Scene 2

Thea heard the doorbell ring and knew it was her parents. She was upstairs in Shelly's room with the twins and Angela. They wanted to go to the top of the stairs and eavesdrop, but decided they should just wait. After about thirty minutes, they changed their minds and went to open the door, but heard footsteps in the hall outside Shelly's room. There was a soft knock, and Kelly went to answer the door.

"Hey Kelly, is Thea here?"

"Yes, Mr. Watson." The girls looked at each other as Kelly opened the door. Thea's mom and dad were standing in the hallway and Thea could tell her mom had been crying.

"Thea, hon, we need to talk about this." Thea started to interrupt, but her dad raised his hand and she stopped.

"We'll give you a chance to talk, but we need to do this some where else. Why don't we go to Esbett's and get some dinner?" Thea knew she didn't really have a choice, so she gave the girls hugs and followed her parents down the stairs. On the way out the front door, Thea saw that her stuff had been taken out of Kelly's room and stacked up by the door, but her parents walked right by it. She decided that maybe there was still hope they'd go along with her plan.

When they got to the restaurant, Thea realized she wasn't really hungry. She ordered a cheeseburger anyway, and waited for her parents to start the conversation. She didn't have to wait long. As soon as the waiter brought their drinks, her mom started.

"We got your note." Long pause. Thea waited, and watched as her mom fidgeted for a couple of minutes. Her dad started to say something once, but Mom just touched his hand, and he stopped.

Mom cleared her throat and said, "Let me try this again. We understand how hard this is for you and the girls. It's been a horrible year for all of us, and, well, the truth is, we don't want to move either."

"Then why are we, Mom? What's really going on?"

Mom looked at Dad, who said, "You know how I've been having some trouble at work, right? Well, things came to a head a few weeks ago, and my supervisor threatened to have me fired if I didn't follow orders. I went over his head, and things got weird, and I ended up getting reassigned to Hopeton. It's a promotion that's really a demotion, and it's the only way I could keep working for the Company."

"Why don't you just quit? You could work for Angela's dad or something."

"Not that simple, sweetheart. We have a lot tied up in the company, and we really can't just up and leave."

"Dad, it's an engineering company, not The Firm." Her dad laughed and cleared his throat. Thea had a feeling they weren't telling her everything, and said as much. Her parents each reached across the table and took one of her hands.

"Honey, listen to me. There are some things we can't go into right now, but you don't need to worry about it. It's some legal stuff that I can't talk about to anybody, but we'll be fine. You're just going to have to trust me on this, okay?"

"Thea, your dad and I love you very much, you know that, right?" Thea nodded. "And you know we would never do anything to hurt you on purpose. I know this hurts you, and if there was any other way to take care of this, we would. But we don't have any choice. And we can't leave you behind. Please, trust us when we say that we can't let you stay here, even if we wanted to."

Thea saw something in her parents' eyes she'd only seen once before. It had been during a storm that had spawned a tornado which had touched down in the empty lot right across the street from their house. They had been terrified, and the look was unforgettable. Thea knew something was horribly wrong, and that she was powerless to do anything about it.

"Okay, Mom, I'll go."