The Odd

Chapter 2: The Truth and Away

“I’m sorry, dad. I’ll try my best to bring mom back to you. I love you. Dad. Charlie.”

And I drove out without knowing any destination to go.

I woke up and looked at my watch; it was 6 in the morning. My dad had to already know by now that I had been running away. He might be shocked or might not. Actually, I thought he would prepare for this since he decided to tell me the truth. I blinked one more time and realized that I slept for about two hours. It’s time for me to keep driving but I stopped the thought as I still didn’t know where to go. I let my body leaning the driver seat with tiredness. I was out of the city now. The gas station here was around with grasses and trees. There were a lot of car driving in and out. I assumed that people were going on their weekend trip. I bent over to open the front pocket of my backpack. I took my small diary out. I loved writing. I loved to write it down whether it’s good or bad or sad or happy. Writing something on the paper was the best way for me to let things go, things I wanted to remember and forget.

I opened it up. The first page, there was my dad’s hand-writing on it. He gave me on my birthday when I was fifteen. He wrote for me to write good things in it. Gosh. I missed him. While I was turning another page, there’s a photo dropped out of the diary. It was photo of my mom, my brother, my dad and me. We took it in front of our first house. Then, there’s one thing crossing my mind. I closed the diary and threw it into the glove box. I started the car and put on my seat belt. I knew where to go now. I put my feet on the pedal, ready to continue the journey. I wished I could figure it out before I heard the knock.

It was Jessica.

 Now, I was driving to Jessica’s home. She was sitting on the seat next to me. She tracked me down since my dad told her that I ran away. I just knew that another ability of her was tracking down people. She could just close her eyes and see where I was but it also had its limit. She said that she had to remember the face very clearly. So, the vision would become clear. She kept asking me about the reason I ran away from my home. I didn’t tell her. I didn’t know what would happen if I told her the entire story. I didn’t want her to be involved.

I pulled the speed down when I saw the roof of her house. I drove slowly across the yard and killed the engine. Her house was white with the red roof on it. It was big that ten people could live in. It was in the center of field. There’s a tall tree in front of the house, it had the swing with it. I guessed it had to be Jessica’s play park when she was young. She invited me inside. I could see a big mirror at my right side. We walked along the passage, I could see that there’re three rooms; kitchen, bathroom and living room. At the end of the passage was the stairs which led to above. The stairs were made of wood, the whole house either. It looked ancient and mysterious. I followed her upstairs. At the end of the stairs, it divided into two directions: right and left. Jessica walked to the right and opened the first room.

“This is my room. Come on. Get inside.” She walked in. I followed her. I walked and sit on her bed. Then, she closed the door. “Right. Okay. Ches, I’m going to ask you one more time. Why do you run away?”

This question came again. I was tired to just say nothing. “I have my own reason.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you! It’s a long story.”

“But I’m ready to hear it.”

“Please Jessica. I don’t want you to get into troubles.” I begged her with my gaze.

“So, I’ll call you dad that I found you.” She picked her phone out of her pocket. She was pressing the number.

“Don’t, Jess!” I shouted out and tried to take the phone from her.