For the first time in three days, the Taylor family was able to sit down and have a meal together.

That was how long they'd had their new home after moving halfway across the country when Vic, the father, had been transferred several months after receiving a big promotion. Also at the table was his wife, Ellen, and their two kids, Richard (aged fifteen) and Carla (fourteen).

After spending the last three days and most of the evenings in between getting the moving truck they'd used emptied out and then getting everything unpacked and arranged, all of them were more than a little tired and glad to be done with it-which wasn't the reason all of them were so quiet. Though neither Vic nor Ellen knew it, the kids were fully aware of the arguments the two of them had had in the time between Vic learning of the transfer and when they actually started packing up to move: while Ellen had been delighted by the significant increase in Vic's salary, and had encouraged him to accept the promotion when it was offered, she had ignored his warning that the promotion likely meant they'd have to move to a different company office more in keeping with his new responsibilities. So when the transfer had come, Ellen hadn't appreciated being reminded of that fact; on top of that, she was more than a little resentful that she was being called on to give up a job she loved to follow him-thus the arguments.

For Richard and Carla, it was as much having to listen to their parents arguing as it was having their own lives uprooted: leaving their friends behind and moving to some strange new place where they didn't know anybody.

That left all of them to suffer the gravid silence while they ate. Neither of the kids wanted to say anything that might get their parents arguing again, while neither Vic nor Ellen was willing to speak for fear of having the other take it wrong and having the arguing start again.