The Forgotten Photograph by Julian Kennedy

Author:Julian Kennedy [Julian Kennedy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Julian Kennedy
Published: 2024-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Dannie

During my call to Charlie about finding the chess board, I promised her I’d stay put, but I’m not happy about it. Not happy maybe isn’t the phrase I’m looking for. I haven’t been jazzed about much in years, especially the last several months. But staying in the hotel makes me feel just, desolate, I guess. In despair? Choose your synonym. This feels like it will never ever end. Happiness, apart from the kind Ash gives me, seems to be out of the cards for this old queer. My life now is just day after day of sitting tight. Hanging in there. Taking things an hour at a time. Telling my therapist about horrifying nightmares.

All that fun stuff.

Now I’m back at the hotel, scrolling through TikTok. I made an anonymous account because I figured, fuck it at this point. I’m sure Nick already knows where we are. This way I at least have some puppies to snicker at in the meantime.

I told the gang about the newest picture, with the chessboard, and we’re emotionally huddling together more than ever. Clinging to each other like kids who can’t find their mom in the grocery store.

This chess mess, as I’ve affectionately started to call it, is completely bizarre. It’s not even a crime. It might fall under the umbrella of like, mild stalking. Moderate creepery. That leaves me with almost more questions than Eric’s letters. Eric had a clear purpose, to scare us stupid. He hated us, he wrote us menacing letters, and there you have it. But apart from Nick being shot down by Rosa and Marco, the whole thing makes no sense. Plus, it’s only just a wild guess that it actually is Nick to begin with.

“Can we put our phone down, friend? Not that you’re really even looking at it anymore. I can hear puppies barking but I also see the gears turning in your head,” Evan says with a tongue click and an eye roll. He got clearance from Charlie to hang out with us every so often if it meant we would stay in our room. As long as he got personally escorted by her or Phil up to our room.

“Yeah, no kidding. Your eyes are blanker than my retirement fund account page,” Rosa chimes in.

I shake off the figurative cobwebs and look over at the group—Evan, Marco, and Rosa on the couch, Ash next to me on the bed. “Sorry, I was just trapped in my feelings there for a minute. Did I miss anything?”

“Nothing of import,” Rosa says. She’s been quiet the last few days. She’s chiming into conversations and everything, but in a more sedate way than normal. If I know Rosa, she blames herself for all this Nick business. She chatted with him on the dating app, and now we’re in this mess. What she doesn’t realize is she doesn’t deserve the shame spiral. None of us blame her for any of it, and I hope one day she’s as kind to herself as we are.

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