He believed that Tony’s doll was evil. He believed that his son was doing something wrong in making it and that he knew it was wrong and that’s why he had tried to hide it. He believed that, for whatever reason, Margot couldn’t tell what was happening and didn’t understand.

“It’s not for school?” Daniel asked again.

Tony shook his head.

“Then throw it away. If you want art supplies, we’ll get you art supplies.”

“We can’t afford—” Margot started to say.

“I don’t want art supplies!” Tony said. “I just want you to leave me alone!”

Margot pulled at Daniel’s sleeve, pulled him toward the door. “Come on.”

Daniel stood his ground. “I don’t want that thing in the house.”

“What’s the matter with you?” Margot frowned at him.

“I’ll do it in the garage,” Tony said.

Daniel didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. He knew his attitude appeared irrational, but he could not seem to articulate his aversion to the figure, could not seem to explain and communicate his feelings toward the horrid object. The threads were there but he could not pull them together. He glanced from Tony to Margot. He did not want to get into a fight with them over this. He knew the truth, felt it in his gut, but he was aware that he was in the intellectually weaker position here and that in a fair fight he would lose.

It was best to back off, throw the thing away later, when they were both out of the house.

He allowed himself to be led by Margot out of the room, and she waited until Tony’s door was closed and they were safely in the kitchen before confronting him. “What was that back there? What did you think you were doing?”

He didn’t even try to explain. Out of the room, away from the figure, it almost seemed silly even to him, and he could think of no way to defend himself that would sound even remotely plausible.

“If that’s all he’s doing by himself in there, making ‘art projects,’ then we should consider ourselves lucky.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “You’re right.”

But he didn’t think that at all.

He walked back into the living room, flipped on the television, found a movie.