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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Chapter 10
Over the next week, the plan slowly finished its formation, and calls to Parker’s “lieutenants” went out for them to begin their roles. Longtime Centre clients got calls to move their business elsewhere, a number of highly placed government officials suddenly began having major problems in the press concerning reelections, sponsors, and deals they had either created or participated in.
Jarod disappeared for a few days and preformed the necessary SIMS for Raines and Lyle. Pretending was a major part of who and what he was, but he still felt the need to keep it separate form his family. Or at least from his non Centre family, which did not include Ben. He was comfortable going into SIM mode around Parker because she had seen him do many when they were children and had seen several of his later SIMS. But he knew that his ease at slipping into whatever personality the situation called for, disturbed his mother. His father simply accepted it. Likewise his father accepted his ease and comfort around Parker, something his mother seemed unable to do. Of course he didn’t need to defend Parker to his mother. She was perfectly capable of doing it herself, and Ethan and Ryan were always quick to her defense as well. Ben also seemed to understand when someone was being mean to his mother, and the small boy refused to stand for it.
Slightly more troubling to Jarod was the fact that even though Ben knew his “Grandma” and “Grandpa,” or as close as he could pronounce, and all his uncles and aunt, and even called Parker “Mama,” Ben called him by no name. But as he had a million times before with a million different things, Jarod buried how he felt and concentrated on other things.
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Late March had turned to April and slowly the weather began to warm. Everything was nearly ready for the strike at the Centre. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, including, Jarod’s family noticed, the Pretender’s relationship with Parker. It had taken a week before everyone got used to the idea that there were two more people with horrific nightmares in the house. It took Margaret even longer to begin to accept that after her eldest son had his, he sought out Parker, and that Parker sought him out after hers. It didn’t take long, seven days in the same house, before out of convenience’s sake they were sleeping beside each other every night.
If anything, the number of nightmares the family knew about decreased with the onset of the new sleeping arrangements. Emily, Ethan, and Ryan continually noticed how strong the relationship between the two was. Almost as if they had never been enemies, but rather had been friends and partners for 30 years.
Margaret and Charles noted these things as well, and Charles was well on his way to convening his wife that Parker was not only well suited to Jarod, but that she was probably the only person who not only knew but accepted everything about him. Margaret would have argued, except her son did keep her from knowing a great many things about himself.
By the time April 13 rolled around, everyone seemed to either have adjusted to the changes in their lives, or were adjusting to the changes. Still Jarod was keeping a close eye on Parker that day, even closer than usual, considering he was constantly watching her and she had a habit of consuming his thoughts. With the day, being warm Jarod figured he would talk Parker into a walk while Ben was down for his nap. Get her away from the hustle and bustle of the house, and alone, where she could grieve in private.
But like so many plans, this one didn’t quite work.
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“The weather is warm enough now, I want to get those screens into the windows today,” Major Charles announced just as Parker was attempting to get a finicky Ben to eat his cereal. “Jarod, Ryan, Ethan, we need to get the screens from the garage and get the grim off of them first, One of you grab the vacuum, the other two with me,: the Major continued. Jarod sighed and followed his father, hoping that this wouldn’t turn into an all day affair and he’d still have time for his plan for Parker.
Unfortunately, once they had all the window and door screens lying on the grass at the back of the house the major decided they were too dirty for just the vacuum, they needed to be washed first.
Ben, having eaten as much of his breakfast as he was ever going to, sat on the grass nearby and watched along with Snowball, the four men scrubbing, hosing down, and vacuuming the screens.
Inside, Margaret and Emily were smiling and joking as they watched the men, neither noticing Parker’s dark mood.
:Why is my sister sad today Jarod? She seemed fine yesterday,” Ethan asked. He had noticed her mood and had noticed Jarod’s preoccupation as well.
“Today is a hard day for her, Ethan.”
“But why? There seems to be nothing special about it,” Ryan commented.
“For her, this is the anniversary of her mother’s death,” Jarod said simply, glancing at the house where Parker had seated herself beside one of the bay windows.
“But Mother didn’t die today. She died….on my birthday,” Ethan said sadly.
“She knows that, logically. But today is the day that her mother left her, so this will always be the day that she mourns and misses her mother the most. I doubt she would want to turn your birthday into the day that she is the saddest, little brother. Now my birthday, she just might,” Jarod attempted to get Ethan’s mood a bit brighter, hoping he could at least help one of Catherine Parker’s children today.
“All right boys, let’s get these screens in!” Charles had heard none of the conversation.
As the group went around placing screens in the many windows of the old farmhouse, Ben dragging Snowball by the paw, followed after them. After they had finished the second floor windows, which had involved two of them going out onto the porch roof to speed things up, none of them noticed that Ben who was still following them, didn’t have Snowball with him anymore.
As Ben toddled around behind them, Ethan kept an eye on his nephew as Jarod had asked. None of the four wanted the curious 19th month old to get into any kind of trouble, and not just because Parker would kill all of them if something happened to her little boy.
But as lunch time neared, Ethan became distracted and as he thought Ben was playing with his blocks, turned his attention to trying to find a way to make his sister a bit less sad.
Parker stood silently behind the kitchen counter chopping celery for chicken salad, when she suddenly froze in place, the deadly blade she had been wield effortlessly, stopped midair.
“Parker dear, are you done with that……Parker? Parker!” Margaret stopped what she was doing when she turned and saw Parker frozen in place.
Jarod and the others heard Margaret’s cries and were soon all in the kitchen/dining area. Carefully checking her pulse, Jarod found nothing wrong. He was about to dig a penlight out of the junk drawer when Parker suddenly inhaled sharply and dropped the knife she had been holding.
“Ben!” she cried as she dashed out the back door. Jarod, trusting her completely, ran after her, and the others felt they had no choice but to follow. The seen that greeted them was perhaps the most terrifying the Russell family had ever seen.
Ben was climbing the old television antenna tower. He had gotten about six feet off the ground and his goal was plain as day, Snowball hung off a broken single by the gutter, six feet above the boy’s head.
Over the next week, the plan slowly finished its formation, and calls to Parker’s “lieutenants” went out for them to begin their roles. Longtime Centre clients got calls to move their business elsewhere, a number of highly placed government officials suddenly began having major problems in the press concerning reelections, sponsors, and deals they had either created or participated in.
Jarod disappeared for a few days and preformed the necessary SIMS for Raines and Lyle. Pretending was a major part of who and what he was, but he still felt the need to keep it separate form his family. Or at least from his non Centre family, which did not include Ben. He was comfortable going into SIM mode around Parker because she had seen him do many when they were children and had seen several of his later SIMS. But he knew that his ease at slipping into whatever personality the situation called for, disturbed his mother. His father simply accepted it. Likewise his father accepted his ease and comfort around Parker, something his mother seemed unable to do. Of course he didn’t need to defend Parker to his mother. She was perfectly capable of doing it herself, and Ethan and Ryan were always quick to her defense as well. Ben also seemed to understand when someone was being mean to his mother, and the small boy refused to stand for it.
Slightly more troubling to Jarod was the fact that even though Ben knew his “Grandma” and “Grandpa,” or as close as he could pronounce, and all his uncles and aunt, and even called Parker “Mama,” Ben called him by no name. But as he had a million times before with a million different things, Jarod buried how he felt and concentrated on other things.
JMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMP
Late March had turned to April and slowly the weather began to warm. Everything was nearly ready for the strike at the Centre. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, including, Jarod’s family noticed, the Pretender’s relationship with Parker. It had taken a week before everyone got used to the idea that there were two more people with horrific nightmares in the house. It took Margaret even longer to begin to accept that after her eldest son had his, he sought out Parker, and that Parker sought him out after hers. It didn’t take long, seven days in the same house, before out of convenience’s sake they were sleeping beside each other every night.
If anything, the number of nightmares the family knew about decreased with the onset of the new sleeping arrangements. Emily, Ethan, and Ryan continually noticed how strong the relationship between the two was. Almost as if they had never been enemies, but rather had been friends and partners for 30 years.
Margaret and Charles noted these things as well, and Charles was well on his way to convening his wife that Parker was not only well suited to Jarod, but that she was probably the only person who not only knew but accepted everything about him. Margaret would have argued, except her son did keep her from knowing a great many things about himself.
By the time April 13 rolled around, everyone seemed to either have adjusted to the changes in their lives, or were adjusting to the changes. Still Jarod was keeping a close eye on Parker that day, even closer than usual, considering he was constantly watching her and she had a habit of consuming his thoughts. With the day, being warm Jarod figured he would talk Parker into a walk while Ben was down for his nap. Get her away from the hustle and bustle of the house, and alone, where she could grieve in private.
But like so many plans, this one didn’t quite work.
JMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMP
“The weather is warm enough now, I want to get those screens into the windows today,” Major Charles announced just as Parker was attempting to get a finicky Ben to eat his cereal. “Jarod, Ryan, Ethan, we need to get the screens from the garage and get the grim off of them first, One of you grab the vacuum, the other two with me,: the Major continued. Jarod sighed and followed his father, hoping that this wouldn’t turn into an all day affair and he’d still have time for his plan for Parker.
Unfortunately, once they had all the window and door screens lying on the grass at the back of the house the major decided they were too dirty for just the vacuum, they needed to be washed first.
Ben, having eaten as much of his breakfast as he was ever going to, sat on the grass nearby and watched along with Snowball, the four men scrubbing, hosing down, and vacuuming the screens.
Inside, Margaret and Emily were smiling and joking as they watched the men, neither noticing Parker’s dark mood.
:Why is my sister sad today Jarod? She seemed fine yesterday,” Ethan asked. He had noticed her mood and had noticed Jarod’s preoccupation as well.
“Today is a hard day for her, Ethan.”
“But why? There seems to be nothing special about it,” Ryan commented.
“For her, this is the anniversary of her mother’s death,” Jarod said simply, glancing at the house where Parker had seated herself beside one of the bay windows.
“But Mother didn’t die today. She died….on my birthday,” Ethan said sadly.
“She knows that, logically. But today is the day that her mother left her, so this will always be the day that she mourns and misses her mother the most. I doubt she would want to turn your birthday into the day that she is the saddest, little brother. Now my birthday, she just might,” Jarod attempted to get Ethan’s mood a bit brighter, hoping he could at least help one of Catherine Parker’s children today.
“All right boys, let’s get these screens in!” Charles had heard none of the conversation.
As the group went around placing screens in the many windows of the old farmhouse, Ben dragging Snowball by the paw, followed after them. After they had finished the second floor windows, which had involved two of them going out onto the porch roof to speed things up, none of them noticed that Ben who was still following them, didn’t have Snowball with him anymore.
As Ben toddled around behind them, Ethan kept an eye on his nephew as Jarod had asked. None of the four wanted the curious 19th month old to get into any kind of trouble, and not just because Parker would kill all of them if something happened to her little boy.
But as lunch time neared, Ethan became distracted and as he thought Ben was playing with his blocks, turned his attention to trying to find a way to make his sister a bit less sad.
Parker stood silently behind the kitchen counter chopping celery for chicken salad, when she suddenly froze in place, the deadly blade she had been wield effortlessly, stopped midair.
“Parker dear, are you done with that……Parker? Parker!” Margaret stopped what she was doing when she turned and saw Parker frozen in place.
Jarod and the others heard Margaret’s cries and were soon all in the kitchen/dining area. Carefully checking her pulse, Jarod found nothing wrong. He was about to dig a penlight out of the junk drawer when Parker suddenly inhaled sharply and dropped the knife she had been holding.
“Ben!” she cried as she dashed out the back door. Jarod, trusting her completely, ran after her, and the others felt they had no choice but to follow. The seen that greeted them was perhaps the most terrifying the Russell family had ever seen.
Ben was climbing the old television antenna tower. He had gotten about six feet off the ground and his goal was plain as day, Snowball hung off a broken single by the gutter, six feet above the boy’s head.
