"Honey, we have a visitor!" Mrs. Parkman called out to her husband.
"Alright. I'll be down in a second!" A deep voice boomed back.
"Why don't you sit down, son," Mrs. Parkman asked me, patting down on the sofa.
Her house was arranged very differently from mine. The bedrooms were down the hall, to the left of the living room, which was directly in front of the foyer. The kitchen was behind the living room, and in between, there was a door leading upstairs. There was nothing up there, just a lot of junk and forgotten memories. I had to come here for a summer job, cleaning the house.
When I got here, Mrs. Parkman asked me if I was Jay West. That was weird. I wondered if she had Alzheimer's.
If there was one thing I hated in the world, it was asking for something. I don't know what it is, pride or independence or what, but something set my nerves off about asking people for anything. People are unreliable and untrustworthy. I'd be better off finding my own evidence.
But the thing is, if this worked, if the Parkmans really did have the right security system, then that would mean that I would be able to get proof and inevitably go back to school. It would save me a lot of trouble, and the Parkmans- well, Mrs. Parkman anyway- were a nice bunch.
The upstairs door opened and Mr. Parkman appeared covered in dust and grime. He must still be working up there after all these years.
He smiled as if he was happy to see me. Until he saw who I actually was. Then he frowned. "What do you want, kid?" he asked. "Cut the crap."
He really didn't like me, for some reason. Whenever I came here, I usually talked to Mrs. Parkman. She was always the nicer of the two, by far. "Uh..." My tongue was tied.
"Honey, leave the kid alone," Mrs. Parkman came to the rescue. "Stop scaring him. And you wonder why you're not invited to Boy's Night." She shook her head at him.
He just sighed in response, taking his time to plop down on the love seat in front of me.
"Mrs. Parkman," I said pointedly, snatching a glance at Mr. Parkman, "I wanted to know if you were here when my family was attacked the other week." I said this seriously, but with no emotion, as if the fact that a giant monster attacked me in the middle of the night was no big deal, and completely realistic. I just realized how foolish I sounded.
"Well, see, the thing is," she started, "I was at the mall, shopping for some clothes and some 'work materials'-" she used air quotes with a pointed look at Mr. Parkman "-so I wasn't here. But my husband, he was at home. I honestly have no idea what he was doing, you can ask him that."
I looked at Mr. Parkman.
"What? I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. All I heard were a few bumping noises. That was it," Mr. Parkman said innocently.
"You mean to tell me that through all that," I said, gesturing towards the general direction of my house, "you didn't hear a single thing out of the ordinary? Not one thing?"
"No, I didn't," he said with a shake of his head. "But our security system did."
Yes!
"Really? Can I see the footage?" I tried to contain my excitement. This was the moment I'd been waiting for, and it hadn't even taken long to come.
"Yeah, sure." Mr. Parkman scratched his beard. "But I don't have it currently, of course. The police have it."
My face twisted into confusion. "Wait. The cops got the footage?" If they had the footage...why did I get kicked out of Skyview? That should have been all the evidence needed, plus Cassie as a witness.
Something wasn't right. A dark feeling sank into the pit of my stomach.
"Yep. They said they'll keep it as evidence for the case or something." He waved his hand. "Don't worry, kid. Everything will be all right."
"Yeah," I said, unconvinced. Looked like I would have to make another trip. I got up to leave.
"Where you going, hon?" Mrs. Parkman asked sweetly.
"Oh, sorry. I gotta go," I jerked my thumb towards the door, walking backward and talking to her at the same time.
"Well, you have to let me walk you out," she insisted. "It's only the polite thing to do."
"Sure," I said. I stood next to the door, waiting for the old woman to walk over there. When she finally got there, I opened the door so she could walk out with me. Mr. Parkman just sat on the couch, watching us with a blank stare.
"You're such a nice young man," Mrs. Parkman said when I closed the door behind her. "I wish I could have a son just like you."
Mrs. Parkman was infertile. She couldn't have children, sadly, but didn't let that ruin her life. She and Mr. Parkman adopted a baby way back when they were still young.
Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer at an early age, when he was eleven. He died a few months later. But Mrs. Parkman, however scarred, was never sad or angry. She still looked on the bright side of things. Although, she never adopted another child.
"Thank you," I responded curtly. "Mrs. Parkman, out of all due respect, how did you know that I would be coming?"
"Oh, the police told us to expect you," she said with a smile. "They told us to let you know that they had everything covered. That was last Wednesday, though. I'm surprised I remembered."
Yeah, she probably did have Alzheimer's.
This was the Friday of the next week. It had been a week and two days since the police had gathered the evidence, according to the Parkmans. So why did I get kicked out of school if there was obvious proof that I didn't hurt my parents?
Seemed like I needed to pay a visit to the police station.