NaNoWriMo Day 11: 7,908 of 50,000
I gotta double whammy for y’all today. Chapters 5 and 6 really move things along!
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Five
Theo’s pulse was loud in his ears as he took big gulps of air in peering through the blinds in the window to locate the man.
Thankfully, he had passed in front of his home and was now passing a couple whose eyes seemed to all but ignore the knife in the man’s hand.
“What is wrong with people?” Theo whispered out loud only realizing the irony as he stepped away from the door. The buzzing of Theo’s phone in his pocket jolted him and only increased his heart rate more until he realized what was going on. Theo’s sister texted him telling him she had arrived, so being a logical person Theo double checked that the man with the knife was long gone before stepping out of the door.
“Hiya,” Chloe, his sister, greeted him as he got into the passenger seat. “Theo are you alright?”
“Huh?” Theo stopped looking up and down the street for a moment so he could look at his sister. “Oh yeah, I’m fine.” In that moment Theo wasn’t sure if he should tell his sister what was going on in his world. On the one hand she was a good listener, but on the other she often didn’t take him seriously. They did have a uniquely odd relationship that was different more recently than in the past. Being nearly four years apart the two of them didn’t often relate or connect simply because they were in different stages of life. Now, however that they were at similar stages in life they connected more closely than Theo could’ve ever remembered than in the past.
“No, actually I’m not,” Chloe took a right turn onto the main street and waited patiently for Theo to continue, “I mean I know there are a lot of homeless people that live in this city and all but there’s this one guy Chloe I kid you not he has a knife.”
“What kind of knife?” she asked stopping at a red light.
“It’s like a big kitchen knife and he goes around trimming the weeds in the sidewalks. It’s so weird.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty weird I’ll admit.”
The light turned green and Theo had to compose himself. His sister was the only one right now who was not reacting like he was a lunatic. “You are the only person who I’ve told that believes me.”
Chloe finally made her way through the clogged streets of South Lake Union surging forward onto the south ramp to Interstate 5. She shrugged her shoulders before gripping the steering wheel to make the dangerous four lane cross to get out of the downtown exiting traffic.
“Who else have you told?” she asked once she was safely in the correct lane.
“Ophelia and Tyler mostly, but they thought I was a lunatic so,” Theo’s voice faded.
“Hm. Well I think anyone who finds a man bending down on a sidewalk with a knife is completely sane for bringing it up.”
Theo could have hugged his sister if he was a hugging kind of person, but instead he smiled as they made their way out of the city center and headed east toward Bellevue. The traffic was always a gamble around the city and the early afternoon time did no favors for getting to the humane society in a reasonable amount of time. Nonetheless after a comfortably silent drive across Lake Washington and a few turns later they pulled into a large building surrounded by trees.
“Wow, this place is huge!” Chloe remarked as they each climbed out of her car.
“Yeah, it looks like a hotel,” Theo added as they walked to the entrance.
The first floor was dedicated to cats so Theo and Chloe made their way to the stairs passing through a very large cat store. The downstairs was smaller, but the two of them only waited a few minutes before meeting one of the workers.
“So, Niko is a little shy at first so we usually recommend throwing treats toward him and he will slowly come to you,” the lady explained as she directed them out to a fenced in area. While they waited for her to come out with Niko, a large husky dog, Theo looked through the toys they provided.
“This place is insane bro,” Chloe stated as she sat on the bench provided for the humans. Theo didn’t disagree with his younger sister because not only was there space for the animals to run back and forth, but there was also an ample amount of toys available for the potential adopters to use to get to know the animals and connect with them.
“Alright,” a female voice reached them as the gate to the fence opened with a lithe husky coming in, “I will give you all some time to get to know each other.” She released Niko who sniffed the edges of the fence walking around the space provided for him. It took him awhile, but eventually Theo was able to get Niko to edge closer to him and eventually the husky was sitting on his lap. The laughter was much needed as Theo had been feeling slightly obsessed about this man with the knife. For several years Theo had struggled with battling his anxiety and worrying about things that were really out of his control. For Theo this man was someone that was outside of his control, but it didn’t stop him from thinking about him.
“Earth to Theodore,” Chloe’s voice brought him back to the scene in front of him. Niko had grown bored and was now more into watching the dog next to them. “You really aren’t alright are you?”
Theo shook his head. “No, I’ll be okay. I think I want to look at some more dogs.” After a few more minutes the lady returned and took Niko back inside. Theo and Chloe followed each taking a handful of hand sanitizer to rub in their hands before walking around the halls of the humane society looking at the dogs. Theo was looking at them, truly, but his mind was beginning to split its attention. One part of it was focused on whatever he was doing at the time, but the other part was starting to consistently be focused on this man with the knife.
“Are you going to get Niko?” Chloe asked as they walked back to the entrance of the dog section.
“Not sure,” Theo said, “I don’t think I have enough room for him.”
Chloe nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, your room is small for a husky and you don’t have a lot of yard space.”
“I’ll just keep looking,” Theo remarked as they made their way out to Chloe’s car.
The two of them ended up going to a movie which, again, helped Theo focus at least part of his mind on something other than the man with the knife. As the movie ended Theo realized it was about time he give this man a name because it had become tiresome for him to keep referring to the man as the one with the knife.
“Hey Chloe what’s a creepy man’s name?” he asked as they walked out of the movie theater. Chloe was used to these kinds of questions because part of being an English teacher and writer meant she was always filled with random names and ideas for stories.
She didn’t even question Theo before responding. “I’ve always thought the name Stanley was pretty creepy.”
Stanley it was. “What like Stanley Yelnats? From ‘Holes’?” Theo laughed followed by his sister and again Theo thought how good this felt to laugh and smile.
Chapter Six
Theo wasn’t really sure how he ended up here. He was certain that all he came to the store for was another book to read, but somehow his attention had diverted from the nonfiction section to the notebooks and journals section.
“Can I help you?” a sales associate ambled up to Theo looking expectantly at him.
If Theo were honest he’d say yes I would like to purchase a journal to keep track of this guy named Stanley, not his real name because I haven’t actually met him, who sometimes appeared in the neighborhood with a knife under the pretense he was going to spruce up the sidewalks. However, Theo knew that sane, non-obsessed people tended to say things like ‘no thanks.’ So, that was what Theo went with as the lady waited before him.
“No thanks, I’m just looking.”
The lady nodded doing her best to hide her disappointment. “Alright, well let me know if I can help you with anything.”
Theo nodded before turning his attention back on the journals in front of him. His attention was drawn to the black bound notebooks that were small. Theo considered how easy it would be to conceal one in his pocket. It would make it easily accessible if he was by chance out and about in his neighborhood and noticed Stanley. It should’ve been an easy decision, but for Theo he realized how utterly ridiculous he was being. So, after nearly ten minutes of standing in front of the notebooks he quickly grabbed the pocket-side black notebook and went straight to the registers.
“Find everything you were looking for today, sir?” the cashier asked him as he rang up the purchase. The item that was beginning to represent Theo’s obsession.
“Yeah, thanks,” Theo said wishing people just didn’t say anything to him.
“Have a great day then,” the man said as Theo nodded and took the purchased journal stuffing it in the pocket of his jeans before exiting the store.
As the weekend came to an end Theo was beginning to dread the pile of work that he knew was waiting for him tomorrow morning. His alarm going off the next morning didn’t help either, but he managed to get dressed and make his way to his coffee shop office nonetheless. On the way there Theo was shocked because for the first time in over three weeks Stanley’s van was parked near the spiritual center that faced Theo’s townhome. Theo immediately reached for the new journal that he had tucked in his jeans, an afterthought this morning, and opened to the first page.
Theo thought over what exactly he was going to write in this journal. For the first time since Theo bought the journal he realized that his unspoken intentions were becoming true. Theo wanted to record the movements of Stanley because after considering why this man perturbed him so much, or rather terrified him, he realized that something was off. And Theo wanted to figure out what that something was, so Theo rationalized that recording Stanley’s movements would help him solve his mini-mystery.
With that in mind Theo decided the date, time, and a brief synopsis of what he was observing including the location of the man and the van would be valuable. After making his first note Theo returned the journal to its new home and continued his journey to Ballardite. Upon entering the first thing Theo noticed was his friend Ophelia bustling away at the counter. It wasn’t that Theo was upset at Ophelia, but he rarely dealt in confrontation and knew what was going to come next. All weekend Theo had ignored phone calls and texts from both Ophelia and Tyler. He just needed some space, but that space ended today.
“Hey Ophelia,” Theo timidly said as he approached the counter.
“Oh, so you do acknowledge my existence after all!” Ophelia exclaimed finishing wiping down the counter to look at him.
Her look could kill everyone in the immediate vicinity but Theo surged ahead. “I do apologize for not responding, but I just needed some space.”
“Space? Theo, Tyler and I are genuinely worried about you.”
Theo would have responded, but the front cover of the Local section of The Seattle Times newspaper in front of him caught his attention. It wasn’t the picture of the puppy who had been found, but the headline that made him pick up the paper.
Ballard High Senior, 16 goes missing
“Have you read this?” Theo asked turning the newspaper toward Ophelia?
“What?” Ophelia barely glanced at it before looking back at Theo. “No, Theo look Tyler and I are here for you okay, but you need to take a step back from this dude with the knife.”
“Uh-huh,” Theo was not entirely focused on his conversation with Ophelia because the rest of the article only further heightened his interest and curiosity.
Ballard — What began as a normal day for Ballard High senior Tiffany Johnson ended with a mystery. The 16-year-old honor roll student was last seen leaving the school on the corner of 65th and 15th streets in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. Parents notified the authorities as soon as their daughter failed to arrive home at her usual time of four pm.
‘This is very unlike Tiff,” her teary-eyed mom told the press late Friday evening just hours after reporting her daughter’s disappearance.
While her family is worried for her safety many at Ballard High School express that Tiffany was not the wonderful person she made herself out to be to her parents. One student who prefers to remain anonymous told The Seattle Times that Tiffany, “really is a loner at school. She doesn’t really have any friends and is pretty mean to everyone in our grade.” While it appears many students agree with this anonymous student local authorities are seeking any information on Tiffany Johnson’s whereabouts. Tiffany is 5’ 3’’ with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue backpack, jeans, and a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt. If you have any information, please contact the Seattle Police Department at the number below.
Theo wasn’t sure why this had piqued his interest, but part of him believed it was because of Stanley. Maybe what was bothering Theo wasn’t that the man used his knife as a gardening tool, but rather that the knife was used for other activities like kidnapping teenage girls and torturing them in his van. Theo shook his head to clear that thought from his head because as he had learned in his therapy Theo always jumped to the worst possible explanation.
“Here,” Ophelia said setting down his morning cup of coffee in front of him with an irritated tone in her voice.
Theo put the newspaper down and turned to Ophelia. “Look, I really am sorry, but I think I am onto something,” he said pointing to the paper.
“Theo, seriously-”
“Just hold on,” Theo said looking back down at the paper reading a part of the article out loud, “What began as a normal day for Ballard High senior Tiffany Johnson ended with a mystery. The 16-year-old honor roll student was last seen leaving the school on the corner of 65th and 15th streets in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. Parents notified the authorities as soon as their daughter failed to arrive home at her usual time of four pm.”
“So? A girl went missing. It happens all the time,” Ophelia said turning to head back to the front. Theo quickly followed the paper still in his hand.
“No, you don’t get it. Ophelia this happened like two minutes from here. Stanley practically lives minutes from the school. I am convinced, Ophelia, that he is doing more than gardening with that knife of his.”
“Wait a minute. You know this guy’s name?” Ophelia asked crossing her arms over her chest.
“What? No, I-” Theo stopped because he just realized what he let slip. If Ophelia thought he was crazy before she would definitely have prove he was now that he said the man’s made-up name aloud. “Forget I said anything.” Theo realized that the fight wasn’t worth it with his best friend because no matter what he said or did she wouldn’t believe him.
Defeated, Theo sat back down and opened his laptop beginning the email work for the day. As Theo began typing an email response to a work colleague he looked up as the door to the coffee shop opened and nearly dropped the coffee he had in his hands. The person who just entered was indeed Stanley.
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
