Page 6 of Like Fathers, Like Son
I wonder how they’ll react if the tests are negative though. Will they be angry? Will they step up their babymaking sessions? Of course they will, and I probably won’t mind at all.
SOME OF WHAT MUM wrote didn’t make much sense to me, but what did make sense was the word ‘kidnap’. What I didn’t understand was how a grown-up could be kidnapped, because kids were kidnapped, right? Wasn’t there a different word for grown-ups?
Was she saying that my dads took her away and kept her? Was that what they meant when they talked about keeping people as pets? Was mum just their pet? I wished I could ask them, but I knew if I mentioned the diaries that they’d take them away. I might not be a grown-up myself yet, but I knew diaries were supposed to be private.
I got up from my bed and peered out into the back garden, looking across to Anneka’s garden. I wondered if she had a diary. If she did, I could learn her secrets too, couldn’t I? I could find out what she liked and didn’t like. I could find out if she liked me. What if she didn’t like me? She’d stopped talking to me today, and I didn’t understand why.
“Spying seems to be your new thing, eh kid?” Daddy Gray ruffled my hair, and I groaned and pushed his hand away.
“She’s mad at me, I think.”
Daddy Gray laughed, pressing his face against the glass over my head.
“Girls get mad, kid, but don’t worry because they get over it eventually too.”
“Like mum did?” He laughed again, and then pulled away from the window.
“When?”
He caught my shoulder, guiding me to face him, and crouched in front of me.
“When was mum mad, Blaze? Has Dory gone and upset her again?”
I shook my head, but I didn’t know what to say because he’d learn about the diaries if I wasn’t careful. I looked at my bed from the corner of my eye, realising the diary I was reading was right there. There was no way to hide it, especially when dad’s eyes followed mine.
“Ohhhh… you sneaky little bugger. Reading your mum’s diaries, eh? Can’t exactly tell you off. Dory did the exact same fucking thing. See, you’re taking after your dad again. All this creeping and snooping. You’re a chip off the old block.”
I edged closer to the bed, before he could take it away.
“A chip? A chip of what?”
Dad stood up and leaned over me, picking up the diary and skimming his eyes over the page it was open to.
“Ah… this is just before we realised she was expecting you.” He sat on the bed, reading the next page too.
“Wow… she’s a sassy bitch in her diaries.”
“She says she was kidnapped.”
Dad shrugged at me, turning another page. “I mean, yeah, but she liked it really.”
Then he looked up from the page and closed the book. “Oh. How many of these have you read? Jesus, how many are there?”
I tried to nudge the others further under the bed with my foot.
“Just this one.”
Dad smirked. “Fair enough. Look, don’t let your mum or Dory know you have these. They’re both prissy enough that they’ll have a shit-fit. It’ll be our secret, okay? I’ll try to answer your questions when you don’t understand what she’s drivelling about. That, by the way, is just how women are. They go on and on, and half the time we men never get what they’re on about.”
I sat on the bed beside him. “So grown-ups can be kidnapped too?”
He laughed, tucking the diary under my duvet for me.
“Anyone can be kidnapped, Blaze. Just know that Dory fell in love with your mum before any of us even met, and once she realised she was stuck with us, she grew to like it.”
“The fuck is going on here?” Daddy Dory was standing in the doorway, glaring at daddy Gray, who just ruffled my hair again and got up.
“Hey Dory, I was just saying to our son how nice it is that his creeper of a dad is helping him spy on the girl next door.” He winked at me, and walked over to dad.
