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your own dinner
for a change.”
    “You’re not in charge around here,
Silverstar,” responded Matt.
    “No, but I am in charge of Kate,” answered
Runyon. “So she and I are going out to dinner.”
    “Runyon,” began Kate in a warning tone of
voice.
    “I don’t care what those lizards say,”
declared Matt angrily. “You don’t own Kate.”
    “Neither do you,” shot back Runyon just as
angrily.
    The kitchen door opened. “What’s going on in
here?” demanded Carlos Garcia. “I could hear you guys all the way
out to the street.”
    There was a babble of explanations for a few
minutes, and then their voices quieted down. Carlos looked at his
kids, and then he turned to Runyon.
    “So you say that you are taking Katey out to
dinner, and that we will have to prepare our own meal?” asked
Carlos.
    “That’s right,” stated the younger man
defiantly.
    For a brief interval, there was silence from
everyone. Kate realized that she was holding her breath. Then Kate
hastened to intervene.
    “Dad, never mind him, I can…”
    “No, Katey,” said Carlos as he interrupted
his daughter. “That’s a good idea. You go with Runyon and have
dinner.”
    Stunned, Kate just looked at him. Carlos
glanced at his sons. “We’re not helpless, are we?” he demanded
sharply.
    The three young men responded with a
grumbling chorus of, “No.”
    Carlos turned to Runyon. There was another
moment of silence, as Kate’s father considered the actor.
    “There is a restaurant in the hotel on
Westside Boulevard. They have good food there. They make a good
steak Diane. And they get seafood every day from the bay. Katey can
show you where the hotel is.”
    He turned to his daughter. “Katey, you go
take a shower, and get cleaned up. You smell a little bit.”
    “Dad!” exclaimed his embarrassed daughter who
quickly left the room in a huff.
    By the time Kate returned, dressed in her
best tight designer jeans and a low scooped modestly priced blouse,
the boys had nuked macaroni and cheese and were enthusiastically
digging in. Runyon was standing awkwardly by the kitchen door.
    Matt scowled when he saw how Kate was
dressed. Even though she had been sympathetic to him, Kate felt
like smacking her older brother. He is being such a pain, she
thought. Her Dad gave her a cheerful good-bye wave. Then she turned
toward Runyon. Runyon gave her his trademarked smile. She frowned
at him.
    They traveled in silence most of the way to
the hotel before Runyon spoke.
    “Look, I could say that I’m sorry, okay?” he
said. “But, I’m not. I just think that you needed to have a break
for a change.”
    “I’m not stupid. I know what you were doing,”
replied Kate. She debated what to say next. “It’s just that, ever
since my Mom left us, I’ve been doing the stuff that she used to
do. They are use to it. I’m use to it.”
    Runyon didn’t say anything for a while, but
then he asked cautiously, “Do you ever hear from your Mom? Or is
she…?”
    “Dead? No, she’s alive and well and living in
Las Vegas. She’s married again to a guy that doesn’t want children,
the same as her.”
    Now Kate was silent before speaking
again.
    “I went to see her once. It was not long
after she left. I saw the divorce papers in my Dad’s room. There
was an address. Early one morning, instead of going to school, I
got a bus ticket to Barstow, and from there I caught the bus to Las
Vegas.
    “When I got to Vegas, I found that they lived
about five miles away in a suburb. It was getting late. I didn’t
have her phone number, so I hiked the five miles. When I got there,
I was so tired. I hoped that she would be glad to see me. Instead,
she was upset. I had barged in on the little world that she had
created. She called my father, and then she drove me back to the
bus station and left me there. I waited four hours until the next
bus to Barstow.”
    She gave him a grim smile. “So there. Now you
know poor Kate’s sad tale. There’s the hotel.” She