Taylor

Life Log #7

11 days after the incident, 7 days before training:

Yesterday, Zoe helped me recover from sunburn throughout the entire day. She gave me these aloe vera gels fresh from her garden that I haven't even seen before. She did show them to me. Turns out she had a backyard. I never explored that place before. But anyways, let's focus on today. Monday. Eesh.

I asked Zoe something.

"Zoe, what if we could just print pictures of my brother and post them everywhere, so that we know where to find him?"

"What about the thing I told you I'd do?"

"I think it's better if we kept my identity a secret. I don't trust your coworkers."

"Fair point. But the question is, do you have a picture of your little brother we could use?"

"Not sure, but my mom does have a Facebook account where she used to post pics of him on a weekly basis."

"Is he your mom's favorite?"

"My brother's spoiled, but not rotten. He does want a lot of random stuff, but he's a good brother. He would never hurt a fly. He's always well behaved in road trips."

"I guess the three of you were raised properly."

"For sure. My older sister is also a great person. Sometimes she may have mood swings, but I understand her situation. Out of the three of us, she's the one who gets to spend the most time with mom."

"Definitely favoritism. Did your mom ignore you a lot?"

"Not really. But she did told me once that the time she spends with me was a lot more enjoyable than the time she spent with my siblings, even if it's short. I miss her so much. I wish I could've spent more time with her."

"How about your dad? What did he do?"

"He wasn't at home all the time. He worked 18 hours a day in a company dedicated to selling ineffective products."

Zoe started sweating.

"What's his name, exactly?"

"Danforth Blake Cooper."

I saw her mumble something from her lips.

"What are you whispering?" I asked her.

"Nothing. Nothing you need to know, hehe." She gave me a weird smile.

"What's with the face?"

"Just ignore this. I don't even know why I did this."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." She chuckled a little. "There is deeeeefinitely nothing to worry about. Everything is tooooootally fine."

She sounded suspicious. Never mind. I'll just pretend that never happened. I wish I could scribble the words above, but I guess it's just gonna be there for documentation as well as for your entertainment, reader.

I checked my late mother's Facebook account and found my little brother's latest photo. It was him holding a toy bow and arrow. He wore an innocent little smile that I haven't seen in a while. I scrolled through a few pics and found another one that would fit. We printed one copy of it alongside a number they can call, as well as an email I made. We photocopied the paper a couple times and posted all of them in every public place we could find. It took us about 3 hours to do it. For now, we waited.

A few hours have gone by, and still. No response.

"Hey Taylor, while we're waiting, wanna get pierced?"