MECHANISM OF TOLLE:chapter four.

FOUR

Grady sighed and plopped himself on the couch as soon as we got home. My mom raised her eyebrows and asked, "Where did y'all go?"


"We met up with Gwen at The Underground." I replied, tucking my keys into my pocket. I snatched a rubberband from the top of the TV and put my hair up.


"Have fun?" My mom asked, directly to Grady.


He shot his head up to look at her and nodded. I knew the nod was fake. The trip had made him feel worse.


"Good." My mom smiled genuinely. She moved forward in her chair and scruffed Grady's hair as if he were a dog.


"Ma? I'm gonna go up to my room for a second." I said, leaning with my forearm on the television.


She grunted as she got up, "'Kay, I needa talk to you too, sunshine."


I rolled my eyes and entered the small front room which contained a ladder into the attic. I climbed it and my mom followed, hugging me tightly when we got into the room.



"Thank you." She said.



"What for?" I grimaced and turned on a dim light.



"Taking care of Grady. God knows he's shakin' like a bowl of Jell-O inside." She whispered, her eyes wide.



"Were his parents really taken?" I asked.



"Nobody's speakin'. They went missin' during searchin' some house... That's somethin' I wanna talk to you about." She eyed the floor nervously. I ducked under a ceiling beam and dove onto my mattress on the floor, pulling a composition book out from under my pillow.



"What?" I asked without paying any attention.



"Well, um, I know you had plans tonight to go out with your friends.. but.. I want you to stay home."



"No!" I jumped up, slamming my forehead against the jagged beam. Although I had been insanely nervous about the place, I found that somewhere inside me the house on Lucy Mays Boulevard excited me. Mark had told me just weeks before that I was in desperate need of adventure. Now my mom was slipping it out of my grasp. "Just because Grady's parents went missing doesn't mean that I'll go missing too!" I shouted. "I've done this too long for you too worry."

"I... know." My mom stood at the ladder leaning into the first story of the house. "I just love you, ann' I don't want nothing to happen to-"

"Nothing is going to happen!" I vigorously rubbed my forehead.

"I hope so." My mom started down the ladder.

"I'm going, y'know!" I called. She was not going to stop me. I heard soft murmuring in the living room and got to my hands and knees, listening with my head poking out of the square shaped hole in the floor.

"You.. heard." My mom muttered uncomfortably.

"Yes." Grady sighed.

"I'm real sorry. She's stubborn and I-"

"There's no need to apologize, Aunt Glenda." Grady said. I heard the springs on the couch scream as he got up.

"O.K..." She paused. "Well, I'm gonna get some beauty rest. Ya don't wanna see this without sleep." She referred to herself. She padded accross the living room and stopped once at the close sound of a honk outside. The window blinds clinked and clanked with a sudden disturbance. "Ah, whoo. I just thought it was Ruby's friends to pick her up. Maybe she's already called 'em to tell 'em she's not goin'. I trust that girl more 'en anybody."

She continued through the room and I heard her bedroom door shut. I made as little sound as possible descending the ladder. Grady watched me as I reached the coat rack and snatched my jacket.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Searching the house, of course." I said nonchalantly. "I'm going no matter what she says." A sudden feeling of faintness washed over me but I brushed it off as a spark of thrill.

"Your mom trusts you." He whispered, taking a step closer to me.

"Well, this is important to me." I said, short of a good comeback. I quietly opened the front door.

"Wait." He held out his hand and grabbed my arm. He pulled me toward the light hanging from the ceiling.

"What?!" I whisper-shouted.

"What is that?" He asked, pointing at my forehead.

"I- I bumped it."

"You should sit down, it looks really bad." He winced. I restrained myself from telling him that it hurt really bad, too.

"I don't have time to sit down. I have to go." I pulled away from him and jumped outside before he could catch me.