• Nathon Woods Journal Entry #9
    March 16, 2010


    tab "What are you doing?" We were downstairs, and I had my cellphone out, frantically dialing those three, precious numbers.
    tab "What does it look like I'm doing?" I snapped. "Calling the police." I put the phone to my ear, but before a coversation was even started, I felt a sharp pain as Jenna wacked me in the hand, my phone flying a couple yards away.
    tab "Ow!" I held my hand, tempted to dance around like a clown at the sheer pain. "What the--ow!--why the hell did you just do that?!" She bent over, and picked up the phone, stuffing it into her pocket.
    tab "I don't want anyone to know about what happened to my dad, ok?" After I shook my pained hand one more time, I asked,
    tab "And just why is that?" She shook her head, as if her explaining it was just a stupid thing to do. Or maybe it was just because she thought I was stupid.
    tab "Several reasons," she said, as if it were obvious what those reasons were. "Take Tyler Woods, for example. Once the police start investigating this place, he's going to know he'll get in a heap load of trouble."
    tab "And what's wrong with that?" She paced around the room, arms crossed, almost as if she was giving me a lecture.
    tab "Because then he'll run off. He'll run off, and no one will be able to give him the 'heap load of trouble' he deserves."
    tab "You mean you," I corrected. "You won't be able to give him the heap load trouble he deserves." She stopped pacing, and nodded.
    tab "Yes."
    tab "And what makes you so sure he did it?" I pressed, taking a step closer to her. I knew he couldn't have done it. So I decided to add,
    tab "He was at school today. He couldn't have done it." A perfect alibi. How would she be able to object to that?
    tab "It doesn't matter. I just know he did it." She wasn't make a lot of sense, or any sense at all. Why did she insist on blaming him? There must've been a reason.
    tab "I think it's more than just intuition speaking to you." She fell silent, and I couldn't stop there.
    tab "You gonna tell me what happened or what?" More silence, until she finally took a deep breath and said,
    tab "You know that nightmare I had this morning?" I nodded. How could I possibly have forgotten.
    tab "It wasn't a nightmare. It was real."

    tab "All I saw then...All I saw was darkness. Not a glimmer of light. Nothing to be seen. It was only then when I heard a voice."
    tab "A voice?" I laughed. "Yeah, right. This already sounds like crap."
    tab "I thought it was too. Thought I was dreaming. But when I tried to wake up, nothing happened. I was still there, just floating, like a cloud."
    tab "So, what?" I asked, trying to contain a smile. "What'd this voice of yours say?" She stared at me with those eyes that could take the smile off anyone, and then said very solemnly,
    tab "He told me about his plot to kill Mr. Powers." My smile was long one now.
    tab "Don't joke about that, Jenna. That's not funnny."
    tab "I'm not kidding. And then do you know what he said?"
    tab "No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."
    tab "Tyler Woods. He told me Tyler Woods would just come out of no where in two hours, and shoot Mr. Powers."
    tab "And you believed it," I stated crossly. "You freakin' believed a random voice like that. Supposing there was a random voice in the first place."
    tab "I don't have to tell this story, you know. I can just totally leave you in the dark." I stayed silent for a minute, and then said,
    tab "Whatever. Go on."
    tab "I didn't believe it at first either. And I didn't believe anything else he said about me either." That got my attention.
    tab "What else did he say about you?" Her eyebrows lowered, and the largest scowl I could've possibly imagined graced her face.
    tab "None of your business!" she shouted, like it was something really bad. She calmed down a bit, and crossed her arms again.
    tab "Anyway," she went on, "I didn't believe it myself and woke up, as if it was nothing but a bad dream. Mr. Powers, on the other hand, didn't look like that. He looked frightened, like he knew what just happened. He asked me what he said."
    tab "He knew 'him'? He knew the voice?" Jenna shrugged.
    tab "I guess. But I didn't even think about that then. I just stared off, couldn't say a word.
    tab "It was then when tears started coming down. I was crying, but I wasn't sure why. Maybe...It was because deep inside somewhere, I really knew what the voice said was true, I just didn't want to believe it.
    tab "Mr. Powers kept me home. Said he wanted to know what the guy said. I just told him it was a bad dream, that it really was nothing. He kept me home, anyway, regardless of what I said. Said it would be 'too dangerous to go out now'.
    tab "But I knew. I knew it wasn't a dream, and that's what makes it so much worse, to know I could've prevented Mr. Powers from dying...killed by Tyler Woods."

    tab "This is crap," I pronounced. "Like I said, Tyler Woods was at school during that time. I talked to him myself!"
    tab "He might've been at school...Most of the time."
    tab "Bull crap!" I shouted. "And how would he have gotten from his house, to your house, to school, with out being caught by any one?"
    tab "How should I know?" she snapped. "I honestly don't care. He the only suspect I have now, and until you make a case that someone else was more likely to be the criminal, I'm going to stick with him." She was serious, I knew. And yet, then, I didn't know quite how serious.