Noah Mayer was sitting in the WOAK studio putting the finishing touches on Invisible Girl. It was nighttime and there were only janitors left with Noah. He was therefore surprised to hear a voice say his name.

“Noah?” Noah looked up, startled.

“Dad? What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk,” Colonel Mayer said abruptly and without pretense.

“Okay,” Noah said, saving his work, closing his camcorder, and unplugging it from his laptop.

Noah led the Colonel into the back room in which he had first met Maddie and first kissed Luke.

“What did you want to say?” Noah looked at his father expectantly.

“Stay away from that Snyder boy,” the Colonel demanded.

“Excuse me?” Noah asked.

“Stay away from the Snyder boy,” the Colonel repeated.

“I don’t want to stay away from Luke. I like him,” Noah said, his mouth curling into a little smile.

“You think you like him. But he’s just brainwashing you. And when he has you where he wants you he’ll spit you out like a piece of chewed up food. You can’t trust people like him,” Colonel Mayer said, pure loathing in his voice.

“You’re wrong. Luke isn’t like that. He’s a very kind and caring person.”

“No! Noah, listen to me! I know how people like him work. They try to recruit upstanding citizens like you and I and when they find they have no use for us they get rid of us. They are not nice people!”

“What do you mean ‘you know’?” Noah asked, suspicious.

“It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you stay away from that boy!” Colonel Mayer demanded.

“No. I like Luke and I will not stay away from him. I don’t care what you say,” Noah said, folding his arms across his chest in defiance.

“Don’t come on so cocksure, boy,” the Colonel said.

“You can’t escape your genes,

“No point in feeling pure, boy,

“Your background intervenes,

“Listen good and listen straight,” (Noah flinched as he registered the use of the pun).

“You’re not the master of your fate,

“To this you must be reconciled,

“You’ll always be your father’s child,

“At times acclaimed, at times reviled,

“You’ll end up doing just as I have done,

“Like father, like son.”

Noah stared at his father, frowning.

“Don’t assume your vices,” Noah said.

“Get handed down the line,

“That a parent’s blood suffices

“To condemn the child’s design,

“I’ve done wrong I can’t deny,

“But at least I know that I

“Shouldn’t blame that on my stock,

“This may come as quite a shock:

“But I’m no chip off any block.

“I wouldn’t wish those words on anyone:

“Like father, like son.”

Colonel Mayer was clearly agitated that he was not getting through to his son.

“Son, you’re nervous, take my hand,

“All is settled, all is planned,

“You’ve got the world at your command,

“I don’t think you understand.”

Noah let out a harsh laugh and said,

“I appreciate too well,

“The squalor at which you excel,

“It isn’t very hard to tell,

“Evil’s a distinctive smell.”

Noah stormed past his father, grabbed his camera and laptop from the table at which he had been sitting when he had been interrupted, and left the WOAK studio.

Winston Mayer breathed heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists as he watched his son walk out of the building.

“He’s lost all sense of reason,

“And why? Some sick faggot,

“Not only is that treason,

“Some doors are slamming shut,

“Just like me he’s found that flesh,

“Can excite but will enmesh.” The Colonel winced as he spoke the words.

“Once we rid him of this blight,

“Once that pervert’s out of sight,

“Then I think he’ll see the light,

“He won’t walk back to daddy,

“He will run!

“Like father, like son.”