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Moving On
“What the hell is wrong with you kid? It’s a simple concept, one we’ve been working onall night. Are you stupid? Or maybe just retarded? You know what?” the man threwdown the expensive calculator and stood up. “I’m done. You’re on your own, but I’ll tellyou one thing buster, if you fail math, you’re losing everything, video games, computer,TV, the works. And don’t come crying to me like the baby you are.”Claudia winced at her desk in the next room. Why did he have to talk to him like that?Why did he have to belittle him and make him feel like an idiot?She waited for her husband to leave the kitchen before she quietly approached her son.She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and offered an encouraging smile. “It’s okayhoney, you’ll get it. The light bulb just hasn’t come on yet. Maybe you need a tutor?Would that help you?”Her son sighed and shook his head. “No. I’m just tired. And it’s hard to concentrate when…” he trailed off and Claudia nodded, understanding what he wasn’t saying.“Are you done with your homework?”“Yeah.” His shoulders were slumped over and he looked utterly defeated.Claudia could feel the familiar anger building inside her. She was married to an asshole,no doubt about it. Her husband had always been verbally abusive with her, she supposedshe had hoped he would mellow by the time they had had kids.He hadn’t.“Okay,” she ran a hand through his hair “Why don’t you take a nice hot shower and relaxa bit.”“Stop coddling the kid, Claudia! He needs to grow up and that won’t happen if you don’tstop mothering him. Now bring me some beer. Make yourself useful for a change. I’mtired and I have an important meeting in the morning.”The smile she bestowed on her son was strained, but she tried hard not to let him see herdistress. The kid had enough problems as it was, he didn’t need to start worrying abouther.“Go on, son.” She gave him a gentle push. Her son gathered up his schoolwork andmoved away.She sighed and counted to ten. She wouldn’t lose her temper, that only made thingsworse. Even though her husband had never hit her, she knew that if she pushed him toofar, he just might start.
 
 She grabbed a beer and dragging her feet, she took it to him.****“Oh yeah!” Her husband yelled at the TV and then turned to high five one his co-workersnext to him. “Awesome point, man! Jeffries can DUNK that ball! Yeah!”Claudia winced and resisted the urge to cover her ears. She hated when her husbandraised his voice to begin with, she doubly hated it when he started shouting over stupidbasketball games.“They’re gonna lose, man!” he gloated toward another man across the table.“I wouldn’t celebrate too soon,” the man grumbled. Claudia didn’t know his real name asher husband only ever referred to him as the suck-up. “They always screw things uptoward the end.”“Yeah, whatever dude. You’re sweating, I can see the shine from here. You’re gonna oweme $50 bucks before this night is over so you might as well get your wallet out now,” herhusband yelled while giving the man next to him yet another loud victory slap.Claudia took a sip of her beer and carefully disguised her disgust. She hated beer, but itdidn’t matter. The one time she had dared to order wine at one of these stupid sports’ barsshe had never heard the end of it.“Wine!” Her husband had snorted. “What are you, one of those queer French people?Drink something a little more American, will you? Geez, you’re so stupid sometimes.”He had rolled his eyes and had punched his friend in the arm after he said it. She hadmade the mistake of meeting the man’s eyes afterward and she nearly died when she sawthe pity in them.“Can you believe they drag us to these things?” the woman said next to her.Claudia heaved a sigh of relief and turned to offer her quiet opinion about grown menacting like morons and barely stopped herself in time when she saw the gentle, amusedlook on the woman’s face. She was looking toward her husband, the man that her ownhusband had been high-fiving moments earlier. She looked almost proud of his cavemantactics and Claudia ground her teeth together. Great. Yet another person who she couldn’treally talk to.She assumed her “game” face and sat up a little straighter. “Go Knicks!” She somehowworked up the energy to lift her fist into the air, but her heart wasn’t in it.****
 
“Put some backbone in it, son! Geez, you throw like a damn girl. What’s the matter withyou? Stop acting like a sissy and throw the freaking thing.” Her husband punched a handinto the ball glove and squatted, waiting for her son to throw the ball.She parted the blinds and watched her son’s face. He was trying so hard to be the sort of boy his father wanted him to be, but she knew, he just wasn’t interested in sports. Hepreferred to toss code around and manipulate software. His goal was to be a computerprogrammer and from what she had seen so far, he was quite good at it. He had alreadycreated two games and posted them to his website (which her husband didn’t know about,she had all of the bills sent to her parents’ house) which had quickly drawn quite animpressive number of fans. He was currently working on something bigger, somethingthat would make him money and she prayed it would be enough to help support his desireto move out shortly after graduation.“Hang in there, kid,” she whispered to her son through the glass. “Just two short monthsand then you’ll be away from this jerk.”****“Mrs. Dickens?”Claudia jerked at the sound of her name. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts,smoothed her skirt over her legs and assumed a friendly, but professional smile.“Your resume is very impressive. I did have one question though.” He sat down behindhis desk and lifted her resume eye level. “There’s a gap in your work history … aboutseven years.”She nervously cleared her throat. She had been prepared for this. “Yes. I was a stay-at-home mom. And even though I wasn’t actively working, I did maintain contact with pastassociates and kept on top of the industry news. If you wish, I would be happy to talk about the current trends …”He held up a hand and smiled. “There’s no need. I was just curious.” He studied her forlong moments and she forced herself to look into his eyes. Though she maintained a cooldemeanor, her stomach rolled and pitched and she felt quite nauseous.“My wife just recently returned to work,” he began with a soft smile. “Our kids aregetting bigger and don’t need her around as much, so I know what you must be feelingright about now. She was extremely nervous and worried that no one would give her achance.”She relaxed somewhat. He understood. Finally, thank God, someone understood.“I’m happy to say she got the job she wanted.” The pride on his face was obvious.Claudia felt a surprising stab of jealously but then quickly squelched it. She would not
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