Roger Madison had just settled in on the couch with a beer to watch the game. Linda was helping Mikey with his homework, and the other kids were out. Finally he had a quiet moment for some man time. Life was good.
Suddenly, there was a fairly frantic knock on the door. Luckily, the game was in a time-out so Roger got up to answer, keeping his beer in hand. It was his new neighbor at the door.
"Oh, hey Sam. What's up? Come on in. You a football fan?"
"Oh, uh. Sure. Thanks." He crossed into the foyer. "Listen, I..."
"Great! Game's on. Want a beer?"
"No thanks. Look, Roger, I came over to tell you something."
"Sure, what's up?"
"It's my daughter. She... she has some problems."
"What do you mean? Behavior-wise? Yeah, our Mikey went through some of that. It's probably just a phase."
"No, this has been going on quite a bit longer. It's more than behavior. It's... it's hard to explain."
"I'm not sure I understand," Roger said, taking a sip of the diet soda he'd been holding.
"She can... change things. Anything she wants. Sometimes she lets me remember, though not always everything. I'm not even sure I've always been her father."
Roger raised an eyebrow, when his wife Linda suddenly came into the foyer. "Hi, Sam!" she greeted, "It was so nice to meet you and your family. I hope we're still on for dinner Friday?"
"You got it," Sam said with a blush, and Linda retreated back to the dining room where Mikey had been.
Roger looked back at Sam. "I have literally no idea what you were just talking about. You feeling ok?"
"So you're saying you didn't just notice that your wife is now walking around in a high school football jersey?"
"Of course I noticed. She never takes it off! I mean, sure she's the quarterback and everything, but it's like she's always bragging about it. I mean, who caares that much about football, anyway. You never seemed to mind though, especially now that you're going on a date this Friday."
"Date?!"
"Come on Sam, don't be such a ditz. She said dinner on Friday! I'm still not sure how I feel about you dating my brother, but whatever. Let's go up to my room and see if there's a dress you might want to borrow."
Roger smiled when his BFF agreed to the suggestion. The two bounded up the stairs, happy to have some girl time. Life was good.
Seconds later, Jon bolted through the front door, struggling to catch his breath.
