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She stopped talking suddenly, the memory of the event being too traumatic for her to smoothly describe it. Richard put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She placed a hand over his, squeezed it, and offered him a grateful, bittersweet smile.
<span class="mu-g">“Your father went outside to check on the situation.”</span> she continued. <span class="mu-g">“I tried to get him to stay put, but you know how your father is when he sets his mind to something.”</span>
You and your brother nodded and groaned slightly, but for some reason, you couldn’t find it in yourself to muster up any real resentment. Not now, at least.
<span class="mu-g">“Anyway,”</span> mom said. <span class="mu-g">“He stepped outside to check on things, and the ninja mummy tried to get him to go back inside too. She was making some aggressive hand gestures, but your father wasn’t having any of it. That was when I noticed the armed gunman hiding in the bushes…”</span>
She paused to wipe a tear from her eye, and you remained silent until she was ready to continue with her story.
<span class="mu-g">“I screamed for him to get down, but then I realized he was aiming at the mummy. Your father must have realized it too, because he pushed her out of the way and-”</span>
She could hold back the tears no longer. Just the memory of seeing the man she loved take a bullet for someone else was too much for her to bear. You’d gotten the gist of what she was struggling to express, anyway.
Cindy was ashamed that she managed to miss something so important, and even more devastated that she failed to carry out the one job that she had set out to accomplish. In an act of bravado, Peter Parker Sr. sacrificed himself to save a complete stranger.
Cindy still wasn’t looking at either of you. And even Richard had started to tear up at this point. He and dad always had a closer relationship when you were growing up. And while you and he weren’t exactly close, you never wished for anything like this to happen to him.
Dad could be an ass, sure. But he was still the man who raised you, and you could never hate him.
—-----
The emotional outburst from your mother and brother was immediately followed by a painfully long silence, with muttered reassurances from each of you that your father was too tough to go down from this. The more it was said, the more believable the notion was. You all needed that right now. Something to cling to.
Hell, you even considered prayer after a while. Who would you pray to, though? You weren’t terribly religious, and there were so many genuine gods whose existence had been confirmed in some way or another.
There was Odin—no, wait. He was gone now, wasn’t he? Thor took his place as the ruler of Asgard. Could he somehow hear your prayers? As a god that would typically slum it up with the people of “Midgard”, he might be more sympathetic to your pleas.
(Cont.)
