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Grade
7

It’s a Hardcover World

It’s really cold here in Sitka, Alaska. Oh, we are here because my mother ran away. My brother drowned in a boating accident when he was 5-years-old. My mother thinks it had something to do with my father’s illegal job. But it was really depressing especially to my mother. I made a journal to write in while I was in Sitka, because it was quite an adventure there.

Journal Entry

My family just moved into a nice new house because my mom had just had a baby at the time. We needed more space and more rooms, I was not going to share a room with some little baby. We have a history of being underestimated. We actually are a lot smarter and wealthier than most people think. My dad came into some money last year at his work. We needed money because we had a baby on the way. My dad took a side job at the oil rig.

We loaded the boat because we were going on a day long boat trip around the California coast. My dad just bought this beautiful pontoon boat just for this occasion. Anyway, my dad wanted to go really fast on the boat and pontoon boat can’t go very fast without something happening. We tried telling dad not to go fast, but he wanted to impress this other boat on the water. We are probably going really, really fast because my brother just fell off the boat.

The coast guard just took my brother’s body out of the water and I couldn’t even breathe because he was dead and I can’t do anything now. We rushed to the hospital and my poor mom is in the ambulance which my brother’s body is in, and she probably bawling her eyes out. The hospital says my brother is dead and we need to start planning a funeral. My mother is actually from Alaska and she wanted to have a real Alaskan funeral.  

I don’t know what my dad was thinking taking another job at another oil rig. Last time he took an oil rig job he almost died. My mother thinks maybe the oil rig situation is why my brother is dead. She even had the coast guard check out the boat to see if someone tampered with it. I think mom is very paranoid just about this whole situation she just needs to go on a spa weekend and try and not hurt as much.

My mother said I was right so she packed her things and got on the plane. Knowing my mom she actually isn’t going to the spa place, she is going to Alaska to see her parents. I felt really bad for her because it has been a month since the accident and mom still seems the same as the day it happened. I really wanted to tell my dad we should go with her but my dad wants to give her some time to cool down.

Apparently my mom did go to a spa while in Alaska, one on the gulf of Alaska. The spa she went to was called The Waterworks Spas & Saunas Soldotna, weird name right. I just wanted to go see my mother and give her a big hug and everything to be okay. This isn’t how things are anymore my brother isn’t here anymore and my mom is barely here anymore. I always thought my family was the same as everyone else, but not anymore I guess.

My mother just hired a private investigator because she wants to think that someone murdered my brother, but it was an accident and she needs to grasp that point. My father and I immediately hopped on a plane to try and stop my mother because she is making a huge mistake. My brother was not murdered.

We had to go to Alaska because my mother was going to kill herself because she is so depressed. My Mamaw and Pappy are in Alaska keeping mother safe from anything that she could do to harm herself. On the plane my dad fell asleep because it was a 10:00 pm flight and It’s 12:00 am right now. I’m trying not to think about why we are on the plane right now because if there weren’t 90 other people on the plane then I would start bawling.

We arrive at this weird house and my dad just gets out of the car and starts walking up the path leading to the front door. I want to follow him but for some reason, it seems too risky. My dad comes back to the car with the bags at the doorstep and he wants me to come in the house so I follow him in the house and I see Mamaw and Pappy. Mamaw says that she and Pappy just bought the place and they wanted us to stay in it to see how everyone likes it. My personal opinion is get all the dead plants out of the front yard, paint the house, fix the porch, and redo the roof. But then again my parents think I have OCD and that I don’t need to fix everything.

My room is actually really cool it has a window seat and a canopy over my bed. From the outside I thought I would be lucky to even have a bed. My Mamaw said that as soon as they bought the house they had to redo the inside so that it would be a little more welcoming for people to live in. Mamaw said that she hasn’t seen mother but Pappy said that he saw someone who looked like mother but he just ignored it because he thought she was in California with us.

We went to town to look for mother because none of us knows where she is at this point. We first go to the market, someone said they spotted her and said she went to the meat stand. After the market we decided to go to the Sheriff's office to see if they can put an APB out for her, but they turned us down. I just want to go to my bed and watch movies on my kindle fire so that I can relax and have the police officer find mother so we can go home to California. My mother’s favorite place to be is the bakery so my dad left to go check out all the bakeries in Sitka. I am really tempted to jump out the window and fall into the lake, but I choose to be smart and keep watching my movie.

My mother was a smart woman who promised my dad that she would never leave us and now she just leaves us alone. My Mamaw and Pappy said that we will find mother soon. I just hope nothing has happened to her because I would feel so guilty that I wasn’t there for her. My dad is in his room, he seems really, really lonely. I want to wake up from this nightmare and hug my brother and my mother.

I wake up the next morning on the kitchen stool with a really bad headache and lots of back pain. I take some Aspirin to help my head and do some yoga to help my back. I made some pancakes and bacon for breakfast and hopped into my bed to watch the newest episode of The Vampire Diaries. My Mamaw came into my room because she wanted to know if I wanted to go to the mall later to get me some new clothes. I really wanted to so we went for 4 hours even though we were supposed to go for 1 hour. We were just having so much fun buying new clothes. We went to get smoothies at Jamba Juice and suddenly Mamaw just stops everything and starts staring oddly.

We found mother in a Jamba Juice at the mall. Who would have known? I mean my mother is a lot smarter than you think, she wouldn’t just show up at a Jamba Juice. I think she wanted us to find her. Mother instantly ran away so that we couldn’t find her again. My Mamaw quickly started running after her but she couldn’t run very fast so I started running. Than mall police told us we were stalking her so we had to leave the mall.

I don’t know why my mom would even want to run. I mean, she’s my mom. My dad said not to worry she will come back to planet earth sometime soon hopefully. I still had my doubts. Mamaw said she will have the sheriff put another APB out for her, but the sheriff said she is a legal citizen so unless she is being accused of something they can’t track her. I decide to go to my room and watch more Vampire Diaries. At this one scene the mother gets out her phone because between the mom’s phone and her daughter’s phone they have GPS systems so they can track each other. The idea just blew up in my face because it was perfect.

We found my mom at a giant boat dock. She seemed happy almost. I think this time away from everything was really good for her, but terrible for everyone who was worried about her. It just doesn’t seem like her to just run away without a trace. We thought if we acted normal she would not notice us, so we planned how we would act normal and sneak up on her. It was really hard sneaking up on her because she seemed really alert, so we had to be really careful. I was the one sneaking up on her and I noticed something in her hand.

The Sheriff’s Office said that the thing in her hand was a packet of drugs. I was so shocked when they said that. I never thought I would see my mom with drugs. At least that explains why she seemed so happy, she wasn’t just happy being away from us. I am happy she is happy, but she shouldn’t be happy while using drugs. Happy isn’t happy when you use drugs. It’s just an emotion booster.

I tried to tell father we need to go back to California and leave mother be for now. I know father doesn’t want to leave because he is so afraid of leaving her, but if she never comes home we all think she would be better where she is. Mamaw and Pappy say that they will try and track her with the Sheriff’s help. I really trust that they will keep a good eye on her because they are her parents after all.

On the plane ride home I bought a can of Sprite and a packet of cookies. That’s what my mom would always buy on the plane. Everything I do reminds me of my mom and nothing of my brother, I kind of feel bad about that. Father has fallen asleep and I start to watch the newest season of The Vampire Diaries. I was so worried about mother I drank 6 cans of Sprite and 4 bags of cookies. I decided to call Mamaw and Pappy to see if they have found out anything. Mamaw answered the phone and seemed jumpy and happy.

The Sheriff’s Office said that they were sending her back to California and my father needs to put her into an a rehab clinic for a few months so she can recover from the drugs she has been taking. I really want her to go so that life can be back to almost normal. For some reason my dad is really lonely. I really wanted to ask him but the phone rang an hour ago and he hasn’t talked to me since.

My dad noticed me and walked up to me. He looked really sad, but I walked over anyways. My dad said that mom isn’t going to come home, she is going to live in Sitka and she is filing for a divorce. I really don’t understand why she would just leave us. She is way better than that. She lost her son, and now she wants to lose her daughter too. I really need a mom because we used to be so close and tell each other everything and now she’s gone. I guess she will be better without everyone on her case about everything.

Our new, new house is in Berlin, Germany. We decided that Germany would be better for our new family. My father got married again to a nice man with two other kids. The other kids are actually really cute. They are twin boys, and about 9 months old. I’m glad dad has gotten over mom. My new dad is really nice and really likes me because he thinks I'm really smart. I just wonder every day what mom is doing over there in Sitka, Alaska.