49. Home

[semper_fi_house]

muse_playground prompt: 49. HomeIt was John's first night back home after nearly a year in Vietnam. He was sitting at the head of the kitchen table, his wife on his right and his son on his left. He said grace, perfunctorily thanking God for their food and for keeping his family safe. Blythe smiled when he finished and added, "And for letting you come home safe.

Comments

[diysheep]

Very interesting understated look at House's childhood and how the alienation between him as his dad may have happened. But 'glass shards'?

[semper_fi_house]

Thanks. Um. Porcelain shards? Shards of china?

Could you explain what your criticism of the phrase is?

Redundant perhaps? And I just realized that I used "shards" twice, so I might as well just change it to "glass."

[evila_elf]

*winces* Yes. I imagine it was something like this that led to the 'abuse.' Greg was probably a difficult boy, so he needed a different sort of punishment. Sad to see this end. Would love to see how things progressed from this moment.

Also, one little error:
a few pees went rolling in various directions
umm peas you mean?

[stephantom]

How mature am I that I just giggled out loud at that mixup? lol Whoops. Yes, thank you for calling that to my attention. *facepalm*

And thanks very much for reading and commenting! I think that Greg's behavior problems and John's, er, discipline problems, probably made each other worse, and fell into a vicious cycle. I wrote this intending it to be the first time for the "sleeping in the yard" thing, but I can see the ice baths as possibly having happened when he was younger. House already strongly resents his father at this point, but is rebelling more openly than he has in the past, having reached the age where that tends to happen, and John is really taken aback by it. So, things would just escalate even more after this point...

I may continue it... As you can see, I've got this journal for writing random John House-related things, so there will likely be more in this vein, even if not an exact continuation of this fic.

[evila_elf]

I giggled at the mix up too ;) (I have this running joke with Mom whenever she spills them)

The ice baths could even be at around this age, as well (Not give allow him hot water because too late or something). Though Greg does seem to already be set in butting heads with his father, so things had to start somewhere.

[embossedsilver]

Very nice! I think this is a very accurate description of what the abuse entailed.

[namasteyoga]

It's always interesting to look at a scene from a different POV, isn't it? Like others have said, I've always thought that the abuse is difficult to call outright "abuse" just because we never knew how old House was at the time, and I always had the idea that he was a difficult kid to raise in the first place. Put his ego and his Dad's ego in the same place, and that's a situation ripe for problems.

[stephantom]

Yeah, it is interesting looking at it from this angle. I don't want to let John off the hook entirely, but he's certainly not a monster. One thing that's kind of interesting from "One Day, One Room," is that they chose to compare essentially date-rape and child abuse, which seems strange at first, but then, one thing that I think they really do have in common is this ambiguity where you almost find yourself saying about the victim, "Well, but look what they were doing," etc, which is... I don't know. House really thinks he was abused, and so I don't want to write that off, however, it's definitely a complex situation and relationship

[genagirl]

Wow, that was powerful. I like the way you've written both John and House, they come across as very real. House would have been a handful as a kid and John's frustration and confusion really came through.