DDsE, Book 3

By Sue Perry

Being sixteen is Tupac Eminem. Ella has no one to talk to except her new diary, which she has to hide from Ma and Pa Warden, the foster parents she’s stuck with since her family got flattened in a car accident. Now that she lives with the wardens, she has to switch to a new school, where people act like her tragedy is contagious. Her new suburb is just as boring as the last, and offers no hope of secret passageways or magic. But life is not all bad. There’s an interesting boy at the new school – although his family turns out to be impossibly dangerous. And there’s a feral cat, living in the suburb’s only open space, a pitiful excuse for woods. Sometimes the cat invades Ella’s mind. She tells her diary, ‘I’ve gone a special kind of crazy, a split personality. And my other personality is a cat, not a person.’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sue Perry
• Release date: Mar 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370144266

Sue Perry

... Concert stage, dark except for a deep blue spotlight. Singer drops to one knee and his narration evolves from murmur to rant. "This is the story of a man who got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got –" ...It goes on forever. It's mesmerizing. Uncomfortable. Confessional.Pretty sure this memory is from the time I saw James Brown, decades ago, but the lost identity of the singer isn't the point.I've spent my life gazing across some fence or other, admiring greener grass over yonder. I've acted on so many impulses to jump the fence. No complaints, but it has sure taken me a long time to appreciate where I'm standing right now. And nowadays that blue spotlight chant fills my head whenever I contemplate a new jump.Sometimes I jump back.I was a low–budget television producer until I wrote a psychological thriller, "Was It A Rat I Saw", which Bantam–Doubleday–Dell published in hardcover in 1992. Soon after that I became the mother of twins, jumped into graduate school, and became a disaster scientist. I dabbled in academia, government research, and consulting.I stopped writing fiction for nearly two decades, until I noticed how much I missed it. I resumed writing novels with the literary fiction "Scar Jewelry" about a family with secrets that started in the era of Los Angeles punk and persist for decades. I'm in the midst of a speculative detective series FRAMES, with "Nica of Los Angeles", "Nica of the New Yorks", and "Boredom Fighter" so far. I've just completed a nine-novella series, the young adult paranormal horror romance, "DDsE".Funny. Back in the day, I had a single book idea at a time. Now I'm flooded with them, can't keep up with them, though I write just about every day.I live in southern California. I had to leave for five years to confirm this is where I belong. I live with multiple cats, comfortably close to my twins and granddaughter. Like my life paths, my friends and family are all over the damn place. I like to visit them, spend time at the ocean, explore cities, and go out to hear live music.

Book preview

DDsE

Book 3

Sue Perry

Copyright 2017 Sue Perry

Published by Sue Perry at Smashwords

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Book 3 Table of Contents

Ella's Diary, Entries 85.-130.

Acknowledgements

About Sue Perry and her Novels

Dedication

For Leo.

85.

DD – Sitting here trying to remember how to spell words, I'm that freaked. Because we're home. Back in the sub!

Not on purpose!

When we boarded the train, we knew it would head south – back the way we came – but the stop back home would only be four minutes and eventually the train would turn and cross the entire country. Getting that far away seemed worth four minutes. We assumed Paul's cousin wouldn't expect us to head his way.

Just outside the station, something went wrong with the train and we sat for an hour. Eventually the train inched into the station and everyone had to get off. Such bad luck. Or. A dark idea said maybe not luck, maybe an Everweer with the power to wreck trains.

Really sorry I thought that.

We found a bench near trees and set the backpack on the ground. Grayfast growled non–stop and wouldn't come out.

Paul and I gave each other looks. I had an urge to duck, like a giant net was about to fall and capture us.

It's worse to wonder than to know, so I asked. Are we in any more danger than before? Can your – he ––– sense when we're near?

Probably not, Paul said in an unconvincing voice. He wouldn't try unless he thought we might be close. He held out a bag of vending machine potato chips. I won't tell him if you don't.

Hmm let me think about that one. Okay, deal.

I took a chip but couldn't eat a bite. Still, joking together did make me feel better.

Grayfast kept growling but it got harder to hear him because clumps of train passengers wandered everywhere, complaining.

I said, What about a bus instead?

... at exactly the same time Paul said, Let's not stay here.

We tried to cash in our train tickets and the ticket agent treated us like bank robbers with toy guns. She snooped at the birthdate on Paul's ID. Do you have a guardian with you?

Tupac. We forgot we were back in the sub. No street kids. Grownups who mind the business of everyone under 18.

I might be out of practice staying unnoticed but could still whip up a quick alibi about guardians. They're double parked outside. They told us to hurry but – if you need to see them?

We got our money back and now we're waiting to board a bus. In five minutes. Unless something else goes wrong. – sE

86.

DD – Grayfast growled for another hour, until the bus put mountains between us and the sub. When the growling stopped, I discovered stinging pain in my hands – I'd been clenching my fists, maybe the whole bus ride, and my nails had cut little bleeding arcs in my palms.

Paul put water on napkins so I could clean my skin. That was a stressful transition, he said, and reached down to pat the backpack, but froze. Don't want to cause more growls.

I bet it's okay for you to touch him, I said, hoping I was right. I was. Grayfast shifted position inside the backpack but didn't growl when Paul patted it.

Paul held his hands out and examined them. I was shaking for a while there. He looked past me out the window. Wonder if we had a real reason to be afraid.

Well. Grayfast, I pointed out. The cat wouldn't growl for nothing.

True, Paul took a big swig of water, studied the bottle label. Water is always a soothing drink. Wonder why that is.

You're in a wondering mood, I teased, and drank water too. Such a relief to not feel scared right now, like we'd left trouble behind in the sub.

Out the window, car roofs slipped past the bus, roof after roof. I let them hypnotize me. When Paul and I weren't talking – or in danger – I kept thinking about our kiss, and how or when we could do more kissing. Which made the trip seem longer and the bus more crowded than it already was.

Paul ripped the top from a paper cup to make Grayfast a water dish. He set the backpack in his lap to block the view of other passengers and put the dish of water between us. Sure enough, Grayfast stuck his head out and finished the water with quick laps of his tongue, then pulled back inside the backpack. Paul refilled the dish and Grayfast finished that serving, too.

Paul's expression as he watched the cat. I hope Grayfast will let them become friends. – sE

87.

DD – Paul hasn't been drawing and finally I had a doh! moment – his sketchbook was in his backpack, now a black scorch on sand after Chrissie opened the book and flames erupted.

As soon as I offered him paper, he resumed sketching.