When they were still married, my mom and dad used to argue all the time. They didn’t argue a lot in front of me, but I could tell when something was wrong. Their voices would be cold when they talked to each other, and when they said something like ‘Pass the salt’ or ‘Don’t forget to buy bread’, I always felt like there was a lot of things hiding behind the words. Ugly things. Hurtful things. I didn’t like it.

My dad has a new girlfriend, now. I kinda like her. She doesn’t talk a lot to me but she’s nice when I visit. She always bakes cookies or cupcakes for me, and all the foods my dad likes. But I don’t like the way my dad talks to her. He’s always telling her to do things, not asking. He doesn’t say please or thank you. Sometimes, her eyes narrow and she pinches her lips tight together like she wants to say something back, but she never does, or at least not when I can hear. I wonder if they argue when I’m not there. She doesn’t look very happy. Neither does my dad. Maybe some day she’ll leave him like Mom did.

My mom has a new boyfriend, too. And I like him lots and lots. His name is Ray, and he’s a vampire. I thought it was weird at first that my mom has a vampire boyfriend, because her job is to catch bad vampires, but Ray is a good vampire so I guess it’s all right. At first he just visited sometimes, but since we moved into the house he came to live with us. Mom asked me if it was okay if he did and I said yes, because he makes her happy. She’s been smiling a lot since he became her boyfriend.

The best thing about Ray – no, wait. The second best thing about Ray is that he can draw better than anyone I know, even better than my art teacher at school. He made a picture of Mom, Grandma and me, and Mom put it in a big frame in the living room. She always smiles when she looks at it. I’m not very good at drawing, but he’s been teaching me and he says I’m getting better. I hope I’m as good as he is, some day.

The absolute best thing about Ray is that he and Mom never argue. Never ever. Sometimes he pouts when she says we can’t have pizza or watch TV late, and sometimes – not very often but sometimes – she sighs and changes her mind, and sometimes she even watches TV with us. He gives her the best spot on the sofa when she does, and sits on the floor close to her, and she messes with his hair the entire time we watch the movie. It’s annoying when she does that to me, but I think he likes it because he always half-closes his eyes and smiles. Sometimes he even purrs, like a cat. I think he loves her very, very much. And I hope they never argue and fight and split off like my mom and dad did.