Navid’s Problem

I need you to understand something about young boys. They do not process feelings the way adults do. Their minds are messy, unfiltered, and dangerous places. Navid was no different. Here was a pre-teen boy developing feelings for his stepmother Tiffany. Yes, you heard me right. His father’s first wife. The woman his father divorced. And instead of anyone sitting that boy down and explaining boundaries, everyone just carried on like nothing was happening.

Tiffany did not help matters. She walked around that house like she owned every room she entered. Full figure, voluptuous, confident. She knew the effect she had on men and apparently did not care that she was having that same effect on a child. I am not saying she did it on purpose. But when a woman carries herself like that and does not check her surroundings, things happen. Children get confused. Lines get blurred.

Navid’s twin brother Kumar could see it. Kumar was the quieter one, the observer. He noticed Navid acting strange whenever Tiffany was around. Staring too long. Finding excuses to be in the same room. Kumar did not say anything because what was he going to say? He was a boy himself. But he felt in his gut that something was wrong. And he was right.

The tragedy here is that Junior should have seen it. A father is supposed to read his children. But Junior was too busy with his own mess to notice what was growing under his own roof. He was too occupied with his new wife and his old wife and whatever was brewing between them to pay attention to the damage being done to his sons.

A child left to navigate adult feelings alone will always find the wrong path. Every single time. That is just how it works. Navid was heading somewhere dangerous and nobody was steering him away.