[ WP ] You can see the darkest secret of everyone you meet . As you enter your house , expecting to see the usual abusive father story of your spouse , you stop ; it has changed .

Last time he called I'd found her in the bath, crying. Hovering above her head like a neon-green sign, her secret had flashed at me: *abused, abused, abused. * You'd think it'd stop once she moved out and could n't count her age on her fingers and toes any more. The fact that a man who wore egg-stained vests and did n't like to make his own coffee could reduce my wife to tears made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and this kind of boiling rage lurch up in my stomach. 
 
 
 I'm not on the spectrum. My dad, uptight in his suit and tie with the knot fashioned too small, took me to several specialists. They all wore suits too and had varying degrees of male-pattern baldness. They poked and prodded me while wondering why, instead of making eye contact, I used to stare three inches above the crowns of their heads. When I started asking about why the neon lettering was blinking *cheat, cheat, cheat* they'd slide two fingers in between their stiff collars and their stiffer necks and make a choking sound. Turned out one was unfaithful and one was n't a qualified doctor. My dad stopped taking me to specialists after that. 
 
 
 She puts the phone down as I walk in and the neon lighting's stuttering like a mouse bit through a wire. 
 
 
 `` What's going on?'' 
 
 
 `` Eyes down here, sweetie.'' She says, without even looking at me. 
 
 
 `` Who was on the phone.'' 
 
 
 `` My father.'' 
 
 
 `` And?'' She turns around, back to me, and I risk a glance over the top of her head. It's like a string being pulled back as the light disappears away from the d, the e, the s and as I watch it's gone. Fizzled out, like a one-night stand in a back alley. 
 
 
 `` And nothing.'' She shrugs. 
 
 
 `` You're alright?'' 
 
 
 `` Course I'm alright.'' 
 
 
 The lightbulb switches on. I can almost hear the whirring of the electricity as it relights the neon tubes. 
 
 
 *Forgave* reads the little light and I understand why I can see it.
