Page 10 of Like Fathers, Like Son
He laughed. “Look, just don’t take that asshole’s behaviour to heart, okay? And look… she’s playing hard to get now, but you’ll soon be in the same school, won’t you? It’ll be pretty hard for her to dodge you there, and besides, I think it’s for her dad’s benefit that she’s staying away. I bet he told her to stay away from you. Like that shit ever works.”
Mum called dad in then, so he patted my shoulder, and headed inside, and then daddy Dory sat with me instead.
“You okay?”
I shrugged again. “I miss Anneka.”
He sighed, nodding his head when I looked at him.
“I figured as much. Look, I’ve been there, Blaze, and it sucks, but if it’s meant to be, you’ll end up together anyway. It’s the natural order of things. I think your dad wants to take you out tonight to do what you guys do that makes you come home all smoky.” He never just outright said it. Burning things. Setting fires.Arson. It was the biggest thing that daddy Gray and I had in common, and I loved it.
“I’d like that.” Daddy Dory looked worried, but nodded again.
“See if he can’t cheer you up a bit, eh? Girl trouble, son, it never ends until you find the right one, and even then, sometimes they don’t feel it too.”
And that’s why they kidnapped mum, wasn’t it? She didn’t feel it at first either. I didn’t mention that, because I was enjoying reading her diaries too much, and I knew daddy Dory and mum would take them away.
“Oi, kid! Let’s go burn some shit up!” Daddy Gray had that wide grin on his face that always appeared when we were going to make fire. I couldn’t wait!
Anneka
STAYING AWAY FROM BLAZE had been easier than I thought. Once the new fence was up, we couldn’t see each other anyway, which meant I didn’t have to keep missing the sunshine by going inside every time he came out into the garden.
Since it was the summer holidays, we were going to France for a week, to visit some friends of my parents, and I was so excited to be going abroad!
I knew that when we came back, and school started again, he was probably going to be moving up to my school, unless he was going to some other secondary somewhere. Did I hope he was coming to mine, or was it easier if he ended up somewhere else?
There was something wrong with him, I could tell from the first day we spoke. He made me nervous, but I didn’t understand why. His repeated requests to touch my hair were really creepy too. Maybe it would just be better if he went elsewhere.
Dear Diary
Tomorrow we’re going to France for a whole week, and I’m so excited, because then dad won’t be so angry anymore. I think if he doesn’t have to look at the fence, even though it’s all nice and new, he might calm down a bit.
It didn’t help that he’d tried to make Blaze’s family pay for it, but I’d overheard the blonde daddy’s response. He told my dad to go fuck himself with a pineapple! I’d never heard anyone say something like that before, but it almost made me giggle out loud, and then dad would have known I was listening.
I think Blaze’s dads were probably pretty cute when they were young, but now they’re just old, and also they seemed to like touching each other in ways I thought only mums and dads did. I saw them once from my bedroom window.
The blonde daddy marched up to the dark haired daddy and they argued for a minute, and then the blonde daddy grabbed the other daddy and started kissing him! I’ve never seen two men kissing, but it went on for ages, and then they went into the house, so I don’t know what happened after that.
Does that mean that Blaze’s dads love each other as well as loving his mum? If we were still allowed to be friends, I’d have asked him about it. I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded that.
Still, I hope they’re all going to be okay, because I overheard dad telling mum that he’s reported their family to the council, and also something called child protection. I think that means they might get investigated or something. I’m pretty upset with my dad for doing that. They don’t mean any harm. Being different doesn’t mean wrong, right?
7
Blaze
DaddyGraytookmeout that night, as soon as it was dark enough to be able to sneak somewhere and burn it. As usual, we dressed in black clothes, including black hoodies with our blonde hair tucked away.
“Ready, kid? This place has been abandoned for a few years, and I checked it out this morning to make sure nobody’s inside, but what do we do before we start?”
I knew this part, because he was always really strict about this.
“Check again to make sure nobody’s inside.”
“That’s my boy. You wait here by the door. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll check it out and be right back. This’ll be your biggest one yet. Are you excited?”
Was I excited? This building was bigger than our old house, so damn right I was excited! I stood impatiently by the door, watching for anyone passing by the crumbling building. We were out in the country a bit, so the most we’d have to worry about would be a car passing, but I hadn’t seen any since we arrived.
