She squeezes your shoulders lovingly.
I have a gift for you my little Evie!
She takes out a little frog plush toy from her pocket to give to you.
It feels so soft and cuddly.
I know how curious you are about frogs...
Thank you mom!! I love him!
I'm going to name him Frogger!
Oh, I'm so glad.
Come on sunshine, let's go get some ice cream now!
You both turn to each other and
give each other a look.
Mint choc chip!
Mint choc chip!
You giggle as you hop in the car with your mother.
Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" begins playing on the car radio.
So what's new, lovely?
Learned anything cool at school?
Well, ummm...
I learned some really cool stuff with computers the other day.
We talked about how computers can follow instructions,
kind of like when we follow a recipe to bake a cake!
The teacher said these instructions are called 'code'.
It was like telling the computer what to do, and then it does it!
I even made a little game where you can make a snake move around the screen by pressing the arrow keys.
How fun!
But...
It was kind of hard to focus.
Why, lovely?
The kids in my class were being mean to me again.
They won't stop teasing me.
They call me a weird loser for not having a dad.
You feel a deep pain in your heart
as you recount the story.
At the end of the class I saw them dumping spaghetti into my bag
and padlocking it shut.
And I just remember hearing them laughing, and laughing, and laughing...
Oh no Evie. That's terrible.
Did the teacher do anything about it?
I got in trouble.
What! Why?
I was just so mad, mom.
I don't know what happened.
I remember them laughing, but then... it's like everything went blurry.
The next thing I knew, I was holding a keyboard,
and I was hitting them hard with it, and they weren’t laughing anymore.
It was like I blacked out, and when I came back, they were on the ground,
all red everywhere, and I was still holding the keyboard, breathing hard.
I didn't even know how it happened. I just... couldn't take it anymore.
Oh Evie.
I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
But violence doesn't solve anything.
In fact, it makes people turn on you more.
The car hits a bump in the road and shakes.
You and your mother sit in silence for a moment.
Mom...
How much longer do I have to keep dad a secret?
I'm tired of pretending he's not in my life.
I told you, Evie.
It's for the best that people don't know.
But maybe the kids won't tease me anymore if they knew.
Your mother seems to ignore you.
How is your father anyway?
Did you have a good time staying over at his?
It's ok.
He lets me watch a lot of cartoons, but his TV broke so I'm just trying to read whatever is lying around.
But mostly he's just in the basement working on his stuff.
He lets me see what he's doing sometimes.
Oh yeah?
Yeah!
He's in there, playing around wtih some really strong stuff.
Sometimes it smells like the stuff you clean with, really sharp and kind of burns your nose.
Other times, there's this weird, rusty smell, like old coins.
There’s also this thick, oily smell, like motor oil, that sticks around even after he’s done.
I don’t know what any of it is, but the whole room feels heavy with all those smells mixed together.
I see.
Be very sure to not breathe any of that in, okay?
It's not good for your lungs.
Okay.
Actually, it smells kind of like that in this car.
Your mother stops the car.
Evie, I need you to do something for me.
Get out of the car now.
Why, mom?
Trust me, Evie.
I need you to listen to me very carefully.
I need you to leave this car right now.
Don’t look back, and don’t worry about me. Just go, okay?
But-
Just do it for me, please.
Besides, Frogger needs some fresh air.
You look at your mother quizzically
but open the door.
Evie?
Yes?
Mother loves you dearly.
I love you too, mom.
You hop out of the car with Frogger.
Before you can even close your door,
your mother drives off.
You look at the frog plushy in your hands.
Come on, Frogger.
You suddenly hear a thunderous explosion in the distance.
Mom?