14. My Alien’s Alien
Mina
When Ben and I made it back to our street, we could hear Dad and Marie laughing about something from half a block away.
He was out in the yard working on some kind of wooden model at the rarely used glass patio table. She was sunning herself on an even more rarely used deck chair in a very small bikini. My mother’s car was in the driveway, and there was agitated movement behind the living room window.
The whole scene made me gag. I didn’t doubt Ben’s talent for analyzing their relationship, but I found I didn’t care much. Even if Marie really was nothing but an old business associate, she was one more Splinter enjoying some piece of the life that had been stolen from my father and making what remained of my mother’s life more painful.
Whatever the situation w
