Lois is on her front porch, facing her yard. Nothing around but trees. No one in sight. She is alone. Steven's car pulls up and into the driveway. Lois is old and the sun hurts her eyes, but still she smiles. Steven is her son. Steven frowns as he gets out of his car, rattling his keys in his hand. He looks worried. Lois is glad she has good news for him. She holds her prize close to her body and waits to show him. “Mom?” he says, stepping up onto the porch. “Why did you call? What's wrong?” Lois busied herself around the dining room table, making the perfect dinner. She straightened this and arranged that. It was turning out to be a wonderful evening. “Isn't this nice?” she said, humming as she set down three napkins. They were expertly folded. “I'm so glad, Steven. So glad you decided to stay for dinner with your father and I.” She set down three soup bowls and smiled. “And maybe later you can help your father fix the candy dish.” “Look,” says Lois, swelling with pride as she shows Steven what she's holding. “The candy dish.” Steven blinks and frowns. He looks down at the dish, then back up at her. “A candy dish?” “Yes.” Lois looks down at it. Crystal and heavy. Exquisitely beautiful. She looks back at Steven. “The one your father gave me. He's been so afraid it was lost.” Steven's face grows red and his lips tighten. “Mom, is this all...” “And look, Steven. Not so much as a chip on it.” Steven lets out a growling sigh. “Dammit, Mom. I don't have time for this...” Lois' mood darkens. “Well, sometimes it seems like you never have time.” “I can't believe you made me come all the way over for this.” “You never come over as it is.” Lois is angry now. “Shame on you. I'm your mother. You should come over more.” “Mom...” “Your daughter comes over all the time. And she's busy in college. Sweet Jody. Such a good girl.” Lois smiled and straightened the salt and pepper shakers. “And guess what, Steven? Jody's coming over too.” She looked in Steven's direction. He said nothing. Lois set down four water glasses, proud of how they shone. “Yes, such a good girl. All four of us together. Won't that be nice?” Steven said nothing. “That's exactly what I thought too, Steven. How wonderful that young people still care for their elders.” She smiled at Steven. He did not respond. One open eye stared back, but the rest of his face was in ruin. Blood, pulp and flecks of bone caked where his nose should have been. Random teeth jutted out of the gaping mess of his mouth. His clothes were thickly clotted with blood. Lois nodded. “Yes. How nice to have people who care.” Lois is so angry she feels tears starting. “You just don't care, do you? You just don't care at all, Steven.” Steven sighs. “Mom, of course I care...” “No! No you don't care!” Lois' face is hot and the heavy dish is slippery in her sweating hands. “If you cared at all, if you cared even in the slightest, you'd have known how worried your father has been about this dish.” “Dammit, Mom, Dad is dead! He's been dead for months!” “No!” yells Lois. She lunges forward, no idea what she's doing. Her hands, still holding the dish, hit Steven in the chest. He steps back. For a moment he balances on the stoop, his eyes wide as he sways. Then he falls. His spine hits the sidewalk first, then his head follows with a sharp “crack.” For a second everything is quiet. Steven lays there and Lois stands, shivering in rage and shock. Steven stirs and Lois looks down. There is blood beside his head, fresh and bright. “Mom,” he starts to say. She screams from somewhere deep within her. A feral, ferocious roar. She runs down the steps to where he lies. She drops to her knees, ignoring the pain from her old joints, to sit on his chest. She screams at him and brings the dish down on his mouth. That smart, disrespectful mouth. She screams and hits him again. And again. And again. He struggles more and more weakly with each blow. She feels his skull give way, feels blood and snot fly onto her hands. Feels his cartilage and teeth come loose. And still she keeps bringing the heavy dish down. She stops when the dish cracks in her hands. Three heavy, bloody pieces. What a mess. Lois clicked her tongue as she found a small mound of dirt on the table. She sighed and shook her head at her husband. “Dear, dear. Must you always make such a mess? Especially with Steven here?” She pulled a dish towel from her apron strap and smiled. “Now, you two men keep talking and don't mind me. So nice to have you both chatting.” She neatly wiped the dirt from the table, then stepped back to admire her handiwork. Lois stares down at what she's done. Blood and crystal everywhere. Her son's face is all but gone. She looks into his remaining eye, breathing raggedly though her teeth. Slowly she calms. She looks up and around. It is broad daylight, but there is no one around to have seen. Nothing around but trees. She is alone. Alone. She swallows and eases herself up. Her knees pop and crack, but she makes it. She carefully places the pieces of the dish on the porch, then wipes her hands on her shirt. She breathes in deep and lets it out. Then she turns and heads across her yard, aiming for a metal shed set in one corner. There is a shovel inside. A pain grew in the small of Lois' back. A pain from too much standing, too much scurrying around. She ignored it. Her whole family was getting together. It was too joyous an occasion for aches. She put some finishing touches on the table setting and smiled. “I think we're ready.” She stepped back, nodding, then smiled at her husband. “Oh sweetheart,” she said, “I swear you look as handsome as the day I married you.” Her husband was propped up in a chair at the head of the table. His skin was dry and tight over his eyeless skull. Rotten teeth hung from his gaping mouth and dirt clung to his body. A beetle crawled from an eye socket, then retreated back inside. “You're so sweet to say that,” she said, then leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. A bit of his skin came loose and stayed on her lip as she pulled back. “Oh my,” she said, wiping it off with her dish towel. The doorbell rang. “And there's Jody,” she said, turning to head for the front door. She stopped, considering something. She picked up a long knife from the table, then went to the door. She looked out the peephole. There was Jody, blond hair framing her sweet earnest face. “Such a good girl,” said Lois. She held the knife behind her back, then opened the door.