When I Was You by Kent Minka

Author:Kent, Minka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

“You’re not eating.” I’m seated across from Brienne at a Podunk diner on the south side of Old Hundred Saturday morning. I managed to make her day by requesting a two-hour pass after our session with Schneider. Figured it’s the least I can do, and I need to leave here today on a high note. Can’t have her hope and determination flatlining this early in the game. “Is it the food? You want to order something else?”

She picks at her rubbery yellow scrambled eggs with the thin tines of her water-spotted fork.

“I haven’t had much of an appetite since I’ve been here,” she says. “Everything just tastes . . . different.”

Yep. Mass-produced food usually does.

“Would you like pancakes instead, dear?” I lift my arm, like I’m trying to catch our waitress’s attention.

“No, no. It’s fine.” She sets her fork down and picks up a triangle of buttered wheat toast. The crumbs stick to the sides of her mouth as she chews, but she manages to smile. She’s trying to show me she’s in good spirits.

I reach across the table, slithering my arm between juice glasses and bone-colored plastic plates, and I place my hand over hers.

“I’m worried about you,” I say. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re looking a little gaunt.”

“I’ll be fine.” She dabs her mouth with her paper napkin. Brienne takes a few more bites, and I catch her staring into space a couple of times.

“Penny for your thoughts.” I say the words an endearing, concerned husband would say to his poor wife.

Brienne sits straighter, taking a sip of pallid orange juice that’s more water than anything else. “I just keep thinking about that notebook.”

Ah, yes. Kate Emberlin’s diary.

That project was quite the undertaking. First, I had to collect as many handwriting samples from her as I could find, which took me almost an entire week, and even then I’d only collected twenty out of twenty-six alphabetic letters. Then I scanned the documents and sent them to some guy in Indonesia who, for a mere five dollars, turned her handwriting into a downloadable font file, which I installed on my computer. Lastly, I stayed up until 3:00 AM the following night typing up those “notes.”

I have to say, I’m not the creative type, but I think I managed to capture the fictional spirit of Kate Emberlin and our imperfect yet loving marital union in those entries quite well.

When I was finished typing them up, I printed them off, then traced over them in the notebook in pencil—a little project that took a handful of days.

It’s all about authenticity and detail.

I insisted she bring the journal with her to Crestview for two reasons. One, I wanted to make sure there was ample evidence that Kate existed in case the staff or Schneider began questioning it and the medical records weren’t enough to quell their concerns. And two, I wanted Brienne to study those words, to obsess over them, to focus on becoming this fictional person. It’s a distraction thing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.