Ampersand

I know that Dad still doesn’t like him. Yes, he was rude to him the first time they met, but I would have thought that of anyone Dad would understand the need to protect yourself through words. But being glib isn’t the best way to get on Dad’s good side, and when Dad finally tells me exactly what he said, I realize that his words must have seemed designed to alienate himself from Dad from the first.
But he is caustic and sometimes even cruel to everyone else. And I don’t understand why, because with me he’s so…well, sweet isn’t the right word, but even though I spend more time than I probably should mulling over it, rejecting this word and that, it’s as close as I can get.

I ask him why on a regular basis, but I never get a real answer.

Commas and Ampersands, Emily Keller, fiction, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, short story Creative Outlet, NaNoWriMo