Righteous

A dialogue between a young man and his militant father

"Henry Alfred Lewis Oswald" my very strict almost militant father called from down stairs "Front and centre" I raced down from my bedroom

"Yes dad" I said with military like respect

"Look at this" he said angrily waving my report card in my face

"I have already seen it sir" I said my eyes focused squarely on his

"Well what do you have to say about the grades" he asked

"I am proud of the grades I got in all my classes" I answered truthfully

"Proud, proud" his left temple throbbing "You’re proud of this..." he looked at my report card with a look of serious distaste "Garbage"

"Not so much that in particular father but what it shows" I answered peaking his curiosity

"What it shows" he asked almost dutifully. I had caught him off guard.

"May I show you father" I asked

"Yes you may" he nodded. I turned on my heal went back to my room and grabbed last semester's report card and handed it to him

"What?" he asked looking from both report cards blindly. I bit my tongue

"Father, look at the marks I got last semester compared to this semester" I said as calmly as I could when what I really wanted to do was show him my fist.

"What about it" he responded stubbornly. I lost it

"Ok you f*****g retard" I screamed at him "I know you didn't pass the second grade and ended up in military school. But any moron, including you, could see that last semester's numbers are smaller then this semester's. Which means this semesters marks are higher" he stood there shocked, looking from page to page. He looked at me his left temple almost bursting from his head.

"How dare you" he swung a right hook at my head and I dodged "talk" a left jab that I blocked "to me" an uppercut I didn't see coming clipped my jaw and knocked me to the ground "like that" he raised his foot as if to stomp on me. When my mum stepped out of the living room

"Don't you dare!" she screamed "This high general attitude of yours has gone on long enough!" she turned to me "Henry get up" I got up. My father looked at me

"You ever speak to me like that again and I’ll kill you" he said menacingly. I punched him square in the jaw with a powerful right hook. Knocking him on his a*s

"Samuel" my father’s name "I am not afraid of you anymore." I looked to my mother "Come on I'll take you out to dinner" she nodded and moved over to me cautious of my father.

"You'll pay for this" he menaced from the floor. I stepped up to him

"Yeah I will" I said smiling, looking to my mother I asked mockingly "Is it all right if I pay for dinner" She looked at my father and laughed.

"Of course dear" I linked my arm with my mum and we trotted outside smiling.