After dinner that day, Garrett went back into his room. Finally having time for himself, he went over to his bookcase and grabbed To Kill A Mockingbird of the shelf.
Slumping onto his bed, he opened the book and flipped to the page where he left off. His father gave it to him before he died 2 years ago, and Garrett hadn’t have time to read it because he was so caught up in work. Garrett felt guilty and regretful that he didn’t spend much private time with his late father, and in order to make it up to him, Garrett promised that he’ll read and finish the book. He’ll connect with his father through words and literature.
Garrett didn’t have a happy childhood. He was bullied and left out because he was smarter and wiser than his peers when he was a child. When others would play in the playground during recess breaks, he would take out a book from the higher grades he had somehow snatched away and read. In his high school years, he was one of the school’s strongest guys and often got called to the principal’s’ office for destroying school property by accident.
After driving his car into the ATM, his parents decided they couldn’t control him any longer and sent him to military school. There, his astonishing strength benefited him in physical activities and his smarts helped him with tests and exams. His classmates envied him and wouldn’t befriend him. But Pat, who also went to the same military school, admired him and became his best friend.
Garrett took out a thick book, and opened it, revealing a handful of photos. There was a photo of him smiling ( Wow, that’s not typical Garrett) along with his parents when he was nine. He had just went on his first hunt with his father, and hunted his first hare.
Garrett smiled as he thought of the days when he and his father would bring out their rifles and go into the woods. Every time, they would go back home with a wild bird or two.
Just then, someone knocked his door. Rising from his bed, he walked over to his bedroom door and opened it.
“ Hey, Kendall.”
“ Hey, um… do you have a TV in your room?” Kendall asked. In her hands were a stack of old tapes.
“ Yes, I do. Why?” Garrett’s icy voice echoed through the hallway.
“ Jenkins wanted me to watch these old police tapes to get myself familiarized with the work an undercover agent does, as she thinks I’m a little too “raw”.”
“ What about the living room TV?”
“ Jenkins said its broken and the guy she called to come over and fix is unavailable until next week.”
Garrett craned his neck to see if anyone, if Pat was nearby. Making sure the coast was clear, he stepped aside and gestured for Kendall to enter.
“ Thank you!” Kendall smiled, and entered his room.
Garrett’s room was enormous comparing to Kendall’s room, and filled with the scent of a bookworm. Books were everywhere, neatly piled up in stacks on his desk, in the corners ofhis room, and on his nightstand. Still, the room did reserved one its manliness nature. A few weights were laid on a white yoga mat by the balcony window. The walls were painted black, and a carpet with Quileute tribal prints carelessly sprawled itself on the floor. A TV sat in a rectangular hole in the wall.
Garrett helped Kendall carry the stack of tapes and put them onto the carpet. Garrett sorted through them, a small smile crept onto his face.
“ Ah, Jenkins made both me and Santiago to watch them when we first came. It took us an entire week to finish watching all of them.”
