My parents always took my side when I was a kid, no ??matter how much I screwed up. When I smashed my ??? brand new Sega Genesis during a temper tantrum, they blamed the game “Sonic the Hedgehog” for getting me riled up. When I lost my passport at the airport, they blamed themselves for entrusting it to me. So when I told them what Elliot had done to me, I was pretty surprised by their reaction. “Maybe it was an accident,” my father said. “Accidents happen all the time.” “I don’t think it was an accident,” I said. “Are you sure you didn’t imagine it?” my mother asked. “You have such an amazing imagination.” I struggled to resist the compliment. “No,” I said. “It wasn’t my imagination. This thing definitely happened.” It was Monopoly night and even though my father had rolled a seven, he hadn’t yet moved his wheelbarrow. It just sat there, on the wrong square, abandoned. Eventually, both of my parents got up and went into the kitchen. “Mom? Dad?” They didn’t respond but I could hear them murmuring to each other on the other side of the door. “He pushed me down the stairs,” I said, for what seemed like the hundredth time of the night. “He pushed me, on purpose, in front of a lot of people. It was really crazy.” Eventually, my parents returned to the table. I noticed that my father was holding a beer. I had only ever se