december 18, 197-
well we got into Chicago all right, though I still don't understand why we had to leave. There was some trouble, about the usual things about some people looking different or believing different.
Some of those people did look different, that I can tell you. And they talked funny, but there was no reason I could figure to drop bombs on them, even if they did have gills.
I met one, in passing sorta. He waved a little, I think. It's hard to understand the older ones, they forget what it was like.
My dad made me get away. He doesn't like them much, I know that. He never comes out and says it, but I know all the same. I can feel it, like. Just a little.
Like a little spider in the web at the back of my brain. A trapdoor spider.
But the door never opens, because the spider's guarding it.
Ha ha.
More tomorrow.
eddy
december 21, 197-
sorry it took so long. We were unpacking all of the boxes and stuff, and I could hardly move when it was done.
At least this house we have here has a pool. I think I'd have died without a pool. The water is great. Swimming has always been on my list of fun things to do. The water is cool and clear now, and I almost want to go in it.
I know it's cold out, but I want to anyway.
Maybe I will, like a Christmas present to myself.
A secret one.
I can't wait until summer, when I can swim all I want.
december 22, 197-
we went around Chicago some today. That was pretty cool, I have to admit. I didn't want to like it here, because Mass. was great, near the ocean and all, but I saw that lake. You can't see the other shore, so it looks like the ocean, and the gulls were swooping all around at some dead fish that lay on the shore.
It even smelled like home. I little sweeter. I do understand that it's fresh water, as opposed to the oceans, which are salt.
Went to one of the museums today, my dad wanted to go to look at some books.
he said one of the copies of one of the books had been destroyed in Europe, in a church somewhere. He needed to find something in that book.
Of course I couldn't go in to see the book, being twelve.
But they let me dad copy some of what he was looking at. he's real happy about it, too. He doesn't say it, but I can tell.
I know that not everyone can tell like I can, and I know what it's called.
But it's always supposed to go both ways. I can only get, not send. Maybe that's okay. It does seem to be getting stronger as I get older.
Sometimes I can tell about strangers. That's a bit frightening. I really didn't want to know some of it.
I'll never tell.
Christmas soon.
I saved up and got my dad a glass globe from the carnival this fall past, with a dolphin swimming or jumping over a reef.
No squid or anything. He likes squid, and octopi (I looked it up!), sea creatures of that kind. Has pictures all over his office like that.
You should see his desk. Every inch of the thing is carved. I think it's called relief, bas relief, the style it's done in.
Almost like the pictures you see in old books, all whorls and curlicues, with beasts all woven into the whorls.
My turn to go and feed the fish.
Maybe more tomorrow.
eddy
December 24, 197-
it's ten before midnight. I know everyone's asleep, I can tell.
I'm going to go down to the pool.
I have my swimming suit on under my clothes. I moved the canopy over it earlier, so it would be a little looser, and I can slip in and out faster.
I'll finish later.
December 25, 197-
Some time after one
What a tremendous idea that was! I wasn't cold at all. As soon as I got into the water, I didn't want to come out. If I'd had some gills, I wouldn't be back yet.
But I didn't dare stay out too long.
I wish it was warm here.
We should have moved to California.
But my dad's business needed him here. He says it's untapped territory.
He sells stuff like his desk, and jewelry. Antiques.
They send the stuff by boat from Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and bring it here on the train. Chicago has a lot of trains. They rumble around at al hours of the day and night.
And big. My, Chicago is big. Much bigger even than Boston, where I was once, and it doesn't smell as old as Boston.
I don't think it is. Illinois was incorporated in 1821, or was it 1818. I'll have to look when I get my school books.
They're going to let my mom teach me. She was a teacher back in Mass., so she got to do it here. That sounds okay.
Other people usually don't like me much. I think it's because of the being able to tell.
I bet everyone can tell, a little. Just a little.
Like I can probably send. Just a little.
Or maybe I smell funny. Who knows. People are sure weird.
I guess that makes me weird too.
If that's the case, then I like being weird.
Merry Christmas!
December 27, 197--
Some things I don't understand...
I know that keeping a diary is supposed to make me organize my thoughts better, and it was
my own idea to do it, but I've been thinking.
I mean, you keep it secret, right? So nobody else can read it. What happens after you move on?
Does someone else get it? What happens?
Who are you? Assuming someone is reading this. Where did you get it?
Am I dead? What happened to Eddy?
Another thing? Why can't I go out and play in the snow?
My mom told me that I'd fall asleep.
But I thought people had to be out a long time to fall asleep in the cold. She sounded like she meant right away?
Why was that?
Maybe I shouldn't go swimming any more until I find out what she's trying to scare me away from.
