Cory was staring at him, shocked and Raven looked like she was trying not to cry. His only choice was damage limitation.

“Look, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then how did you mean it dad?”

It was a good question, what other things could he have meant when calling her visions useless apart from considering her visions useless? His mind searched for an excuse but he couldn’t come up with one. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.”

“Well how long have you seen me like that? As useless?”

“I don’t think of you as useless…”

“Yeah, just your visions,” Cory had got over his shock and had taken the opportunity to get a quick dig at his sister.

“Cory,” he said it strictly, warning him; “why don’t you go and get something from the candy machine?”

Cory walked away and that meant that he was left alone with Raven. She stood up from her chair and paced across the room a couple of times. “So how long?”

He obviously wasn’t going to get out of this; he would have to tackle it head on. “For a while.”

“Do you still love me dad?”

The words stung, and he was shocked that she could even ask that. “Of course I do Ray, I could never stop loving you. It’s just that… lately we’ve begun to drift apart.”

“I’m not… I’m not good at the girl stuff.”

She stopped pacing, looking confused. “What does that mean?”

“Ray, when was the last time we talked?”

“We always talk; we were talking in the car before the accident.” Her voice was becoming high pitched and he knew that she was having a hard time comprehending his point, but she was still upset about it.

“No Ray, I mean when was the last time that we talked? We never talk, you do. You talk about fashion and designing and boys that you think are cute and I don’t like it.”

“Well how does that mean that you call my visions useless?”

“Because you then just have visions about fashion and designing and boys that you think are cute.”

“My visions are useful! They help Eddie and Chelsea and Cory! I’ve helped you before!”

“It isn’t about the visions; it’s that we’ve grown apart. I want to fix it but I just don’t know how.”

Tears began to spring at her eyes and she sat down again, turning away from him. “I don’t know either.”

Cory returned back to the room, clutching a chocolate bar. “What’d I miss?”

Victor didn’t want to explain to him what had happened but he knew that he would probably hear it eventually. “Nothing happened; Raven and I just had a bit of an argument.”

“How come?”

Victor shook his head, “sometimes people just drift apart.”