The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past

Chapter 9 - The Broken Typewriter

Binny took her eye off the girl momentarily as she watched her parents get into one of the family’s cars and drive up the hill. She had no idea what they were off doing. She was sure it couldn’t be as important as spending time with their kids. But her parents had made their priorities clear.

Binny looked back towards the girl who was now sitting cross-legged on one of the deep steps leading up to her house. She had a shiny shallow teal box of sorts sitting on her lap. What was that thing – a laptop? It had a piece of paper sticking out of the top. Perhaps it was a printer. What was she doing with a printer on her lap?

Binny watched for a couple of minutes, her mind wandering back to how angry she was with her brother, how she was going to get her parents to believe her. There were short interludes of concern for her sister as well. All of a sudden, the teal box on the girl’s lap seemed to gently explode, pieces spilling onto the sidewalk below. The parts fanned out in a rough semi-circle around the girl. 

Binny shook her head in frustration – this girl brought things out of her house only to break them into a zillion pieces all over the sidewalk? But before Binny could finish judging, it looked like the girl across the street had started to cry. 

Suddenly, Binny found herself empathizing with the girl that she’d been so annoyed with. Binny made up her mind quickly and headed for the door.

As Binny passed Zach on her way out of the house, he started to tell her, “Mom and Dad…” but stopped mid-sentence again. This time she didn’t even need a single word to make her feelings clear about his earlier betrayal. 

Binny couldn't focus on her brother now, though. She had another mission — to investigate the mystery of the girl next door and the teal box on her lap.

§

 “What happened?” Binny took some satisfaction in that now it was her turn to surprise the girl instead of the other way around.

The girl looked up and wiped her eyes quickly. “What are you talking about?” She sniffled a little too.

“Uh, this thing that you broke. The pieces all over the ground.”

“It’s a typewriter. And I didn’t break it.” the girl responded, correcting Binny twice in two short sentences.

Any sympathy Binny had felt for the girl was rapidly fading in the face of the girl’s corrections. They made Binny feel stupid. Of course Binny knew what a typewriter was. How could she be expected to recognize one that was far away, teal, and being used outdoors – who types outside? Now that it was in a zillion pieces it looked even less like a typewriter than she imagined it had a few minutes earlier.

“I know it’s a typewriter. But I saw you break it.” There. That would show her.

“You saw me? Were you watching me?” The girl seemed nervous.

Binny backtracked. “Uh, I wasn’t watching you. I just glanced out my window and saw you break it.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I came out here and it was already broken.” The girl raised her voice. 

Binny was getting fed up with people lying to her. She wondered if she was going crazy. First Zach lied to her parents, and now this girl was lying about the typewriter. Binny knew what she had seen. The girl must have broken it. What other explanation could there be?

Binny looked up from the mess of parts, preparing to lecture the girl on what Binny had seen with her own two eyes when it became clear the girl was about to cry again. The anger and righteousness that Binny was feeling drained out of her in a rush, replaced once again with sympathy for the girl. “Are you okay?”