Page 80 of Haunt Me

Imagine growing up with a father.

What if I had grown up safe?

What if I had grown up with a real father?

Would I be careless?

Would I be kind?

What is your ‘what if’ scenario?

Are you afraid to think about it?

What is your ‘what if’ question?

Are you afraid to think about it?

Here are some of mine

(Kids, don’t try this at home)

What if he isn’t the monster?

What if he was right all along?

What if I am the monster

And I have been one all this time?

Like he says I am.

Book Margin

The book:WaldenbyHenry David Thoreau.

I went to the woods today. He wasn’t there.

Or today.

Or today.

twenty-one

We arrive back in Boston two weeks before classes start, and I can barely wait until I get to school. I text Eden on the way, making sure she’ll know exactly what time I’m arriving.

I’m already here, she texts back.

Her dad went back to work a week ago, thank goodness.

I begin shaking behind the wheel. She’s already in the woods. Our woods. I close my eyes and I picture our trees, green and bathed in summer. I let out a deep breath; I think it’s the first one I’ve taken I left her in the spring.

I park the car and run to our spot, not bothering to even take out my luggage. It can wait. Breathing can’t.

The minute I see her, I pounce on her.

I wrap my arms around her and I bury my nose in her hair, drinking in her scent.

“I died,” I gasp against her neck, my voice choking like a drowned man’s. “I died without you, Eden. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

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