"An hour had passed since the social worker dropped Arthur and Kate off at the house of his Aunt Loretta and Uncle Ben. Arthur had been glumly lying on his new bed staring at the ceiling the entire time. He had no energy to do anything but stare. The room - his room now - was nice enough, but it felt like staying at a hotel. This wasn't his house. It wasn't his city. It wasn't his room. He was grateful that Ben and Loretta had taken him and his toddler sister, but Arthur wanted nothing more than his old life back.

He wondered what Buster was doing right now. Arthur hadn't seen him or any of his friends since the fire. Did they even care that he was gone?

I hope your happy now, DW, Arthur thought bitterly. Her already shaky behavior had progressively deteriorated after she turned five; enough so that she was expelled from kindergarten for causing Tommy Tibble to go deaf, but Arthur still couldn't believe she had literally destroyed their family home just because nobody remembered to record Mary Moo Cow Visits Italy for her. Then again, hadn't it been his parents fault that they let her act that way?

No, he couldn't - wouldn't- think badly of them. Jane and David were good parents - good enough for Arthur at the least. He hoped they would realize their mistakes and see that it wasn't too late for fixing everything. Sure, they would still need to buy a new house, and DW would still be gone, and Grandma Thora...

"Arthur?" a voice called softly. Arthur looked up and saw his cousin Mo had entered the room. She was holding some kind of game board.

"Mo?" Arthur said.

"Do you want to play Monopoly?" Mo asked.

"Okay," Arthur said half-heartedly.

Mo frowned at the lackluster response. She couldn't imagine what Arthur was going through - his house destroyed, his sister institutionalized, his grandmother dead, his parents declared unfit guardians, and sent to live miles away with relatives he barely knew hundreds of miles away. Should she say something? Would that make things worse?

"Well, I'll set up the board. Which piece do you want?"

"The car."

Mo handed Arthur the car while she selected the wheelbarrow. "I'll roll first," Mo said and picked up the dice. She rolled a six. Just as she was about to move her piece a loud wail could be heard from the other room.

"Uh oh," Mo said, "looks like Kate woke up."

Kate had been asleep when she and Arthur had arrived at Loretta's house. Arthur noticed Kate's cries had been much louder since the fire. Could she remember?

"It's your turn, Arthur," Mo called out as she handed him the dice. Arthur rolled two fives.

"Doubles. You get to roll again!"

Arthur rolled again. Two fours.

"Your good at rolling doubles, Arthur!"

"Mo?"

"Yes?

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

Arthur opened mouth but found himself unable to speak. He had many questions, and he knew Mo wouldn't have most of the answers. But eventually managed to find one that she might shed some light on.

"Do you honestly think DW will ever be better?"

Mo froze. "I don't know, Arthur. But if I had to take a guess I would say no."

In the other room, Loretta had managed to calm down Kate. Kate wished Pal were still here so she had somebody to talk with - but Pal was allergic to the pollen in this town so had to be adopted by the Tibble's.

Four months earlier

"...and, David," Nora Johnson, the Read's marriage counselor said, "what do you believe is the root of the problem in your relationship?"

"Jane's refusal to discipline DW under any circumstances."

"That isn't true! I denied her TV for a day when she knocked Kate off her chair."

David rolled his eyes. "A whole day. That's some real laying down the line."

Jane scowled. "The problem is your biased against DW!"

"Biased against DW? I've been trying to help DW by raising her with a sense of right and wrong but you wouldn't let me! I'll admit I was too soft on her for a long time, but I tried eventually. Jane doesn't even pretend to discipline anymore! She got expelled from school for permanently destroying Tommy Tibble's hearing for goodness sake!"

"She wouldn't have become this way if you had been more generous towards her!" Jane argued.

David looked shocked. "Are you for real, Jane? You think the problem is we haven't given DW enough? She got everything she wanted and more!"

"Nonsense. Did we take her to Ponyland like she wanted? No, because we couldn't afford it.""

"If I may," Nora interrupted, "this conversation is getting off track. Let's get down to business. From what I've heard in the past forty-five minutes, this marriage is likely going to be very difficult to maintain. Besides some lingering issues you should have addressed before you even considered marriage, your views on how to raise your daughter appears irreconcilable. Strong relationships have collapsed over less important issues."

"I'm here to help my family," Jane said, "I don't my children to be a victim of divorce."

David shook his head in agreement. "Me neither."

Nora bit her lip upon hearing that. Whenever she heard clients talk of of staying married for the kids it meant whatever love had ever existed in the relationship had evaporated. That was clearly the case with these two, who hadn't even used the word "love" once in the session. Usually even the hopeless clients would speak of a time that had once loved each other, but not these two. She pitied Arthur, DW, and Kate for the position inevitable collapse of the Read's marriage would put them in. Jane's delusion about permissive parenting toward a problem child guaranteed the destruction of this family.

No, the Reads were by far the most hopeless case she had ever seen. Counseling was pointless - she could have sessions with them for a year at the most until they realized this. But Nora needed to make a living, and even the checks of the doomed made a difference, so she pulled out her schedule and asked "same time next Wednesday?"