ten
“Your diary?” I blurt out. “Your diary starts with a poem about people being spied on by hit men?”
“A diary tells the story of a person’s life,” Pam argues. “And hiding from Dermott’s eyes basically is my life.”
Jeremy makes a little huff. “You’re as paranoid as our dad. How exactly does Dermott watch people when they’re nude?”
Pam sighs and mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “Boys are so dumb.”
Since I can tell she’s not about to answer Jeremy’s question, I ask one of my own. “How did our dads even get involved with Dermott anyway? And why does he not like them? Did they double-cross him or something like that?”
Pam looks at me blankly. “Did who double-cross who?”
“Did our dads double-cross Dermott? Or, what’s the deal between them? Like, why is Dermott out to get us? Why is he sending out spies everywhere?”
Pam rolls her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious?”
I try to exchange an annoyed look with Jeremy, but his face is scrunched up in concentration. “I guess it depends on what came first,” he says. “If Dermott is some hit-man spy guy, who spies on random people as, like, his job, maybe gets contracted out by other people… then that would explain why our dads don’t like him. Our dad, at least. He hates it when people’s privacy is invaded. But if our dads had a fallout with him first and then he started sending people to spy on them, that doesn’t explain why they had the original fallout.”
For the first time since we’ve met her, Pam gives Jeremy an almost approving look. “At least you have some deductive reasoning abilities.”
It annoys me how she clearly knows more than she’s telling us. “So which one is correct?” I ask. “Did our dads tick off Dermott first, or did he tick them off by spying on someone else?”
“Or on them,” Jeremy points out. “They could have been some of the people he was spying on, and that’s how they found out about him in the first place.”
Pam is smiling, almost smirking, watching us try to figure it out. “Just tell us,” I snap at her. “You obviously know.”
She rearranges her face into an expression of innocence, clearly contrived. “No, I actually don’t know why Dermott is after our dads, in particular. I just find you two funny, that’s all.”
“Why do you find us funny?”
Pam doesn’t answer. She’s busy looking at Jeremy, who’s still trying to puzzle it all out. “It’s gotta be the first one,” he says. “That our dads ticked him off first, and then he started sending out spies to keep an eye on them. Because why would they already be being spied on, before they even did anything? Who would care what they were doing?”
Pam’s smirk becomes even bigger. She’s clearly enjoying withholding information from us.
“So what was it that made Dermott get mad at our dads?” I ask Pam. “Or that made him think he needed to spy on them?”
Pam doesn’t even look at me. She’s still watching Jeremy.
I realize Jeremy’s the one who’s been figuring things out and drawing conclusions, while I’ve just been asking questions. Maybe Pam will be more open to sharing information if I draw a couple conclusions of my own.
I rack my brain, trying to remember everything I can about Dad. Aside from the delusions-that-maybe-weren’t-really-delusions, he’s always been a pretty normal dad. He used to give us “bull rides” when we were little, where he’d go down on hands and knees and we’d sit on his back and laugh hysterically as he tried to buck us off. He played outside with us and taught us how to rollerblade. He introduced us to Harry Potter and read all the books with us. He encouraged us, from the day Rachel was born, to play with her and include her as much as possible, so that even though we were nine and eleven years older than her, she’d still develop a good relationship with us. “Siblings are the best friends you’ll ever have,” he always says. And I guess he has done a pretty good job impressing that upon us, because we all get along really well.
But as much as Dad has always talked about the importance of siblings and family, we’ve never known anything about his own siblings or family. I asked him at some point while Mom was pregnant with Rachel, “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” and he changed the subject. Started talking about the weather or something completely random.
A crazy thought springs into my mind. “Whoa! What if Dermott’s Dad’s brother? And they had an argument way back when and got really mad at each other, and then Dad left and never wanted to see him again, but Dermott maybe still wanted to stalk him or know about his family or something…” I’m losing steam as I talk, realizing that my idea doesn’t make much sense. Dad’s acting like this Dermott person is a legitimate danger to our safety, like out to kill us or something. I don’t really think Dad’s own brother would be trying to kill him.
Pam’s laughing outright now. “I can’t believe your parents never told you anything!”
“No, they didn’t. So do you have anything to tell us?”
Pam shakes her head. I’m about ready to scream at her, but Jeremy just sighs and says, “Well, I can see this is getting us nowhere,” and re-opens Pam’s diary.
“No!” Pam yells, lunging for it. Jeremy holds it above his head, too high for Pam to reach. She jumps in vain attempt to reach it.
There’s a sudden bang from somewhere behind me. I jump and turn around to see what happened. For a moment, my brain doesn’t comprehend what my eyes are seeing.
Then the thoughts hit me, one by one:
The door to the room my parents are sleeping in is open.
Dad is standing in the doorway.
He’s holding a gun.
It’s pointed at us.
“A diary tells the story of a person’s life,” Pam argues. “And hiding from Dermott’s eyes basically is my life.”
Jeremy makes a little huff. “You’re as paranoid as our dad. How exactly does Dermott watch people when they’re nude?”
Pam sighs and mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “Boys are so dumb.”
Since I can tell she’s not about to answer Jeremy’s question, I ask one of my own. “How did our dads even get involved with Dermott anyway? And why does he not like them? Did they double-cross him or something like that?”
Pam looks at me blankly. “Did who double-cross who?”
“Did our dads double-cross Dermott? Or, what’s the deal between them? Like, why is Dermott out to get us? Why is he sending out spies everywhere?”
Pam rolls her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious?”
I try to exchange an annoyed look with Jeremy, but his face is scrunched up in concentration. “I guess it depends on what came first,” he says. “If Dermott is some hit-man spy guy, who spies on random people as, like, his job, maybe gets contracted out by other people… then that would explain why our dads don’t like him. Our dad, at least. He hates it when people’s privacy is invaded. But if our dads had a fallout with him first and then he started sending people to spy on them, that doesn’t explain why they had the original fallout.”
For the first time since we’ve met her, Pam gives Jeremy an almost approving look. “At least you have some deductive reasoning abilities.”
It annoys me how she clearly knows more than she’s telling us. “So which one is correct?” I ask. “Did our dads tick off Dermott first, or did he tick them off by spying on someone else?”
“Or on them,” Jeremy points out. “They could have been some of the people he was spying on, and that’s how they found out about him in the first place.”
Pam is smiling, almost smirking, watching us try to figure it out. “Just tell us,” I snap at her. “You obviously know.”
She rearranges her face into an expression of innocence, clearly contrived. “No, I actually don’t know why Dermott is after our dads, in particular. I just find you two funny, that’s all.”
“Why do you find us funny?”
Pam doesn’t answer. She’s busy looking at Jeremy, who’s still trying to puzzle it all out. “It’s gotta be the first one,” he says. “That our dads ticked him off first, and then he started sending out spies to keep an eye on them. Because why would they already be being spied on, before they even did anything? Who would care what they were doing?”
Pam’s smirk becomes even bigger. She’s clearly enjoying withholding information from us.
“So what was it that made Dermott get mad at our dads?” I ask Pam. “Or that made him think he needed to spy on them?”
Pam doesn’t even look at me. She’s still watching Jeremy.
I realize Jeremy’s the one who’s been figuring things out and drawing conclusions, while I’ve just been asking questions. Maybe Pam will be more open to sharing information if I draw a couple conclusions of my own.
I rack my brain, trying to remember everything I can about Dad. Aside from the delusions-that-maybe-weren’t-really-delusions, he’s always been a pretty normal dad. He used to give us “bull rides” when we were little, where he’d go down on hands and knees and we’d sit on his back and laugh hysterically as he tried to buck us off. He played outside with us and taught us how to rollerblade. He introduced us to Harry Potter and read all the books with us. He encouraged us, from the day Rachel was born, to play with her and include her as much as possible, so that even though we were nine and eleven years older than her, she’d still develop a good relationship with us. “Siblings are the best friends you’ll ever have,” he always says. And I guess he has done a pretty good job impressing that upon us, because we all get along really well.
But as much as Dad has always talked about the importance of siblings and family, we’ve never known anything about his own siblings or family. I asked him at some point while Mom was pregnant with Rachel, “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” and he changed the subject. Started talking about the weather or something completely random.
A crazy thought springs into my mind. “Whoa! What if Dermott’s Dad’s brother? And they had an argument way back when and got really mad at each other, and then Dad left and never wanted to see him again, but Dermott maybe still wanted to stalk him or know about his family or something…” I’m losing steam as I talk, realizing that my idea doesn’t make much sense. Dad’s acting like this Dermott person is a legitimate danger to our safety, like out to kill us or something. I don’t really think Dad’s own brother would be trying to kill him.
Pam’s laughing outright now. “I can’t believe your parents never told you anything!”
“No, they didn’t. So do you have anything to tell us?”
Pam shakes her head. I’m about ready to scream at her, but Jeremy just sighs and says, “Well, I can see this is getting us nowhere,” and re-opens Pam’s diary.
“No!” Pam yells, lunging for it. Jeremy holds it above his head, too high for Pam to reach. She jumps in vain attempt to reach it.
There’s a sudden bang from somewhere behind me. I jump and turn around to see what happened. For a moment, my brain doesn’t comprehend what my eyes are seeing.
Then the thoughts hit me, one by one:
The door to the room my parents are sleeping in is open.
Dad is standing in the doorway.
He’s holding a gun.
It’s pointed at us.
Next: Chapter 11
Hi Readers! We're so excited that you're reading this mini-series! We enjoy creating mini-series because they motivate us to write quickly and to keep moving forward with a new story. Our mini-series episodes are usually first drafts which means there are often a lot of edits that can be implemented to make the story even better. We recently read through what we had of Escape (23 chapters), and stayed up late at a coffee shop replotting the entire book to make it twisty-er, more nuanced, and better paced. This unfortunately meant we also had to come back and begin rewriting from chapter 11. We will return to posting new chapters every other Saturday on November 5.
If you're looking for something to read in the meantime, try our ongoing mini-series, We Are Not Friends.
If you're looking for something to read in the meantime, try our ongoing mini-series, We Are Not Friends.
