32 night in the woods - post party chat with mom and granddad's bookcase

Dear Readers,

I left my room and greeted the family portrait "Afternoon, us" I said.

I mused on the grandfather clock again, how having such a big thing that only does one thing like tell the time was like a luxury item or a big statement. Everything tells the time now. I wondered how old the clock was.

"'Sup bird" I said to the bird.

I went over to the bookcase and said how it was like grandad's ghost or his skeleton... which made myself sad. Then I noticed something written on a book cover. It said "Left 45, right 100, left 22, left 90, right 15."

I doodled granddad under the doodle of fire ghost along with his RIP gravestone and a hand coming out of it. I wrote "G-DAD" and "Thought: COME BACK TO LIFE GRANDDAD".

I checked the bookcase out more. I was looking for and found "The Floating Island And Other Stories". I recalled how Granddad used to recite it from memory and made some more stuff up when he was getting me to sleep when I was a kid. That's nice :) I narrowed my eyes and said "Miss you dude". I was also like "Jeez. I'm old".

The music playing in the house was different. It was another gentle melody but I guess it feels like a progression from the other one.

I went downstairs and mom called me in to the kitchen to say hi. I hopped up on the counter.

She greeted me and said I looked like crap in her cheerful way. I was like yup! She asked if I had a rough night and I said "Is it that obvious?". Then she said I looked like crap because she loved me. That's nice :) haha! She asked if I wanted to talk about it and I said "I saw Cole at a party in the woods." She asked if I talked to him and I said "Kind of. Sort of. I dunno." I didn't have any other great options really... She said that he was a jerk and I said he wasn't. Then she said the repair workers have cleared out of the towne centre. They were finished with the church hill steps and the powerlines. I was pretty happy to hear this. She said she didn't want me up on those powerlines. I said I was 20 and she said that meant I go to jail for it. Yeeks. I said "No one is going to jail for running around on the powerlines.". She said it happens and I retorted if the cops had nothing else to do. I finally conceded that it was a good point, that Aunt Molly would love to arrest me. Mom went on to say it was dangerous and asked if I remembered Susie Kushner and how the newspaper used the word "fried". I heard it many many times from her of course! In a bored way I said gee that was terrible and she said Susie can't use adjectives anymore like the one I just used. She asked what I was up to today and I said I was gonna see what Gregg and Bea were up to. I said we might do some band practice but also said that they didn't seem to hang out much. Mom then said stuff like "only so many hours and days" and "friendships are like trees that need water to grow and we only have so much water", sounding like a fortune cookie. After this I said bye.

I doodled a picture of myself up on the powerlines in a very "haters gonna hate" kinda stride. I wrote "EFF THE COPS" underneath. I drew this on the opposite the page of myself as a fire ghost, which made it look eerily like a "before and after" picture!

I asked mom what she was reading. It was about a guy who grew up secretly living on a fishing ship, living in a barrel, eating raw fish, crabs, octopus, squid, lobster, gulls, albatross..." I said "Wow!" and she continued "...sharks, dolphins, sea cucumbers, seaweed, sand, rocks, kelp" and I said "Wow!" again and she continued "...ropes, sails, one of the boats, the rigging, sailor shoes, sailor hats, sailor pants, sailor shirts, sailor underwear clean..." and I said "Wow!" again, though should I really have been encouraging her? :P She continued "...Fishing line, fishing nets, fishing poles..." and I said he was well fed. I asked how did he eat fishing line and she said the crews thought the boat was haunted but it was just the barrel boy. I asked the name of the book and she said "Barrel Boy." I said I was in the mood for fish sticks, oddly enough and she had the same craving, saying she'll ask dad to bring some home.

She told me to have a great day and I left.