Encompassing by Richard Lord Read Free Book Online Page A

point.  Aren’t you supposed to be tracing your hand for your turkey drawing project?”
    “I did that.  It’s rote and foolish.  My point is that you seem to feel pain.  However, I remember when you broke your leg and your hand in that accident.  You walked around all day and did stuff, and then you healed.  You didn’t seem to feel pain.  Why would a hammer cause you more pain than broken bones?”  She summed up her question.
    “Okay.  I’ll answer that, but don’t tell your mother.  Deal?”  Renfield gave her the standard keep a secret look.
    “Actually that raises another question.”  She replied.
    Renfield waved a finger while saying, “Nope!  One question at a time.  Which one do you prefer to hear the answer to?  You choose.  I’ll answer one, but you have to choose which one you would rather have the answer to.”
    She looked up and put a finger to her chin, much the way her father does, but with no goatee to play with while doing so.  Then she looked at her father in a pleading look, but Renfield gave her a stern look back.  She knew he was serious.  He always was when it came to making choices.  “Well…”  She drew it out as she always did looking at him as if he had the answer to what was more important to her.
    Renfield stepped in as he always did in those moments and said, “Remember, what are the pros and what are the cons is how you begin.  But, sometimes even if the cons outweigh the pros, what you want is still more important to you and you alone.  There is no one who can do that math for you because it’s not an equation.”
    “I know, I know, hold on.”  She looks to her left and then to her right as if the two questions are objects, one on one side the other on the other side.  She takes a few seconds on each side first, then less the second go and then she lowers her right hand.
    Renfield knows that means she chose the question she had assigned to her left.  He doesn’t try to read ahead.  He waits.
    She then says, “Does Mom not like me?”
    Renfield immediately begins trying to keep her from reading him while he ponders, what to him, seems like an odd question.  His brain reels back through his daughter’s entire life history wondering what would bring on that question, but he knows already and he knows that he understands.  He just wish he didn’t.  Then he begins to answer, “You and I are different from each other, right?”
    “Yeah, I’m a girl and you’re a boy.  What does that have to do with this?”  She gives him an odd look and a suspicious one at the same time.  She can tell he is stalling.
    “Actually, I’m a man, but that’s another conversation for another time.”  Adam begins to answer but he sees her pout at him in disapproval already and stops to hear what she is about to say.
    ”Well, Mom says you act like a child.”  She responds as the pout goes away and she perks towards him for the answer to her chosen question.
    Renfield chuckles and then gets very serious again, “That’s a good point.  See, your Mom doesn’t want you to end up like me.  But I know for sure she loves you more than anyone, other than me!”
    “What’s wrong with you?”  She asks.
    Renfield surprised by the follow up question pauses then answers, “It’s not that there is anything wrong with me, she just doesn’t want you to go through things I have.”
    “Is she worried I’ll turn into a boy like you?”  She asks.
    Renfield pushes down his laughter and answers, “No!”  Then he grins at her.  “I don’t think that’s her concern.  She just wants you to live like the princesses do.”
    “Dad, you’re not a king, so how can I be a princess?”  She states.
    “True, but be patient with your mother.  That’s how she was raised and yet she became a pilot, go figure.”  Renfield grins at her again and goes back to his work.

CHAPTER 13
    “No matter where you are, you’re always experiencing your mistakes or your