Going Home: Dinner
Richard watched his family as they said grace. His gaze lingered no more than usual over his wife, but it stayed little while with his son, and then with Starsky. It was good to have Kenneth home again. At Thanksgiving a family should be together. He had wondered a little about why Kenneth would want to bring his work partner home, but he guessed that they were good friends, too, and who was he to deny his son his friends?
The country club had an elegant restaurant, and Richard had many opportunities to introduce his son to the people who greeted them. Kenneth had grown up into a fine-looking son. A son that a man could be proud of. Or, at least, he could've been, if the son had done something to carve out a good life for himself — as Richard had done. Why didn't Kenneth want more? It was something that kept puzzling him, and whenever Kenneth visited, he felt the need to bring it up. It wasn't right that a son of his should settle with being merely a police detective. Granted, it wasn't everyone who made it that far, but Kenneth's lack of advancement felt almost like a personal defeat to Richard. Why not go farther, aim for more? Bay City would have plenty of opportunities for an ambitious man. You should just want it and reach out for it, that was all, and everything could be within your grasp.
He, Richard, had certainly done well for himself and had used every opportunity to advance and get ahead. Sometimes he still wondered what it could have been like if they had moved to some larger city, like New York or Chicago, when he was younger. Perhaps then he could have had a stab at going into big-league politics. Here, it was really just a small backwater in comparison, no real opportunity to play with the big boys.
And here they were, Kenneth and his friend, David. Seemingly so happy with what they had. But what was it, really? Rented apartments, an income that could have been a lot better, had they wanted to go for it, and every day they met the risk of getting shot down in the streets. No, Richard couldn't help trying just one more time to make Kenneth see it his way. It wasn't as if Kenneth hadn't been brought up to expect the life that Richard had. Why couldn't he try to see it his way?
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