The children had never been all that close. But over the years, they’d learned to get along, to be part of something larger, to keep their own interests in check for the good of the family.
Father was long gone. Mother was in charge. She had never really loved her children. She cared only that they obliged. There were still house rules, even if some children chose to leave and build houses of their own.
Now mother had grown impatient with a particularly high-spirited child, and she decided it was time for a lesson.