NaNoWriMo Day 13: 10,283 of 50,000
Yay! 10,000 words y’all! That’s actually kind of crazy. So happy with where this story is going :)
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Eight
A month had passed as Theo found his journal entries only filling a page. The teenager had not been located, but the news had moved on. Theo was still obsessing over Stanley but was able to keep it a secret from all but his sister Chloe. She was constantly checking for the man whenever she visited him on the weekends or weeknights. Theo tried to restrain himself from responding, but sometimes he would point out the movements of the van.
On one particular afternoon Theo was standing outside his front door looking at the empty van across the street. His neighbor Alice was watching him, but didn’t say a word trying to get a sense of what exactly Theo was doing.
“Hey Theo what are you staring at?” she asked jolting him.
“Oh hey Alice. Um, that van across the street.”
Alice followed Theo’s finger that was pointing at the white van. “Oh, hm. Do you know whose van it is?”
“No, but I do see a guy go in and out of it a lot.”
“Hm. Could it be a homeless person?” she asked walking closer to Theo.
“I think it is.”
“I see,” Alice was confused still, “are you concerned about the guy?”
“A little. I’ll admit.”
“You know there’s a neighborhood watch group?” she asked him.
For the first time since their interaction began Theo looked at her in surprise. “Really?”
She laughed. “Yeah. They approached me because I inquired about the homeless people you warned me that lived here. I told them I wasn’t interested, but they are looking for more people to monitor the hood,” she said laughing again.
“Hm. Good to know.”
“You should join. Maybe you can figure out what that man is all about.”
Theo shook his head. He figured there was no better way to get away with watching the guy then by saying he was a part of the neighborhood watch team. “Good idea. Thanks for letting me know Alice.”
“You bet Theo.”
Theo said goodbye and made his way back inside. As he went to make some coffee he noticed the newspaper laying out on the kitchen table left behind by one of his roomates. Normally Theo would leave it right where it was, but he was curious about the news. Stanley had not been seen in the area for a few weeks, but had only recently come back. So, he flipped to the Local section and noticed a headline similar to Tiffany’s.
Local homeless woman, 52, goes missing
“Another person went missing, but where?” Theo asked himself out loud before scanning the article. “Fremont.” Theo knew that Fremont wasn’t Ballard, but it was still close enough. Having this knew knowledge coupled with all he had learned by reading “Mindhunter” over the past month he decided to widen Stanley’s zone of potential criminal activity. As Theo bent over his nearly battered journal to add Fremont to his list his phone buzzed on his desk.
The text coming in was from Tyler asking if he wanted to go to a trivia night in Capitol Hill. Theo could think of about a thousand other things he’d rather do than a trivia night, but the texts that followed were pleading Theo to come because his new girl, not Valeria, had a friend and she didn’t want her to feel like a third wheel. Theo refrained from rolling his eyes, but decided that a little bit of time spent away from his journal and researching wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Three hours later Theo showed up to Lookout a small, but artsy bar in Capitol Hill. There was one thing Seattleites didn’t joke around with and that was trivia nights. People not only packed bars around the city on trivia nights, but they dressed up according to whatever theme was at the center of the trivia that evening. Tonight people poured into the Lookout donned in all things Harry Potter attire. Theo was a fan of the books and movie series sure, but to see it all on display in front of him was a little overwhelming.
“Yo, Theo!” Tyler yelled from the back of the bar. Theo nodded in acknowledgment and squeezed his way past Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs to get to the table Tyler had with two females sipping cocktails. “Theo, this is my friend Natalie and her best friend Alice.”
Theo smiled at Natalie before turning to Alice the pair of them laughing as soon as they looked at each other. Tyler and Natalie were both a little confused as Alice and Theo settled down after a minute. Theo looked at Tyler, “We’re neighbors!”
“Oh!” Tyler and Natalie said thankful for the explanation. “Well hey small world then,” Natalie said looking at Alice as Theo took his coat off and settled into the remaining seat.
“So, Theo got any tips for a Harry Potter newbie?” Alice asked as Tyler and Natalie continued talking, or more flirting, in front of them.
“A newbie, huh? Have you been living under a rock for your whole life?” Theo asked with a broad smile on his face.
“No,” Alice laughed, “I just like more sci-fi books and movies. It’s hard for me to get into the idea of fantasy,” she said making the word sound mysterious and other-worldly.
“Ah, well,” Theo shrugged his shoulders as the trivia night began. Unfortunately, Theo was the only one at his table with an ounce of knowledge about all things Hogwarts. So, not one to do well under pressure the team of four fell behind pretty quickly. Nonetheless by the time the official game ended and they got their half off beer coupons for participating the conversation shifted as they bought their half off beers.
“So, anyone hear about this girl that went missing from school?” Natalie asked making Theo nearly choke on his beer.
“Theo, mate you alright?” Tyler asked with a smile on his face that said ‘dude get it together.’
“Yeah,” Theo sputtered as he whipped his mouth, “I just, yeah I heard about this too. I think the paper said her name was Tiffany?” Theo asked nonchalantly eager to keep his obsession from leaking out all over the table.
“You two live close to the high school right?” Natalie asked mostly looking at her friend Alice.
“Yep and as Theo so kindly pointed out to me the day after I moved in there are quite a few homeless people that live around us. Which is so sad,” Alice remarked.
The conversation then turned toward the homeless situation in Seattle and while Theo wasn’t necessarily not interested in talking about the issue he felt that the whole issue invited circular reasoning. It always came back around to that disingenuous tone of sympathy. He couldn’t stand that.
As the bar began to thin out around 11 o’clock Theo and Alice separated from Natalie and Tyler making their way back via the Seattle bus system to their street in quiet Ballard. As Theo approached his door Alice stopped him as he finished putting in the door code.
“Hey Theo,” Alice was quiet in the stillness of the city street, “are you worried about that guy with the white van?”
Theo considered in a short time span how to respond. To say no made him appear what everyone was looking for: normal. To say yes could lead him down a dangerous road because up until this moment only three people knew what was concerning him. Or obsessing him. In those seconds of considering what to say he decided he was close enough to the cliff, he might as well jump a little closer to the edge. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
