Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
I can’t undo twenty-four years of cruelty with a single gesture, but maybe it’s a start.
29
Campbell
“Ouch, ouch, ouch.” I stub my toe on something hard on my way out of the guest room Thursday morning. Lunging for the light switch, I flick it on before bracing myself against the wall and massaging the throbbing soreness out of my left foot.
As my blurry eyes focus on the floor, I spot the culprit—a thin, leatherbound book.
Picking it up, I find no title on the cover or spine.
It’s only when I page through it that I realize it’s a journal.
Not just any journal.
Slade’s journal.
Judging by the dates on the entries, this spans from his childhood—beginning around age ten—to as recently as this year.
Tucking it under my arm, I cozy up on the chaise in the corner and start from the beginning.
.
Campbell—
I don’t know why I’m writing this since you’re never going to see it, but I guess I don’t really have anyone else to talk to about this. Our cat, Midnight, ran away last week. No one knows this, but I accidentally left the back door open. My mom loves that cat more than anything. She cries a lot. My father has people looking for it. If something happened to Midnight, I’ll never forgive myself. Doesn’t help that Mom has been really sick lately. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong. All I know is that Midnight makes her feel better and keeps her company when I’m at school.
Slade (age 10)
.
Campbell—
I sent you a really mean birthday letter. I didn’t mean it. It’s been a crappy week, that’s all. I don’t really want to write more about it. I just hope you had a good birthday and got all the things you wanted. That’s all.
Slade (age 11)
.
Campbell—
In your last letter, you told me ten things about yourself and asked me to do the same. I told you I hated you ten times. The truth is, I don’t hate you. I don’t know you enough to hate you. I hate that I’m being forced to marry someone. I don’t want to get married. I think girls are annoying (no offense, you seem nice enough). Anyway, here are ten things about me, even if you’ll never see this:
1. I love books. But I feel like all my friends would make fun of me if they knew, so I only read at night, in bed, with a flashlight.
2. I’m really good at soccer.
3. My favorite color is hunter green.
4. I can beat anyone in chess with just four moves.
5. My favorite holiday is Halloween because it’s the one day a year that it’s socially acceptable to be anyone except who you are.
6. I recently started teaching myself how to code, but my father says it’s a waste of time and that I should be focusing on learning business strategies instead.
7. I secretly love theme parks. I say secretly because Florida is basically the theme park capital of the country and it’s not cool to say you like them here. Don’t tell my friends.
8. Someday I want to have a whole garage full of sports cars. Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Ferraris …
9. Tiger Woods came to my house once for a party my parents threw. He told me I should always play to win, which I think is common sense, but I pretended it meant a lot to me when he said that.
Slade (age 12)
.
Campbell—
Your last letter to me mentioned you’d been thinking about trying to get out of this marriage thing. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear that. I don’t want to marry you either. I’m sure you’re nice enough and all, but have you ever seen a happily married couple? Even my parents claim they love each other but they still fight sometimes. I don’t want that. Do you? I’m still thinking of ways we can throw a wrench in this. I’ll let you know …
Slade (age 13)
.
Campbell—
Three words that describe me: observant, restless, secretive
My role model is: I don’t really have one. I think we should all try to be the best people we can be without copying anyone else. Not that there aren’t admirable people out there.
My favorite color is: hunter green, which I’ve told you before.
Slade (age 14)
.
Campbell—
Sorry I haven’t written in a while. Technically I’m apologizing to a book and that’s weird. But whatever. Mom has been sick lately. We found her unresponsive the other day and rushed her to the hospital. Dad is flying her to Sweden later this week to meet with some famous doctor there. I hope we get some answers. I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t. I hate watching her suffer.
Slade (age 15)
.
Campbell—
I lied to you about why my junior prom date had the worst time. It’s my fault. My friends and I stole some liquor from my parents and got pretty crazy. I said some things to her I shouldn’t have said, things she didn’t deserve to hear because she’s a nice girl. I won’t get into it because I’d rather not repeat them. Every time I see her at school, I know I should apologize, but I can’t bring myself to. I don’t know why. Sometimes it feels like there’s something broken inside of me.