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Show 30 Kathryn, the nurse who is "on" tonight, comes smiling through the door with treats for us both - an unexpected gift - as she pushes a stand holding the portable TV with the VHS player. We chat a bit and I am aware that my daughter is carrying the conversation more as an adult than as a child. Pauses come thoughtfully. Questions are given due consideration. Eye contact is attained and maintained. "You ladies enjoy your evening together," Kathryn is saying as if to her equals as she exits, closing the door behind her. My daughter pushes "play" and we eat the micro-waved popcorn from the bag before it cools then start in on the chocolates in full carpe diem. We toast our root-beers and watch the young men in the movie gain wisdom in their youth and I am suddenly aware of a darkness in this movie I did not know would be there. A young man has taken his own life. I am looking over at my daughter to see her response to this horrible turn of events and know from her expression that I cannot stop the movie at this point. There is no sheltering her. I am praying that this fiction will resolve in the right way. The movie has ended and she is supervising the rewinding of it absently. "What do you think, about his taking his own life," I ask, hearing fear at the question in my own voice. |