I’m Following You by Emily Shiner

Author:Emily Shiner [Shiner, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

23

COLLETTE

I don’t think I’ve gotten the paper delivered to my house since I was little and living with my parents. My dad lived for the morning paper and read it every day at breakfast, spreading the pages out on the table like they were the scripture. He didn’t merely read the paper — he absorbed it. He was like a sponge, taking in all of the information he possibly could and then talking about it until the news moved on to something else.

It didn’t matter what it was, the top news story became his fodder for the next twenty-four hours. From a new school building being put up across town to a shooting, to industrial accidents, to a retirement notice, my dad read it all. He also loved the letters to the editor and would read them aloud to Arabella and me, pausing dramatically, wiggling his eyebrows at the good parts, making sure we were paying attention.

And then he would quiz us. It was like it wasn’t enough for him to tell us about the news. He wanted us to remember it, to marinate in it the way he did, then be able to discuss it at dinner.

After he died, my mom stopped the paper. She gathered up all the pages he’d strewn about the house, all the clippings he’d gathered and carefully filed away to look at later, and put them in the recycling. The last time I cared about a newspaper was when the article about Courtney Barrow’s supposed death was printed.

Thank God Mom wasn’t alive when Arabella died.

But now I’m on my way downtown to buy myself a copy of the local paper. I dropped off my letter to the editor on Thursday and was told that if they decided to print it, it would appear by the weekend.

It wasn’t in the paper yesterday morning, but now it’s Saturday, and I can’t help how excited I am. Everything I do the rest of the day hinges on whether or not my letter made it into print. I need to see if my letter is featured, if it’s interesting enough for a reporter to pick it up and then want to look into it. Jackson had a great idea in skipping over the police entirely by involving the news instead, and now I need to know how well my plan worked.

It’s dark out. I haven’t even eaten breakfast before slipping behind the wheel and hurrying out. Henry was still curled up on the end of the bed when I left, only opening one angry amber eye to glare at me for interrupting his slumber before rolling over and passing back out.

Maybe I’ll climb back into bed with him when I return home with the paper. Or maybe I’ll want to celebrate.

Above me the full moon is so bright that it feels like it must be early morning, but the sun won’t be up for a while yet. I’m alone on the sidewalk although I can smell that someone is already baking this morning.

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