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anything to mess it up.

    www.allmytruths.com

    Today’s Truth:
    If you step too close to the fire, you may get burned.

    September starts, and Dad breaks the vow of silence he instituted when Mom died.

    Brett is a hot topic on Dad’s lips, and their arguments rage through the house like a fire.

    The flames climb the walls, the curtains, and wooden ceiling beams until they push into my room, making it too hot to come out.

    Their words burn.

    I crouch in my room above, my ear to the floor, listening.

    Dad’s voice sparks, questions sounding like accusations, insults, threats burning my brother.

    â€œIs there a reason why you don’t complete your Spanish homework and won’t speak Spanish in class?”

    â€œDo you really think refusing to change into your gym uniform is going to get you a passing grade in the class?”

    â€œYou’re failing math. If you don’t get your act together, you’re going to fail the grading period.”

    â€œAre you even trying to make friends at Beacon, or are you sitting around with the same pissed-off look on your face that you have at home?”

    â€œYour English teacher called and said you didn’t turn in your paper. Do you plan to stop sitting on your ass and complete it?”

    â€œDo you care about your work? Yourself? Your future?”

    â€œYou’ve been caught four times in the parking lot during lunch. What are you doing out there? Do you want me to take the car from you? Search your room? Are you doing drugs?”

    â€œYou need to do something with your hair. Cut it. I didn’t raise my son to look like a slob.”

    The words break through the calm of the evenings.

    Fault after fault is flung at Brett, who says nothing back.

    I think Brett’s silence is his way of fighting fire with fire, using Dad’s best tricks to give him a taste of his own medicine.

    So while Dad breaks the long stretches of silence we’re used to in our house, Brett manufactures his own.

    Night after night, Dad comes at Brett asking him for explanations. He wants to know what changed. What made Brett’s grades drop? Why he is behaving so unlike himself?

    Brett never answers, but Dad keeps pushing.

    And I sit helpless. I want to run down and extinguish the fire by sticking up for Brett, but I’ll only cause smoke so thick no one would be able to see. You need to smother a fire to put it out; my fanning will only encourage the flames.

    They scare me, these fires. Sometimes the night burns so hot I worry once the fire is out, all that will remain are the skeletons of the house frame, the rest stripped bare.

    Posted By: Your Present Self
    [Monday, September 2, 11:07 PM]

Chapter 7
    I learned about the winter equinox in Mrs. Dreiling’s fourth grade science class. She’d explained it was the start of winter, the one day a year when the night is longer than the day.
    September 7 was my winter equinox. It was the second anniversary of my mom’s death. I didn’t need winter with its freezing earth and everything icing over to believe this date was the darkest of the year. All day long I tried not to think about how much had changed, but it was hard to get my mind onto anything else.
    Last year Brett and I went to the cemetery. He drove us there after school instead of heading home. He didn’t say where we were going, but I knew. Dad was waiting at the entrance, and the three of us spent the afternoon at her grave, not talking, but for once we didn’t need to.
    Now, with Brett still angry at having to go to Beacon and Dad immersed in basketball, I was left alone to remember Mom. I heard an announcement earlier in the day reminding students of the basketball clinic after school. I wasn’t surprised Dad agreed to a practice on the anniversary of Mom’s death. It was so easy for him to lose himself in basketball that he forgot there were others around him who also needed help.
    Brett