"You sound like you know what you're talking about."
"My father."
Ruth studied him.
"Did he hurt you?"
"Not physically."
He kicked a stone away.
"He just doesn't understand me."
Ruth gave him a small smile.
"Maybe you should tell him how you feel."
Noah looked at her.
"Would you tell someone who already decided you're wrong?"
Ruth had no answer.
After a moment, she spoke.
"My father wasn't always around when I was growing up. I thought he didn't care about me or my mother."
She looked toward the river.
"He came home late. Sometimes he barely spoke to us. I thought he was choosing everything else over us."
She smiled faintly.
"Then one day, I saw him at work."
She looked up to the sky.
"I realised he had been working so hard because he wanted to give us a good life."
He
