Page 33 of Run Away Home: Tempered

“And your dad?”

“Pneumonia.”

“Both of them?” Hayley asks.

“Yes.”

“At the same time?” I ask.

“Nope. My da first, then my mum almost a year later.” Peter appears nervous, like he’s being interrogated on one of those detective shows. “Okay, story time is over.”

“It was just getting good, though,” I say.

Peter laughs and stands. “Okay. Haggis for dinner, it is.”

“Haggis?”

“Yup. You two want to experience Scotland so badly. I can help you do that.”

He walks into the kitchen. I pull my phone out of my pocket and look up “haggis” on Google. What the hell? There’s no way he’s making that for dinner. He’s just being an ass!

“That’s nasty!” I call out.

“I know!” he answers.

Hayley

DANNY IS SLEEPING,and Peter’s in the kitchen making tea. It’s official, I’ve seen every episode ofHere Comes Honey Boo Boo. I pick up the remote. I’m sad the show was canceled, really. I wonder how they’re doing. Probably better than I am.

I turn the TV over to cable and put on the news. Another arrest in Patchogue, and a whale washed up in Mastic Beach. Any good news? I turn the volume all the way down and listen to the sound of the teakettle whistling on the stove. Peter should be taking it off the heat any second...

But the teakettle doesn’t stop whistling. The whistling just gets louder and louder until the kettle is screaming. What the fuck? I get up off the couch and walk over to the kitchen, but I freeze in the doorway. What the fuck am I seeing right now?

Peter’s standing by the countertop. His left hand is flat on the cutting board. He’s holding a knife right above his own fingers. The tip of the blade is digging into the wooden board, just above his pointer and thumb.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I yell.

He drops the knife and jumps backwards as if he had just woken up.

“What? What?”

“The teakettle. It’s been going off for a long time, and... Oh my God, were you going to cut your own fingers off?” I put my hands up to my head and tug the roots of my hair. “What’s wrong with you?”

“No! Sorry, I... I phased out. I was going to get the kettle, and I stopped. I don’t know what happened.”

“Oh, okay. Great. So, you’re walking around with a huge knife, and you don’t even know what the fuck you’re doing? What the fuck!”

I walk over and pick the knife up off the floor. I put it back in the drawer.

“Hayley, I...”

I grab the teakettle off the stove to stop the loud whistling.

“Are you having tea or not?”

“I am,” he responds quietly. He backs up into the opposite wall and stares at the cutting board. He lifts his hands to his ears and covers them tightly.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

---