your grandfather. Please call me Bampi.”

This was the first time Richard was shown physical affection by a man. Instead of fighting the hug and saying to himself not homo, Ricard embraced the feeling of being embraced by someone who cared for him. Accepting this hug made him feel stronger and better about himself than if he would have rejected it. Somehow Richard knew just from that hug that his Bampi would always have his back.

“I will Bampi.”

“Now what should I call you? Richard, Dick, Rich, or Ric?”

Wanting to keep being accepted by his Bampi, Richard responded, “Whatever you like.”

Mike saw his grandson’s Pearl Jam shirt and was hoping that their shared love of music would be common ground. “OK Dick, I see you like Pearl Jam. I saw them a couple of times. The first time was when they opened for the Stones. That was back in ‘97.”

Jill heard her dad call her son Dick. That was the goto nickname for Richard in the area Mike grew up. She did not want her son to show how he had too much of his dad, dick, in him by showing anger at being called a name he did not like. “Dad, he goes by Richard. He does not like being called Dick.”

Mike asked if what his daughter said was true. Richard did not want to offend his Bampi. He only knew of rejection if he did not go along with what a male family member wanted. “It is fine if you call me Dick.”

Mike's voice went from being jovial to comforting and firm as he said. “Richard, it is not fine if I call you something you don’t like. You are welcome here and you are my grandson. I want to call you by what you go by and what makes you comfortable. Like I want you to call me by what you are comfortable calling me. If you are not ready to call me Bampi don’t.”

Being given respect gave people strength. It let them take down all the barriers they had to protect themselves. Now knowing that hugging his Bampi was so not homo, Richard hugged him. This was so his actions backed up his words of embracing and welcoming his Bampi into his life. “Bampi, please call me Richard.”

Gesturing to the lady his daughter was standing next to Mike finished the formal introduction by saying “Richard, this is Anna, she is your Mamgu.”

Anna wanted to make sure that her grandson knew she did not have to accept her as his Mamgu right away. That he only had to use that term of affection when he was ready to. She could tell he wanted to be accepted by them so he was willing to do whatever it took to appease them. Those two learned their lesson about others needing to appease them, so the only thing Richard had to do to be a part of this family was to be himself. “Richard, you know you can call me Anna, right?”

Once again Richard used his actions to back up his words. He went over to hug Anna and said, “I know Mamgu.”

******************

Kaya Stallworth stayed in her room after she was done cleaning up the mess on the floor which came from her making a mess of her life. She did not know what to do next. She wanted to go to the door to get out of the scene where she humiliated her brother, yet could not find the motivation to start moving. Thinking of having to face Lynn and her parents, made the girl start to realize the damage she had done. The naturally rebellious nature of a teenager had left her. She was in too much pain from her dad telling her he had given up on her. The added knowledge that he felt that he let her down was just adding salt in the wound and hastening her becoming the prodigal daughter.

The absence of sound was what greeted Alana as she was approaching Kaya’s room. Unless her daughter was sleeping this was wrong. A teenager’s room is usually alive with the sound of their emotions unless they were sleeping. Laughter and other joyous sounds if they were in high spirits, sighs or grumbles and somber sounds if their spirits were low. This uncommon silence made the mother who was already on high alert even more careful of making sure she handled the upcoming interaction right.

The cautious mother lightly knocked on her daughter’s door. Alana knew her daughter needed her, but she did not want to take the chance of waking her up if she was sleeping. Her support and being there for her daughter could wait if Kaya was getting rest. Her daughter was going to need all the strength she could muster to face the upcoming hard work ahead of her. Kaya had to get back in Lynn’s good graces and somehow show her dad he did not let her down.

The faint noise of a knock coming from Kaya’s door, made Kaya know it was her mom. Her brother would not be coming anywhere near her, and her dad’s knock would be louder. Thinking of the outcomes of all her bad decisions was still weighing Kaya down so instead of getting up from the corner of her bed she told her mom to come in.

The outcomes of all her bad decisions also made Kaya know she was doing the right thing by inviting her mom in. She was not doing what she wanted. Kaya would love nothing more than to stay alone. All the bad decisions came from her doing what she wanted instead of also taking into account doing what was right.

Alana accepted the weak invite into her daughter’s room. She went over and joined her daughter by sitting on the bed next to her. The mom knew that the weight of what happened today was too much for her daughter to carry. She wanted to be like Hercules and take the weight of the world off of her daughter’s shoulders. Instead, all she could do was watch and give guidance to Kaya on how to carry her burden.

Kaya needed some certainty about the labors ahead of her and asked her mom what was her punishment.

Alana said, “Nothing. Your dad giving up is punishment enough. You are just going to have to do the right thing and hope that helps quicken him to find faith in himself.”

“You mean me.”

“No dear. Your dad thinks that he is the cause of what happened between you and Lynn today. That his guidance was what led you to your actions.”

“They were not! Dad did nothing wrong. I was just frustrated that Richard and I could not have any time alone. I overreacted to Lynn standing up to me. I should have followed your rules. Now, when are you going to make Lynn talk to me so I can tell him I am sorry and this will never happen again?”

“Kaya honey. I cannot make Lynn talk to you. He needs to come around on his own. You are also going to have to just do the right thing and wait for him to come around. I know he will.”

“I am going to break up with Richard. He caused this trouble.”

Alana went from comforting to stern. She stayed calm to make sure her daughter knew the words which were coming out of her mouth were not caused by emotions but by facts. “You can break up with Richard if you think he is a bad influence on you. Do not blame him for what you did. You were the one who thought of putting your brother in makeup and a dress. You did that after Richard was gone.

“I know you feel bad and want things back to how they were. Not taking responsibility for your actions might make you not feel bad, but they will hamper things getting back to normal. You have to accept what you did before you can ask for forgiveness.”

“Mom treating my brother that badly is not who I am.”

Alana went back to comforting her daughter. “I know that. You made a huge mistake but you have to see you made it.”

“I did, I did not think before it got so out of hand.”

*****************

Richard knew it was an hour early but was heading to pick up his girlfriend. His mom, grandmom and grandad needed time to catch up and more importantly talk about the future. His Bampi and Mangu wanted to do what was best for their daughter. They gave up on her once, and now they can make amends. The best way of righting the wrong was in making sure they supported their daughter as she started her new life.

Standing at the front door of his car, Richard put on his sunglasses. Before, he wore them as a layer of protection to keep the outside world as far away from him as possible. There would have been the added bonus of somewhat covering the bruises on his face from standing up to his father. Now he saw the skin discolorations from the blood getting out of broken blood vessels as badges of honor, rewards to be proud of having. If someone asked he would get a deep pleasure from telling them he got them from his dad for doing the right thing.

Now the reason Richard donned the sunglasses was with how bright the sun was. The only thing brighter in his life right now was his future. Richard did not know why he had so much faith that today was a turn for the better in his life, but he knew that the sense of control he had was what was making it so. Before standing up for his mom and himself and finding the support of his Bampi and Mangu, Richard felt his life was spinning like a ballerina out of control. He never had any agency. He had to always follow the rules because others said so.

After arriving and parking at Kaya's, Richard got out of his car. Walking towards the front door he took off his sunglasses. The shield to protect him from the outside world was not wanted or needed. The teenage boy who was gaining confidence was not worrying about if the black eye made other people think he was weak. He knew the truth. He knew it was a sign of him not being pushed around by other people anymore.

Richard rang the doorbell. The boy who was becoming a man was looking straight at the door. He was going to greet everything in life face to face from now on.

Kaya’s dad, Troy, was the welcoming committee. To tell the truth, the look of angst and anger on his Troy's face made him more part of an unwelcoming committee. The look might have been more intense, but Richard was used to Troy's passive-aggressive behavior toward him. This did not bother or phase Richard one bit. Richard knew that he was not high on Troy’s list of his favorite things.

Richard said, “Mr. Stallworth, I am here to pick up Kaya, is she ready?”

Richard was not expecting to be invited into the home. Even before Troy’s edict of Richard being permanently banned from the house, he never invited Kaya’s boyfriend in. He wanted that boy out of his presence as soon as possible. There was no way Troy was going to try to forge a relationship with Richard. He might not be able to ban Kaya from seeing him, but that does not mean he has to be friendly with someone he felt was a bad influence on his daughter.

Instead of getting the normal response of “Wait here, I will get her,” Troy said, “Looks like Dick finally messed with someone his size instead of picking on someone smaller.”

Troy was feeling so proud of himself. He loved being able to rub into that boy’s face that he got what he deserved. This moment of feeling good was fleeting as soon as he heard Richard’s response.

Instead of trying to be cool and blow off those hurtful words Richard stood up for himself. Pointing to his black eye Richard made the strong statement, “Yeah, I got this from my dad. He tried to hit my mom in front of me for the first and last time.”

Troy’s feeling of pride was suddenly destroyed by Richard’s verbal missile. Now Troy was feeling like a small man at this moment. Physical size has nothing to do with how big of a man someone is. Being a big man is about being mature and always doing the right thing. Troy knew what he had to do. He had to be there for Richard also. This boy was being abused by his father and he needed guidance and support, not being looked down upon like Troy was doing.

Feeling and actual being, are two different things. Troy was a big man and was going to start to act like one. His first course of action was opening both the screen door and himself to let Richard in. Then Troy said “Son, I am sorry about that. I should have never gloated about you being hit. Come in, we need to talk."