If Violet was only offering herself for long as we were in this house, I didn’t think I could stand it. And I didn’t know if she was ready for any...hing more, or even if that would be the best thing for her.The abuse we had experienced in childhood had made both of us magicians of denial. Distraction and avoiding the big picture were our common stock in trade. They had been vital skills in helping us survive as children, but disastrous for our adult selves.My solution had been to overcompensate,. ‘That is exactly what I am saying. I did not want to tell you until you had an experience of your own because if you did not I did not want you to think that you were a member of a family of freaks.’ ‘Thanks mom,’ Megan said. ‘It makes me feel a lot better now that I know I am not the only one dealing with this. When it first happened I thought I had cracked.’ ‘ Glad I could help to put your mind at ease. If you need to talk I am always here for you.’ ‘Thanks mom.’ ‘ Good night honey and don’t. She stopped, though. She knew there had to be a story behind his nickname, and she wanted to hear it. "Why Uncle Charlie?" Well, they shorten it to 'Uncle'," he said, chuckling. "A good curve ball, one that really snaps and drops, is called Uncle Charlie. A really good one, one that makes the batter's knees buckle, that's known as Lord Charles. I've got a pretty good curve ball, and one of my teammates stuck me with the name." He stopped, color rising briefly to his lean face. "That isn't the. He’ll be at the game next week. And don’t forget the entire team is invited to the Hawks game against the Mighty Ducks on November 5th.”“I can’t believe your dad scored a skybox for us!” Kenny said.“It belongs to a friend of his,” I said. “But she’s cool about letting us use it. They don’t have too many Ducks fans and it’s not considered a rivalry.”“How many times have you watched games in the skybox?” Blake asked.“I dunno, maybe a dozen. We’ve also been to games where we sat in the bleachers..