It had been dark at least an hour when the doorbell rang. I should have been asleep, but it was a Friday night, and Y107 was playing requests. My Sony jambox was just low enough that my parents couldn’t hear it over “Dallas,” and I had a blank cassette poised to record “Money for Nothing” if Coyote McCloud played it for me.
I flicked the switch to “tape” to silence the radio. I heard the chain slide off and the deadbolt retract on our front door. Then, my dad’s voice. A few seconds of silence. Then dad’s voice again, and a closing door followed by a re-engaged deadbolt and sliding chain.
I parted the closed mini blinds a couple inches and looked out the window. The rust-colored sedan with a row of silver bolts down its side that had come after me a week before was now in our driveway.
My chest did that thing it did the first time I saw the “Thriller” video when our babysitter let us watch MTV. I let the blinds snap shut and ran into the den.
Me: “Who was that?”
Dad: “He said he was collecting money for Big Brothers…”
Me: “At 9? Dad, that’s the car that….”
Dad: “I thought it was strange, too; I didn’t give him anything.”
Me: “That’s the guy who came after me when you were out of town last week!”
Dad said he didn’t think the guy would come back and not to worry about it; I should get some sleep.
But he did come back.
DAMN YOU!!!! There’s a part three?!?! I’m too old for this crap.
My MacBook’s battery was at 1%! Had to end the post.
The plot thickens. Let us hear the rest of this you big tease.
Will do soon!
Your readers can’t take this kind of tension. They need closure!!
I hope to provide said closure directly (or, later tonight).
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