I was downtown doing some Christmas shopping—window
shopping, really—for Mama and Avie, and wasn’t having much luck. I never knew
what to get Daddy—Avie and I usually teamed up to get him a power tool from the
hardware store at the last minute, so I was putting off any consideration
of that gift entirely. My senior thesis was turned in, and except for a final
exam tomorrow, my semester was in the bag. The following spring semester
would be my last as a college undergrad. But instead of a sense of relief and
anticipation, there was a knot in the pit of my stomach. I found myself worried
about Dana, about what I may have done to screw things up and turn her into a
megavillain. I dreaded when we’d meet again, when I would inevitably have
to kick her ass.