Transcript

Borrasca Pt.1 · INSPIRE STORY

0:15
Speaker 1: Welcome back to creep Cast. Today, we're talking about Brosco.
0:21
Speaker 2: That's how I've always pronounced it. I could be horribly wrong,
0:24
but it's too late to stop me now. So yeah, Barrosca,
0:27
that's what we're covering today. Yeah, And I am so
0:29
excited because out of all the creepy pasta I've read,
0:33
this one's always been my favorite. It's been a long
0:35
time since I've looked at it, but I mean, like,
0:39
I can't think of one that's compared to it, at
0:41
least at the time I've read it. So I'm interested
0:42
to look back on it. Have you ever read Barrosca?
0:46
Speaker 1: I haven't.
0:46
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, I've seen you.
0:49
Speaker 1: I've seen you talk about it. And then also, i
0:52
think in every episode that we've uploaded, out of all
0:54
three episodes, this is probably the most talked about one
0:58
in terms of people like wanting us to read it
1:01
and talk about it. So I'm stoked. I'm extremely stoked
1:03
to get into it. It's written by Rebecca Klingle, also
1:08
known as c. K. Walker. They're a writer renowned for
1:11
her contributions to horror and suspends genres. She gained prominence
1:15
on the no Sleep subreddit, a platform sharing original horror stories.
1:18
Her notable works include Barrosco, which is highly popular on
1:22
No Sleep, which I guess, yeah, you're I mean, this
1:24
is like one of the most popular out there. But
1:26
one thing that's interesting is from that from her writing
1:29
on No Sleep, she got to she had a pretty
1:34
big involvement in the writing in the Hunting of Hillhouse
1:36
on Netflix, which is a Mike Flanagan show, really fucking good.
1:40
So I loved Hunting of Hillhouse. So I'm I'm super
1:44
super excited, and I think this is like kind of
1:47
a longer story. So I think we're gonna break this
1:48
up into two parts. It's a four part story all
1:51
in all, so we'll probably start with part one and
1:53
two this time and then wrap it up next time
1:56
with three and four. So a nice little two part
1:58
or something that you have to you get to sit
2:00
and wait, so we'll see.
2:02
Speaker 2: And if you all hate it, well that's too bad,
2:05
because we want to do it this way. So yeah,
2:07
it's our podcast. You can get over it.
2:09
Speaker 1: So it is true. And you know what's weird is
2:13
that I'm finding that a lot of like this was
2:16
published in twenty fifteen. The first part here, what it
2:19
seems like, so many stories are coming out around that time,
2:22
doesn't it feel that way? And it feels like, uh,
2:26
stare in the woods, you know, that's when that came out.
2:29
It feels like there was like just a big, a
2:31
big boom.
2:32
Speaker 2: Then.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true or not. That's me
2:33
being completely speculative. Well I do.
2:36
Speaker 2: I do have a theory around that. So you know,
2:39
how like when did creepypastas start? Like twenty ten ish,
2:42
twenty ten, twenty twelve, stuff like that, So twenty fifteen,
2:46
twenty sixteen gives it a few years to kind of
2:50
you evolved the process the mine. I mean, it's the
2:53
same thing we see with stuff like analog whrror now, right,
2:56
there were a few people that pioneered and then a
2:58
few years after that you kind of have this deeper exploration.
3:01
It gets better, it effectively refines itself. Right, So I
3:05
think that's why some of the more interesting stories we
3:07
see out of like internet horror come from that time period,
3:10
because the genre has been given time to grow at
3:13
that point.
3:14
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah.
3:17
Speaker 2: I mean obviously I'm like jumping to conclusions about a
3:20
story you haven't read. But if you don't like it,
3:23
I will fight you live on air, so I'm bye.
3:27
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that. Which, so Braska is all about
3:31
people relocating, which I thought this was funny. It's it's
3:34
a family moving to dress King, Missouri, which I'm I'm
3:37
originally from Missouri. Dress King is like in the Ozarks area,
3:42
and uh, it's about pretty much. This whole thing is
3:46
about family's relocation because I believe their father has is
3:50
being reassigned to a sheriff's department. So it's about a
3:53
nine Our narrator who's a nine year old boy and
3:55
his sister and the family there. But I just thought
3:58
that was kind of interesting. The O's is close to me,
4:01
and apparently this whole thing is about a place that
4:05
is called Braska, which is where creepy things happen. So
4:09
without further ado, I think we should just get into it.
4:12
Speaker 2: I think we should as well. Boy, I'm so upset,
4:15
it has been so long. I've looked at this story.
4:19
Let's see if it holds up. I'm doing this as
4:21
like a litmus test like we have with past one,
4:23
to see if it holds up. I'm also excited for
4:25
you to see how this turns out.
4:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm gonna have a good experience with it.
4:29
Since it's like my first time, I think that I'm
4:30
gonna I'm gonna have like rose goggles on.
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Speaker 2: I bet perfect. I can't wait, all right, so I'll
4:35
go I'll go ahead and get started with this first part.
4:38
So we've got our narrator, the nine year old boy,
4:42
and then Whitney, the narrator's fourteen year old sister, and
4:45
they're upset about where. Lisa's sister is upset about leaving
4:48
her life and her boyfriend behind. One of our first paragraphs,
4:52
we see I was nine, so it did take me
4:55
too long to warm to the idea of change. It
4:57
was like an adventure, new house, news, new friends. Whitney,
5:01
of course, felt the opposite. Moving to a new school
5:04
at her age is hard. Moving away from her new boyfriend, however,
5:08
was even harder. While the rest of us packed up
5:11
our things and said our goodbyes, Whitney sulked and cried
5:14
and threatened to run away from home. But a month later,
5:17
when we pulled up to our new house in Drisking, Missouri,
5:20
she was sitting right next to me, texting viciously on
5:23
her phone. So little kid, you know, excited to see
5:27
nude stuff. Older sister doesn't the classic, the normal setup.
5:31
We all we all understand. However, Yeah, after that, well
5:36
I could, I could read this part of you can
5:38
if you want to. I don't want to read all
5:39
these simes just because I'm excited, but I will continue to.
5:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, going, all.
5:44
Speaker 2: Right, So they get to drisking. The family finds it
5:48
to be like this, you know, picture book classic, nice town,
5:51
nothing creepy happening. Yet, the boy continues and says, at first,
5:55
I was upset when they told me we were moving
5:56
to some little town out in the Ozarks. I remember
5:59
staring at my den while I listened to my sister
6:01
throw a temper tantrum unbefitting of a fourteen year old
6:03
honor student. She cried, she pleaded, and then she cursed
6:07
at my parents. She threw a bullet my dad and
6:09
told him it was all his fault. Mom told Whitney
6:11
to calm down, but she stormed off, slamming every door
6:14
in the house on the way to her room. So
6:17
the nine year old boy continues talking about how he
6:20
was unsure of the change at first. We likes it now,
6:22
and continued to says, thankfully, we moved over the summer,
6:25
and I had months of free time to explore the town.
6:27
When Dad started his new job at the Sheriff's office,
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Mom drove us around the city, commenting on this and
6:32
that the city was much much smaller than Saint Louis,
6:35
but also a lot nicer. There were no bad areas,
6:39
and the entire town looked like some something you'd see
6:42
on a postcard. Drisking was built in a mountain valley
6:45
surrounded by healthy forest land with walking trails and crystal
6:48
clear lakes. I was nine, it was summer and this
6:52
was heavy heaven. We'd only been living in Drisking a
6:55
week or so when our next door neighbors came to
6:58
introduce themselves, mister and Missus Landy and their ten year
7:02
old son, Kyle. While our parents talked and drank Mimosa's,
7:06
I watched the Landy's lanky, redheaded son hung out in
7:09
the doorway, shyly eyeing the PS two in the living room.
7:13
So for the first time. From this point, Kyle and
7:17
the narrator begin to become friends. They start to play
7:22
tech in together, which you know, classic nine year old boyfriendship.
7:26
Getting to punch stuff right, So the two of them
7:30
began to blossom this relationship.
7:35
Speaker 1: Shyly eyeing the p S two in the living room
7:37
is such a great line. Yeah, I love that. What
7:41
small boy hasn't shyly eyed a PS two dude? Which
7:44
I will say, it's just funny because the you know,
7:48
the city was much smaller than Saint Louis, but also
7:51
a lot nicer. Saint Louis is probably, I mean, it's
7:54
my least favorite city in probably the entire world. So
7:59
to me that this little nine year old boy is
8:02
he's getting a start on his real life. He's getting
8:04
out of this hell hole and he's starting to blossom
8:07
in this small, little suburban lake town. So it's but
8:12
developing his friendships. Now, you know, hey, I think that
8:16
you know, it's it's setting something up, and I think
8:19
that we're starting to see that it's gonna set up that.
8:21
I think that these little these new kids in the
8:24
neighborhood are probably gonna tell him something a little weird.
8:26
They're gonna introduce him to some lake of the Ozark
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dark magic, black magic.
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Speaker 2: Oh, you're you're scarily close to where that's h Are
8:40
you sure you haven't read this before? Because that all right,
8:43
So after that, before you jump the gun, so it says,
8:47
in that afternoon, with the ease and simplicity of our age,
8:50
Colin and I became friends. We spent the cool summer
8:53
mornings outside exploring the ozarks, and the hot afternoons in
8:56
my living room playing the PS. Two. He introduced me
8:59
to the only other kid in the neighborhood our age,
9:01
a skinny, quiet girl named Kimber Destero. She was shy,
9:06
but friendly and always up for anything. Kimber kept up
9:10
with us so well that she quickly became the third
9:12
will on our tricycle. So anyway, the three of them
9:16
become friends. They start to run around the town and
9:19
everything's going great. That is until, as the story says,
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on the last Saturday before school started, Kyle and Kimber
9:26
told me they were going to take me somewhere special,
9:29
somewhere we hadn't been yet. The triple Tree. What's a
9:33
trod ye?
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Speaker 1: Just you know, it's bad in a story where it's
9:39
like the word it's like, we're gonna take you somewhere special,
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somewhere we hadn't been yet. That it's just it's such
9:45
an ominous little line. It's like it's it's you know,
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it's nine year old kids talking this, but it's just
9:52
it's a beautifully put horror trope right here where. That's
9:56
the initial reaction that I had to I just, oh.
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Speaker 2: God, yeah, good lord, this can't go well. The triple tree, Yeah,
10:04
it goes about as well as you could. So initial
10:08
their initial conversation about it goes like this, what's a
10:11
triple tree? I asked. It's a totally awesome, totally huge
10:15
treehouse out in the woods, Kyle said, excitedly, whatever, Kyle,
10:19
Come on, you guys, if there was a freakin' tree house,
10:22
you would have showed it to be already. No, that's
10:26
very cute. That's a cute line.
10:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, if there was a treehouse, you would
10:31
have showed it to me.
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Speaker 2: You wouldn't be hiding a treehouse from me. What's you, Kyle?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? What the hell? Kyle? I thought we were friends.
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Speaker 2: Now we wouldn't have. Kyle shook his head. There's a
10:43
ceremony for first timers and everything. Kimber nodded eagerly in agreement,
10:47
her dark orange curls bouncing off her tiny shoulders. Yep,
10:50
it's true, Sam, If you enter the treehouse without the
10:53
proper ceremony, you'll disappear and then you'll die. My face, Well.
10:57
Speaker 1: God, that casual? Wait what she just says? Yeah, it's true, Sam,
11:05
If you're into the treehouse without the proper ceremony, you'll
11:07
disappear and then you'll die. Good God, God.
11:14
Speaker 2: What else would the ceremony be for.
11:18
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess, I guess, I guess that's true.
11:20
I thought it was gonna be something. Maybe they smoke
11:22
menthol cigarettes together or something like that, like that, that's
11:25
their ceremony. We're all blood brothers now where you know.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, like it's a stand by me kind of thing
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or something.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Like maybe they're maybe they're sitting there and
11:34
having like a little shot of whiskey and they're like, no,
11:36
don't tell anybody, you know what I mean. But no,
11:39
you'll just disappear and then you'll die.
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Speaker 2: If you don't do the ritual. If you don't, yeah,
11:44
that is Yeah, the ritual isn't disappearing and die you
11:48
want to Yeah, Yeah.
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Speaker 1: The DARE program did not prepare me for this kind
11:53
of peer pressure. So you're probably gonna find people who
11:58
also you remember, you're probably gonna find people who are like,
12:02
if you don't do this, you'll disappear and die. That's that.
12:05
That's the what is that? That? That has to be
12:08
one of the letters in the DARE program. I forgot,
12:10
I forgot all of them. All I remember is D
12:12
I won't do drugs.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then avoid disappearing and dying in the woods.
12:19
Speaker 1: Yeah a D. I won't do drugs. Hey, avoid disappear
12:25
dying going to treehouse are.
12:29
Speaker 2: Tail is old as time, so so from there so
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it's uh, you'll disappear and will die, it says. My
12:37
face fell Now I knew they were making fun of me.
12:41
That's a lie. You guys are lying to me. No,
12:43
we're not. Kimber insisted, Yeah, we'll show you. We just
12:47
have to get a knife for the ceremony and we'll go.
12:49
Oh no.
12:51
Speaker 1: What he was fucked up to is I don't I
12:55
don't want to keep derailing the car. We're just getting
12:57
through some dialogue. But I immediately imagine that the knife
13:01
was you remember in Mulan whenever, like the main bad
13:03
guy he had like that swivel sword. You know how
13:06
there's ceremonial daggers like that. I almost imagine that they're like, yeah,
13:09
we just have to grab a knife from uh, you know,
13:11
wherever and the ceremony. So I just imagine these nine
13:14
year old kids are just like they have like these
13:15
golden daggers, like ruby encrusted handles and stuff, and they're like,
13:20
all right, we're good to go. Next up triple tree.
13:24
Speaker 2: The knives, like whispering to them like oh it.
13:26
Speaker 1: Does exactly, speaking in tongues and shit, it says I've
13:34
been bad. It's like what yep, like holding it right
13:38
up to their ear.
13:39
Speaker 2: So continuing from there, what why do you need a knife? Oh?
13:46
Do you want to go head? You can take it
13:48
if you want.
13:49
Speaker 1: What what why do you need a knife? Is it
13:53
a blood ceremony? I whispered, No way, Kimber promised, you
13:59
just say some more words and cover her name into
14:01
the triple tree. Yep. It takes like one minute. Kyle agreed,
14:07
And it's a really cool treehouse, right, I asked, well,
14:11
oh yeah, for sure, Yeah, Kyle promised, Okay, I guess
14:16
I'll do it. Then this is bad, bad narrator. You
14:23
need to ask more questions to that. I will say
14:27
it does feel very very kid like. That's one thing
14:29
I like about all this so far is it feels
14:31
very realistic, Like I think all of the dialogue and
14:34
like how they're going about it. I feel like a
14:35
kid would probably just say that, Like a kid would
14:38
just be like, but it's pretty sweet, right, and they're like,
14:41
oh yeah, okay, fine, it's like that's all I did now, treehouse. Okay,
14:48
he'll go, but yeah, let me go to the next
14:51
part here. Consists on using the same knife he used
14:54
during his own ceremony. But we paid the price, but
14:57
we paid a price to get it, missus l and
15:00
he just happened to be home with her youngest son, Parker,
15:03
and despite Kyle's many objections, his mother insisted he take
15:06
his six year old brother with him. Mom, we're going
15:10
to the treehouse. It's only for older kids. Parker can't go.
15:15
I don't care. That's probably a bad mombboy, so I'm
15:19
gonna use it anyways, though, I don't care if you're
15:21
going to see an Exorcist movie marathon, you're taking your
15:23
brother with you. I need to break Kyle. Can't you
15:26
understand that? I'm sure your friends won't mind. She flashed
15:30
Kimber and meet a challenging. Look right, No, not at all,
15:35
Kimber said not in an agreement. Call made a loud,
15:38
dramatic sigh and called his brother, Parker, put your shoes on.
15:41
We're leaving now. I met the youngest Landy several times
15:45
before and found that he was unlike his older brother
15:47
and looks as oh my god, as in disposition. Holy,
15:53
I'm having a fucking shrug. Where Kyle was wild, excitable
15:57
fireball with hair to a match, I found Parker to
15:59
be an anger, fidgety boy with small eyes and dark
16:02
brown hair. I don't know why, but I really enjoy
16:04
the description of somebody with as just saying they have
16:07
small eyes, you know what I mean, Yeah, just extremely
16:12
tiny eyes. Also just kind of insulting too. They're like, yeah,
16:16
his brother is a firecracker, an absolute fireball. Yeah, but
16:20
his brother is he's a bit of a tiny, anxiety
16:24
ridden mess with little eyes in a gross smile.
16:29
Speaker 2: I imagine them like unsettling, small, like.
16:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, You're like, Jesus, is he okay? Looks sick.
16:38
We got on our bikes and made our way to
16:40
a lesser known hiking trail a few miles away. I'd
16:43
asked before where the trail led. When we'd ridden across
16:46
several weeks before, and Kyle had given me the underwhelming
16:48
answer of nowhere interesting. We pulled up on a trail ahead,
16:53
leaned our bikes against the wood signpost, which read west
16:56
Rim Pre Scott Oral Trail. Why are so many trailers
16:59
around here named Prescott? I asked, Is this Prescott Mountain
17:03
or something? Kimber laughed, No, Demmy, it's because of the Prescotts.
17:07
You know that lives in the mansion up on Fairmount.
17:11
Mister Prescott and his son Jimmy owned like half the
17:13
businesses in town. Now, if I had to guess, since
17:16
I haven't read this, I have a feeling like I'm
17:20
hoping that we get an encounter with the Prescotts or
17:22
we have to go into their spooky mansion or is
17:24
it or is it uh? Is it a regular mansion?
17:27
I don't know. I'm curious. I hope that we get
17:30
to we get to meet the Prescott's.
17:32
Speaker 2: You're so whims Keep that.
17:34
Speaker 1: Keep that okay, I'll try to more than half. Kyler greed,
17:41
which ones? Does he own? The game stop? Oh? Hell yeah?
17:45
What the Prescott's own a game stop? To I like
17:48
it so far it's been riddled with PS twos and stuff,
17:51
and he's like, which ones does he? Does he own
17:52
the game Stop?
17:53
Speaker 2: The only story, that's the most only story, that's the
17:55
most nine year old question though? Right? He owns half
17:58
the stores in town? What about game stop? Does he
18:00
on the game Star?
18:00
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I love the part of the line after
18:03
this is the only the only store in Drisking. I
18:05
really cared about exactly what is.
18:08
Speaker 2: Exactly a legend?
18:10
Speaker 1: Yeah? The narrator really showing his true nine year old
18:13
colors here. We gotta love it. I don't know about
18:16
that one. Damn. Kyle wound to lock around the four
18:19
bikes and cook the bar into a place, then spun
18:21
the numbers on the dial. But like the hardware store,
18:24
the pharmacy, Glinton's and the second and the Glinton's on
18:28
second in the newspaper? Did they start this town? I asked? Nah,
18:33
mining started the town? I think, all right? What am
18:35
I you here?
18:37
Speaker 2: This is them disgusting. The important thing to take away
18:39
though from that area, is that the the Prescotts are
18:43
important people, right, And that quick line about mining starting
18:48
the town will come back later. So from here they're
18:51
just talking. They're like, oh, that's such a long walk.
18:54
I don't want to walk that far, and then like
18:56
Nan and you're you're sissy whatever, Oh sorry, apologies. It
19:03
is the younger brother, the one with small eyes, quote unquote,
19:05
who's the one who's afraid, who doesn't want to go
19:08
walking down the road. They're talking about going up this trail,
19:11
and then all of a sudden, Parker, the little brother
19:14
who as mentioned earlier, small eyes, only six years old,
19:18
doesn't want to go out on the trail because it's scary.
19:21
It's a long walk, you know, general kids stuff, right,
19:24
And there is one mention here whenever our narrator is
19:28
describing what Kyle's talking about, he says, Kyle was right.
19:32
It wasn't a long walk, only a half mile down
19:34
the trail and then another half mile hike on a
19:36
well tread path up the mountain. It was a steep climb, though,
19:40
and by the time we got to the treehouse, I
19:42
was winded. So they eventually make it all the way
19:45
to the treehouse, and then in describing it, our narrator says,
19:50
it's I studied the tree as I caught my breath.
19:54
It's pretty awesome. I smiled, and it was they had
19:57
it lied. The treehouse was the biggest I'd ever seen.
20:01
It had multiple rooms and there were actual curtains in
20:04
the windows. A sign above the door said amber caught Fort,
20:09
and a rope ladder hung below the threshold, missing several planks.
20:13
I'm going up first, yelled Parker, but Kimber caught his arm.
20:16
You have to do the ceremony first, or you'll disappear,
20:20
she reminded him. That'd be fine with me. Kyle grumbled.
20:24
I was eager to get in the fort myself. Give
20:27
me the knife. I held out my hand. Kyle smiled
20:31
and dug the switchblade out of his pocket. There's some
20:34
space in the back to carve your name. I opened
20:37
up the knife walked around the tree looking for an
20:40
empty spot. There were so many names on the tree
20:44
that I had to crunch down and look near the
20:46
bottom since I couldn't reach any higher. I spotted both
20:50
Kyle and Kimber's carvings on the tree, and I finally
20:54
found a spot I liked near the ladder. I bit
20:57
my tongue and carved sam w into a blank piece
21:01
of bark underneath someone named Paul S. Parker went next,
21:07
but had so much trouble with the knife that Kyle
21:09
had to do it for him. That also gives us
21:10
our narrator's name, Sam, so we see what the ceremony is.
21:14
Whenever you approach the treehouse, you have to walk around
21:17
to the back of the treehouse and then carve your
21:19
name into it. And as mentioned, and that's an important
21:23
detail for later, there's so many names on the back
21:26
of this tree that it's hard to find a spot
21:27
to put your name.
21:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that visual. I like the visual of
21:32
especially just being able to Actually I wonder it really
21:34
doesn't matter if you can legibly read it, but I
21:36
love the idea of just seeing like, I don't know,
21:38
hundreds of names carved in there. It's just a really
21:43
cool thing. And especially with such an eccentric treehouse. I
21:45
mean like when I when I when I was reading
21:48
or when you were reading that thing and it said
21:49
that there was like curtains in the windows. That simple
21:53
description kind of gives it a fun like it almost
21:56
makes it feel like a house on a tree. It's
21:58
like it doesn't feel like a king. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
22:02
Speaker 2: There's I don't know, I'm remembering some of the because like,
22:06
thinking back on the story, I remember the plot beats
22:08
and especially the ending, and that's what always stuck out
22:11
to me. But here in some of these little details
22:14
and stuff like that, I wonder if there was like
22:17
some quality in the writing that I didn't pick up
22:19
as a kid, like directly, but I kind of like
22:23
internally processed, right, Like maybe I read those details and
22:27
was like, I like that, this makes me think of
22:29
something bigger. Even though they didn't go into much description
22:31
on it, it kind of let my imagination play with it.
22:34
It's hm, it's fascinating, Kimber sing them out.
22:38
Speaker 1: Underneath the triple tree, there's a man who waits for me,
22:42
And should I go or should I stay? My fate's
22:44
the same either way. That's creepy. I said, what does
22:49
it mean? Kimber shrugged. No one knows anymore. It's just tradition. Okay,
22:54
can you say it one more time slower? What's Parker
22:57
and I recited the poem. We were ready to go,
23:00
climbed the rope ladder and took and took stock of
23:02
my new surroundings. The treehouse was more or less empty,
23:05
just a dirty rug here and there in some trash
23:08
old soda cans, beer cans, and fast food wrappers. I
23:11
went room to room four in total, and found nothing
23:14
of real interest. Into the last one, an old mattress
23:16
lay in a corner, Piles of musty ripped clothing scattered
23:19
the floor. Did a hobo live here? I asked? Now,
23:23
this room has been like this for a long as
23:24
long as I can remember, Kyle said from the doorway
23:27
behind me. This smell's gross, I said. Kimber walked up
23:31
to the threshold but refused to go any further. It's
23:34
not the smell that freaks me out. It's that she
23:36
pulled it up on the ceiling and I raised my
23:39
eyes to read what was written there roads the gates
23:42
of Hell mile marker one. That's pretty sweet. Yeah, that's
23:47
awesome that there's a lot of stuff too, there's a
23:51
lot of stuff to unpack here, like very quickly. I
23:54
kind of like that they do, you know, like he's
23:56
looking through this, I mean four rooms in a treehouse.
23:59
That's a big treehouse. I mean full rugs on the deal.
24:02
You're getting a sense of the scale, And I like
24:04
how it does, like, you know, it's filled with kind
24:08
of what you'd expect, right, trash, soda cans, beer cans, magazine,
24:12
blah blah blah. But then I really like, just immediately
24:15
on the next one, there's an old mattress on a
24:17
corner and piles of musty ripped clothing scattered the floor,
24:21
just such an interest, like you're already starting to be like,
24:24
what happened here? What can happen here? To me, it's
24:28
a lot more malicious. It feels a lot more evil
24:31
than that. And I think through the like through the
24:33
lens of these children, I don't really think that they
24:37
even process how maybe evil or violent that just ripped
24:44
clothing scattered on the floor can be. So it's kind
24:46
of interesting because now I'm like, in my mind, I'm like,
24:49
you guys need to get the help, especially with a
24:51
nice especially with a nice sign that says road to
24:54
the Gates of Hell mile marker one, pretty awesome.
25:00
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
25:01
Speaker 1: Continuo was just saying it just and then which they say,
25:04
or Sam or our narrator says, what does it mean?
25:08
It's just older kids being dix. Kyle said, come on,
25:11
I'll show you the best part of the treehouse we
25:13
walked back into, which I guess I want to stop again.
25:16
Real quick. It's interesting. That's the second time that like
25:19
they kind of nonschalsely shrug off something, the first one
25:22
being a poem about how like a man is going
25:24
to take you potentially, and then now it's like a
25:27
sign that says roads to the gates of Hell, and
25:29
it's like, ah, you know, it's just people being weird losers.
25:33
It's I can't tell if they're hiding information from Sam
25:36
or if they're just like in their kid brains being
25:39
like it's whatever, it's it's it is what it is,
25:43
you know what I mean, Like they've been here so
25:44
many times that it's you know, who knows. We go
25:47
back into the first room and Parker looked up at
25:49
us and smiled, pointing down to what he clumsily carved
25:52
into the wooden floor. Fart. Kyle read, that's hilarious.
25:58
Speaker 2: I wanted you to read that really bad.
26:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, fark, Kyle read, that's hilarious, Barker, that is funny.
26:05
Imagine going into like a demonic fucking tree house and
26:08
you just car farting to the floor. You're like, awesome.
26:15
He rolled his eyes, but his little brother didn't pick
26:17
up on the sarcasm and smile smiled proudly at a boy, Parker.
26:21
Kimber sat down on the floor next to Parker and
26:23
I sat on the on the other side. Kyle took
26:25
the knife from his brother and then walked across the
26:27
room and wedged the blade between the two planks on
26:29
the wooden wall. He pushed and the board gave, opening
26:33
up a small secret compartment in the wall. Kyle took
26:36
something out and pushed the plank back until it was
26:38
flush with the others. Check it out. He turned and
26:41
probably held up two cans of Miller led beer.
26:43
Speaker 2: There.
26:43
Speaker 1: See now we're getting I love it. Whoa, I said,
26:49
you warm beer? That's gross. How do you even know?
26:52
How do you even know it's there? Kimber asked. Phil
26:54
Saunders told me a classic, Phil, Are we gonna drink it?
26:58
I asked, Hell, yeah, we're gonna drink so.
27:03
Speaker 2: Over the next few paragrafts, it just talks about them
27:07
drinking and talking about town and whatnot. I do like
27:10
the note that enough kids visit this tree that they
27:12
have like these like like he says, oh, Phil Saunders
27:15
told me so. Like the treehouse is popular enough that
27:18
like the kids know where to leave stuff. They have
27:21
almost dead drop set aside for each other, so they
27:26
go a little bit down. They're sitting around talking. Everything's fine, however,
27:29
it then says Kimber was in the middle of reciting
27:33
the alphabet backwards when a loud, metallic grinding suddenly pierced
27:38
the calm mount air like a gunshot. Kimber stopped talking,
27:41
and we spent a few minutes staring at each other
27:44
waiting for the noise to end. Parker curled into Kimber
27:48
and put his hands over his ears. After what seemed
27:52
like ten whole minutes, the sound ended as suddenly as
27:55
it had begun. What was that? I asked, and Parker
27:59
mumbled something into Kimber's sweatshirt. Do you guys know, I
28:03
tried again. Kimber stared at her feet as she crossed
28:07
and uncrossed them. Well, it's nothing, Kyle answered. Finally, we
28:12
hear it sometimes in town. It's not a big deal.
28:15
It's just louder up here. But what's making that sound? Barroska,
28:22
Kimber whispered, without taking her eyes off her feet. Who's that?
28:25
I asked, not who where? Kyle answered, It's a place
28:32
another town. No, it's just a place in the woods. Oh,
28:37
bad things happen there, Kimber said, more to herself than me.
28:42
Like what bad things? Kimber repeated, Yeah, don't ever try
28:47
to find it, due, Kyle said, behind me, or bad
28:50
things will happen to you too, But like what bad things?
28:54
I turned around. Kyle shrugged, and Kimber stood up and
28:56
walked over to the rope ladder. We'd better go. I
29:00
have to get home to my mom, she said. We
29:03
climbed down the ladder one by one and then started
29:05
to walk back to the trail in an unfamiliar silence.
29:08
I was dying of curiosity about Barrosca, but couldn't decide
29:11
if and what to ask about it. So who lives
29:13
there where? Kyle asked, Brosca the skinned man, Parker answered.
29:21
Kyle laughed. Only babies believe that, like men who are
29:26
skinned like their skin is gone, I asked, excitedly.
29:29
Speaker 1: Excitedly, yeah, like men who are skinned like their skin
29:35
is gone. Really the fun promise, right? Yeah, now we're
29:40
realizing that Sam is a psycho.
29:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what some kids say. Most of us stopped
29:50
believing in that though, when we turned double digits, Kyle said,
29:54
I looked back at Kimber, who was still nine like me,
29:56
but she was staring down the trail, ignoring us. That
30:00
seemed to be the end of the conversation, and by
30:02
the time we reached our bikes, the awkwardness was gone
30:05
and we were giggling, trying to decide if we were
30:07
too drunk to buy home.
30:10
Speaker 1: That's cute sipping some warm We're probably two wasted to
30:15
ride man.
30:17
Speaker 2: So yeah, So that's that's basically at the end of
30:20
that scene, they go up there this big treehouse everyone
30:23
cards their names into. But then there's this loud, metallic
30:26
noise coming from a place called Brosca, And other than
30:29
the mention of the skinned man, that's that's all that
30:33
we get about the location.
30:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, the skin the skinned men. Also, it's it's not
30:39
even just a man. It's like there's there's multiple people
30:42
who are skinned. It's it's it's very interesting, which I
30:45
was gonna say too when reading this. The sound came
30:48
outside of the treehouse, right, yeah, it was the mountain.
30:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, it's louder when you're away from town.
30:57
Speaker 1: I'm picturing just like a like a long metal sk
31:00
graping sound, like just something really horrid and just like
31:04
you know what I mean, just something completely uh what
31:09
is it? Just like almost unbearable, like nails on a chalkboard.
31:13
It's interesting. It kind of feels like also that they
31:16
set up the treehouse to be like you, it's almost
31:20
like you expect the treehouse to be the evil place,
31:23
but then they do the nice version of like, actually,
31:25
it's this completely other place that makes everybody else uncomfortable.
31:28
Because until this point too, Kyle and Kimber have both
31:31
been very like, oh, it's just superstitions. Oh, it's tradition,
31:34
Oh it's just a dick whatever. But then whenever this
31:37
gets brought up, it gets very serious, it gets very quiet,
31:40
and now it's even it's kind of like completely disrupts
31:42
the flow of what they had before. So but also
31:45
it's weird too. Sam is like very like it seems
31:48
like he's anxious to hear about it. But then just
31:51
even the word excitedly is interesting where it's like, now
31:54
it kind of seems like I have a bad feeling.
31:57
Sam is gonna want to like pursue this, like like
32:01
pursue this idea of finding it and knowing what it is.
32:05
Speaker 2: Man, I'm over here, I'm almost getting like nostalgic thinking
32:09
about hearing you describe it like that, I dropped all
32:13
these nuances this early in the story. Man, this is
32:18
a good one. Okay, I'm so back. I'm so ready
32:21
because like everyone we've covered, even the ones I like,
32:24
I go in like scared, like what if this isn't
32:26
as good as I remember? But this is so much
32:28
cooler than I remember, because like there's stuff I'd completely
32:32
forgotten about along that, which slight spoiler. You're totally right
32:36
with your idea of like maybe saying we'll have some
32:38
desire to go look for it. But wow, Okay, anyway.
32:42
Speaker 1: It's it's interesting. Well the thing about it too, that's
32:45
just I don't want to like get too far off.
32:47
I know, I'm sure a viewers want to keep hearing
32:50
about the story. But it's just interesting in terms of storytelling.
32:53
Having it start off by a kid who's moving to
32:56
a town, it's already a fish out of water situation, right,
33:00
being introduced to new friends who are introducing him to
33:04
all of these new like new things, and all these
33:07
other kinds of weird stuff going on. Yeah, it's very
33:11
believable that a kid would become obsessed or that he
33:14
would have some kind of like just like innate desire
33:20
to find this thing that is like this fantastical thing,
33:24
especially whenever Kimber and Kyle are already prepping up, like
33:26
the ceremony and the treehouse and stuff. All this stuff
33:29
is so new and exciting that in a way, I
33:31
feel like there's just so much that he is going
33:34
to Sam is going to want to. I wouldn't say
33:41
prove it to his friends, but I think prove it
33:44
to himself that he can go and find this thing
33:46
and learn more about it. I think it's like forbidden
33:48
fruit in a weird way.
33:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh man, Okay, to continue on to the story,
33:53
So after that, it skips forward a bit and talks
33:57
about the first day of school. It says there's this
34:00
dialogue between Sam and his dad where his dad's like,
34:04
you know, saying, Ah, you're not getting out of the
34:05
car till you give me a hug or whatever. It's
34:08
mentioned that Sam's dad's a police officer. I believe if
34:14
I'm pretty sure he's a police officer. Later in the story,
34:16
if I remember right, and there's a mention here, I
34:18
threw open the back door of his cruiser before he
34:21
could say anything more. But other than that, just a
34:24
brief exchange between Sam and his dad, and then he
34:28
runs up and he meets with Kimber and Kyle as
34:32
they're about to walk into school, and there's this quick mention.
34:37
Most of this isn't like super important for the narrative.
34:39
It's just character stuff like haha, oh, what are you
34:41
nervous for? Whatever? But there is this one short thing
34:44
I want to read where it says whose class are
34:47
you in? Kimber asked. She was wearing a red sweater
34:50
and leggings with frogs on them. Her curly orange hair
34:53
was brushed into ringlets, and her lips were pink and shining.
34:57
She never looked prettier, and I was surprised to realize
35:00
I'd never really seen Kimber as a girl. So the
35:04
slight mention that Sam is maybe developing some feelings towards
35:07
Kimber wanted to bring that up anyway. So they're talking
35:12
about the rest of class. One of them swears, and
35:17
then a teacher overhears it. Typical you know, middle school
35:21
cutesy stuff, right.
35:23
Speaker 1: Even some of the stuff here, like it looks like
35:25
there's some even like you were saying that he might
35:28
be developing feelings for I mean, there's this stuff where
35:31
you know, you know, the way that Sam is saying
35:36
things and Kimber is giggling. It's it's very cutesy.
35:38
Speaker 2: It is.
35:38
Speaker 1: This whole thing is very is very young love, young
35:42
cutesy love.
35:43
Speaker 2: And it's very innocent too. Everything so far as just
35:46
like fun and games, nothing to it. There is one
35:48
character that gets brought up in the scene that I
35:50
want to mention. Soh Kyle says that he drops an
35:57
F bomb in conversation, and then up behind them we hear,
36:01
excuse me, mister Landy. I immediately recognized the tall man
36:05
that had suddenly appeared behind the white faced Kyle. Sorry, Sir,
36:09
I met dang. Kimber giggled. I'm sure you did. He nodded. Hi,
36:15
Sheriff Clary, even though I'd only met him a few times.
36:18
I liked my dad's boss and he liked me. Well, hello, Sammy,
36:22
are you excited for your first day? Sheriff Clairey crossed
36:25
his arms in front of me and widened his stance imposingly,
36:28
but gave me a wide smile. Yes, Sir, I said,
36:32
and then added, lamely, what are you doing here while
36:35
I'm giving a presentation to the fifth and sixth grades
36:38
about safety when walking to and from school. Yeah, he
36:41
gives it every year, Kyle muttered. Cool, I smiled. Sheriff
36:45
Clairey nodded at me, and he turned and walked away.
36:48
I looked around, confused, where's Kimber. She took off. She
36:52
is annoyingly on time to everything. And as if to
36:55
illustrate his point, the bell rang. We both ran up
36:58
the stairs and inside. So from there they go to
37:01
their first day of school. So there's mentioned there. His
37:04
dad isn't a police officer, per SE's sheriff's deputy in
37:08
the small town, and Sheriff Claire's here given it. It also further,
37:12
like you said, paints the idea of this an idyllic
37:14
small town. Oh, the sheriff comes to the local school
37:16
to give presentations about you know, stranger danger or whatever. Right,
37:20
everything's very picture book right now.
37:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean even just it's I've had that happen
37:27
to my own, Like you know, when I was younger too,
37:29
people talking about like a sheriff or a cop coming
37:32
in from in town and talking about like the like
37:36
safety concerns and stuff. Well, especially though so far in
37:39
the story. To me, it just feels like a subtle
37:41
nod of especially the the the guy talking to fifth
37:46
and sixth grades about, you know, the safeties of like
37:50
walking home and from school or to school. It just
37:53
feels like there's something being set up or there's like
37:55
something in town going on where they're trying to like
37:58
let people know, like, hey, you should be careful because
38:01
I don't know stuff is happening. But I think that's
38:05
just my excited, little evil brain getting you know, prepping
38:09
what I think is gonna happen.
38:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. I do want you to read this part, both
38:13
because I think it's good for like character growth, but
38:16
also because I think you'll find it funny.
38:17
Speaker 1: A group of girls who sat near the front snuck
38:19
looks at us all morning and snickered. I asked Kimber
38:22
who they were, and she shrugged. During our second break,
38:25
they came up and talked to me. Are you friends
38:27
with Kimber. Destara, a tall, dark haired girl, asked me. Yeah,
38:32
I answered, and I looked over at Kimber. She was
38:34
watching me with worried eyes. Are you related to her? No?
38:39
I didn't think so, because you don't have orange hair.
38:42
I didn't know what to say to that. Yeah, it's like, okay,
38:47
you don't have to be friends with her, you know,
38:49
said the second girl, with oddly around face. I want
38:53
to be friends with her. A third girl behind the
38:55
other two snorted. She had pretty auburn hair and rude
38:59
upturned note. Well, if you do, you're going to be
39:02
in the ugly kid group, the first goal warned. And
39:05
once you're in that group, you can't leave it ever.
39:09
Better than the bitch group, I said, rude nose of
39:15
Ronfe's gas, but dark hair smiled. Wealthy, she said, and
39:19
the three returned to their corner of the room. I
39:21
sat back down to the next day, Kimber, feeling like
39:23
a badass. Is the first time I'd ever used a
39:26
swear word in front of anybody other than Kyle. Hell yeah,
39:30
what did they say to you, Kimber asked nervously. They
39:33
said you're too pretty to be near them, and that
39:36
you make them look gross. We have to stay away
39:38
from them, liar, Kimber answered, but I could tell she
39:41
was smiling. Yeah, I love that.
39:44
Speaker 2: That's an adorable interaction.
39:46
Speaker 1: It is. It's super nice. I also I love man,
39:50
I love the idea too, of just how real it
39:53
feels for a kid to be like, God, I feel
39:56
like such a badass because he just said bitch and
39:58
he's like, yeah, Usually I don't say that in public.
40:03
Speaker 2: But he used his power for good. He used it
40:06
to defend his friend. It was very sweet. There's another
40:10
part later when it's talking about them at lunch. This
40:12
is again seems like character dialogue, but this is setting
40:14
up important world building, similar to the sheriff mentioned earlier,
40:18
when says, hey are you Sam Walker? The kid asked,
40:22
but by the way, they're at lunch now like him,
40:24
Kyle and all them, Hey are you Sam Walker? The
40:27
kid asked, Yeah, Oh, your sister is dating my brother.
40:32
Oh man, Kyle laughed, your sister is dating a Whittager.
40:35
Remember Whitney, Sam's older sister who's like fourteen. That's who
40:39
they're referring to. Your sister's dating a Whittager. Shut up, Kyle,
40:44
the kid grumbled, She's gonna be Whitney Whittager. As funny
40:48
as it was, I couldn't help but be a little surprised.
40:51
Not that I've been paying attention, but I'd only seen
40:53
Whitney out of her room once. Over the summer. Where
40:57
did she meet him? I asked the Whittager kid. No,
41:00
probably at his job, his job where he works at
41:04
drisking water. It didn't make any sense to me, but
41:07
I shrugged it off. I did remember my mom giving
41:09
Whitney some menial tasks like getting the car washed and
41:12
setting up some utilities to get her out of the house.
41:15
Maybe she met him once and they started dating over text.
41:18
Teenagers were weird. So anyway, the kid doesn't really look
41:22
like Sam doesn't think a ton about it. But we
41:24
get another mention. His older sister, Whitney is dating someone, right,
41:29
And also he is a part of the Whittaker family, which,
41:32
similar to the Prescott family, is a pretty well renowned
41:36
to do family inside of this town.
41:39
Speaker 1: Drinking yeah, well off, kind of like one of the
41:41
wealthier families in town. Definitely like a name exactly.
41:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, oh man, she's going to be a Whittaker
41:47
like that that carries some weight even to these like
41:49
fourth graders.
41:51
Speaker 1: Because if anything, kind of you kind of assume that,
41:53
like maybe their families are like talk about it and
41:56
stuff like kids can pick up on that. Yeah, you know,
41:58
like I it's it becomes something. Yeah, pretty real.
42:02
Speaker 2: So anyway, it goes on from there, they go about
42:05
their first day of school, and then a few days later,
42:08
it says the rest of the school week followed much
42:11
like the first. We were well into the first month
42:13
when I heard someone mention the skinned men again. We
42:17
were out on the playground and Kyle and I were
42:19
trying to start a fire with two large woodships. I'd
42:22
just given myself a splinter when the distant sound of
42:25
metal grinding on metal flooded over the playground, silencing every
42:30
one of us. Brosca. I said in awe. Yep, said
42:35
Phil Saunders, the skinned men kill again. Hey, Kyle said,
42:40
only babies believed in skinned men. I threw an accusatory
42:43
look at Kyle, they do, Phil is just stupid? Am not?
42:48
Asked Danielle, she's seen them? Yeah?
42:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, wait, she's seen She's I think, okay, yeah, yes.
42:57
Speaker 2: I felt like I was having a stroke just then.
42:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
43:01
Speaker 2: I was like, wait a bite, Yeah, yeah, ask Danielle, she's
43:03
seen them. Phil scanned the playground and then yelled at
43:06
a blonde girl talking to Rube nose. Hey, Danielle, come
43:09
over here. The blonde girl rolled her eyes but came
43:12
skipping over anyway, What do you want? I told you
43:15
Kayla doesn't like you, Philip. No, No, this isn't about that.
43:21
That's for later. No, tell them about the skinned men.
43:25
Phil gestured to the air around us, which was filled
43:28
with metallic scraping coming down from the mountain. You tell them, no,
43:33
you saw them, so you tell them I didn't see them.
43:37
Page saw them, oh, Phil said, and an uncomfortable silence descended.
43:42
You guys are weird, Danielle said, before flipping her hair
43:45
in our faces and leaving. Who's Page? I asked? When
43:49
she'd gone her sister, Phil said, Page disappeared when we
43:54
were like five, Kyle said, after she saw the skinned men,
43:58
Phil added. The sounds from the mountain abruptly ended, and
44:02
the subdued atmosphere of the playground disappeared with it. When
44:06
the bell rang, Kyle lined up in his class line,
44:08
and since Phil was in my class, I made sure
44:10
I was behind him. The teachers began to count us off. Hey,
44:15
what else do you know about Barrosca? I whispered to him.
44:18
My brother said, that's where people go when they disappeared,
44:22
to Barrosca. What happens to them there? Bad things? He said,
44:27
and then shushed me when I asked him what he meant.
44:30
And that's the end of that scene. So, okay, we
44:32
have some interesting stuff here. For one, I love the
44:36
haunting visual of a schoolyard full of children going silent
44:40
when the metal starts. You know, it's like there's this understood,
44:45
almost reverence they have for it, right of like, oh,
44:48
it's beginning again. That's them. And then they make the
44:50
shrewd comment of like, oh, that's the skinned men they're
44:53
killing again. Right. However, the one that's really haunting is
44:58
the mention of Page's older sister who disappeared when they
45:01
were like five. Right, So, and what do we know
45:04
about the ritual for the tree? If you don't write
45:07
your name on your tree, you disappear, right, So we're
45:10
starting to see some reoccurring themes. If you don't write
45:12
your name on the tree, you disappear. Paige had an
45:14
older sister who disappeared, and apparently she saw the skinned men.
45:21
Speaker 1: It's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting too because there's just adding
45:25
to what you said about, like even the barrosca sound
45:27
of the metal scraping. I was curious because there could
45:31
have been a couple different ways it goes where the
45:33
kids in town who are there are so used to
45:35
it that they don't really pay any attention. But still,
45:37
even though it's a regular thing, it still sounds as
45:40
people like I think that it's still something that just
45:42
like fundamentally effects and people are everybody's afraid of it.
45:46
But yet still there's like an urban legend to it,
45:48
like there's there's interesting things where some people are like, yeah,
45:50
there's a skinned men. No she said she's seen it. No,
45:53
they're not real. There's still like urban legends even though
45:57
there's this huge grating thing and there is this like
45:59
bay level of fear that everyone believes in. So I
46:03
don't I don't know. You know, it's crazy that too
46:06
is Sam saying Braska in Awe like it really uh yeah,
46:10
it really shows that I think that he is going
46:12
to it my I think that he's going to form
46:16
some kind of obsession. I think it's going to like
46:18
call him or he is like he. I think that
46:21
something's gonna happen to where he's going to have to
46:23
explore it by himself because he is, like I think,
46:26
because he's so new and so naive, I think that
46:28
it's going to inevitably lead him to go there by
46:33
himself and kind of like disregard all of the things
46:36
that people have said, all of the warnings.
46:39
Speaker 2: So after that, I can't comment on it because.
46:44
Speaker 1: Don't don't comment on it. I'm just saying this is
46:46
where this is my thought. Now.
46:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So it says that a few months ago by,
46:50
it's around Christmas break and one day it does. Sam
46:56
setting in his room and he hears the metal again.
46:59
He I hadn't heard it since that time at the playground.
47:02
So it's a few months between the noise, right, It's
47:04
not like it's every day or something. So he hears
47:07
the noise again at the same time that his dad
47:10
comes home from work. So when his dad comes inside,
47:13
he says, hey, Dad, do you hear that that like
47:16
machine sounding noise? Yep, I hear it in town every
47:20
now and then. Do you know what it is? I
47:23
asked the sheriff about it, and he told me the
47:24
noise comes from private property up in the Ozarks. Is
47:28
the property called Barrosca? I asked quickly. I guess I
47:32
should be like, is the property called Verosca?
47:34
Speaker 1: But you gotta get it.
47:40
Speaker 2: I have no idea Brosca. Where'd you hear that I
47:45
shrugged kids at my school? Well, it's nothing to worry about, Sammy,
47:49
Probably just some logging equipment. But is the place called
47:52
Barrosca like? Have you heard that name before? No, I've
47:55
not heard that before. Dad pulled its boots off and
47:58
shrugged off his coat, looking toward the kitchen. I could
48:00
tell I was losing him. Have you ever heard of
48:03
the skinned man? Hold up? Have you ever heard of
48:06
the skin man? I asked quickly? Skinned man? Good? God, Sam,
48:12
is your sister telling you these stories? This is me.
48:17
I used to do this a kid. I would like
48:19
terrorize my younger sisters with things I heard all God. No,
48:25
but he wasn't listening to me anymore. Whitney, he yelled. Upstairs. No, Dad,
48:30
Whitney doesn't even talk to me, I repeated. I heard
48:35
a door creak open upstairs, and Whitney peered over the railing,
48:38
phone in hand and an annoyed look on her face.
48:41
Are you trying to scare your brother, dad demanded Dad. No,
48:45
I said again. Whitney shot me up a trayed look, seriously,
48:49
as if I'd waste my time. Why aren't you telling him?
48:52
Why are you telling him stories about skinned men. No, Dad,
48:55
I told you. I heard it at school, I said,
48:58
which gestured to me as if to say, see, all right, well,
49:02
you kids need to start getting along your family, for
49:06
God's sakes. Whitney rolled her eyes, and when Dad walked
49:09
into the kitchen, she stuck her tongue out at me.
49:12
Real mature, Whitney. I yelled up to her, but she
49:14
was already gone, I'll tell Dad about your boyfriend. That's
49:17
the end of that. So but there's that mention around
49:20
the father. I won't say anything specific now, but just
49:23
keep that interaction in mind, right.
49:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't believe them. I don't. I don't believe him.
49:27
I feel like, maybe not this skin men thing, but
49:29
I do feel like, well, because here's the thing, I'm wondering,
49:33
how long has this been going on for? And if
49:35
there's local sheriffs, Because if it's like a sheriff right
49:38
in a small town, I would say, the majority of time,
49:40
you're a you're like a hometown boy, right, You're like
49:43
a little you were born and raised there. So to me,
49:46
I'm like, I feel like, unless the other sheriffs aren't
49:50
being honest, I feel like the dad would have heard Baska.
49:52
It just depending. But to be fair, we don't know
49:54
the context of like when really these sounds started or anything,
49:57
or when this urban legend kind of happened. So I'm
50:00
curious because the skin men thing, it's easy for him
50:02
to be like Jesus, no good, like good God, where
50:05
the hell are you hearing this? But at the same time,
50:07
I'm wondering too how much of it is him trying
50:09
to be trying to I guess, not scare his kid
50:13
or something. I don't know. I don't I don't trust
50:15
the dad for some reason. That's probably, you know, some
50:18
personal issue I have of my own father. But I'm
50:20
always like he's lying.
50:24
Speaker 2: It is like the kind of it's weird to say
50:27
about a story, but kind of the body language the
50:29
father has in the scene where it's like, Brosco, where'd
50:31
you hear that?
50:32
Speaker 1: Uh?
50:32
Speaker 2: I just heard it at school? Oh well I've never
50:35
heard of that before, you know, Like it's it's kinda
50:39
it's like he's trying to pry for information but doesn't
50:41
want to give anything away.
50:43
Speaker 1: That's what I mean. Yeah, I just feel like he
50:45
knows more like I feel like they're and I could
50:49
be completely reading it wrong. But to me, it just
50:50
feels like, exactly, you're praying for information because you don't
50:54
want to reveal your hand yet. And I think it's
50:58
easy to also pass people off because of like not
51:03
wanting to talk about something, and you just kind of
51:05
give him the whole excuse of like, oh, this is ridiculous.
51:07
And then he even brings this like the kid Sam
51:11
is being very transparent, like no, I heard it at school,
51:13
and he's like, did your sister tell you? Hey? You know, Emily,
51:17
get down here, Like it seems like it's trying to
51:20
sway the conversation in a certain way and also completely
51:23
ignore it, even though I don't think Sam is being
51:25
irrational at all, even though he's not I understand he's nine,
51:28
but still I don't think that he's doing anything that's
51:30
totally absurd. So I don't know. I'm my my little my,
51:35
my suspicious blinders are on for the dad as well,
51:38
and I feel like there's just not enough. Yeah, I
51:40
don't know. I think the cards are being held too
51:42
close to the chest.
51:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, anyway, those are interesting things that you said
51:48
and that I won't say anything about it, So continuing,
51:53
So there's the next day they go to school, or
51:56
not the next day if you after Christmas break, they
51:58
go to school. The girls mentioned earlier, the three who
52:02
made fun of Kimber, they come up push Kimber again.
52:04
Kimber says that she hates all those girls. And then
52:07
the three of them are going to the assembly hall
52:11
in the school because there's a Dare presentation or they
52:13
say it's either a dare or the History Society's presentation,
52:17
which is funny because we mentioned Dare a minute ago.
52:19
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, yes, this is coming full circle. It's
52:22
coming full circle now.
52:23
Speaker 2: So they go to the three of them go to
52:24
the auditorium and then a teacher named missus Teverty walks
52:28
onto the stage and says, hello, fourth grade students. This morning,
52:32
we have a special presentation for you from the Historic
52:36
Preservation Society of Drisking. If you have questions during the
52:39
course of the lecture, please raise your hand like that'll happen.
52:43
Kyle laughed. Now, I'd like to introduce you to mister
52:46
Wyatt doubting Miss Catherine's Scandlon, and of course mister James Prescott.
52:53
What Jimmy Prescott and not his dad? That's so weird.
52:56
Kimber whispered, Dude, Thomas Prescott has done this present every
53:00
year for like twenty years. Kyle said, it's definitely weird.
53:04
It's not weird, whispered Mike Sutton from behind us. He
53:07
leaned forward. Tom Prescott went crazy, like a year ago.
53:11
He didn't do the presentation last year when my sister
53:14
was here either. I don't like Jimmy Prescott. Kimber shook
53:17
her head. He gives me the he begbis. His dad's
53:20
so much deniser, He's like a grandpa. The presentation was
53:24
slow and boring. Mister Dowding and Miss Scallion talked about
53:29
the first settlers here, the Cherokee, and the Trail of Tears.
53:32
They talked about Alexander Driskin's discovery of a motherload of
53:35
ore in the mountains and settling here with his family
53:38
to mine and refine the iron. Then James Prescott took
53:42
the stage from there to tell the story of his
53:44
family's early journey to the town and their role in
53:47
the revitalization of Drisking itself in the late fifties. The
53:51
last part was the most interesting of it all, and
53:53
I found Jimmy Prescott to be infalliably charismatic and entertaining.
53:58
I was so busy laughing at his chains and hanging
54:00
on his every word that by the end of his
54:02
presentation I realized I'd actually learned quite a bit, so
54:06
much so that I was interested enough to ask a question,
54:09
which Kyle warned was committing social on aliving for YouTube.
54:14
Mister Prescott scanned the room and answered a few other
54:17
questions before he finally got to me at the back. Yes,
54:20
you and the back. Uh, mister Prescott, why did the
54:25
mines close? Like what happened? I asked, very good question,
54:30
young man. What did you say?
54:31
Speaker 1: Your name was.
54:34
Speaker 2: Sam Walker? Ah? I believe I met your father the
54:37
other day at the Sheriff's office. Welcome to Drisking. As
54:41
for your questions. Most of the mines were closed in
54:43
nineteen fifty one after a long period of unprofitability. The
54:47
mountain had simply ran out of iron ore. The mills
54:50
and refineries were abandoned, and the town suffered for years.
54:54
The miners and their families moved away, stores went out
54:57
of business, schools closed, and Drisking became a ghost town.
55:01
That would have been the end of it if it
55:03
weren'd for stubborn families like mine who refuse to leave.
55:06
We refuse to give up the town, and after many,
55:09
many years of hard work, Drisking became the picturesque little
55:12
Haven and the Ozark sen it is today. I hope
55:15
that answers your question. I sat back down and Kyle
55:18
shook his head at me, bro So anyway, that gives
55:23
us an important thing. For one, we see the families again,
55:25
the important families mentioned. Specifically, we hear that Ted Prescott
55:30
or Thomas Prescott, the older one went mad according to them,
55:35
and now his son Jimmy Prescott is the one holding
55:38
the assembly. So again there's a mention that the Prescott's
55:41
are an important family. Remember all the trails around town
55:44
and all the roads are named after them. And there's
55:46
a mention that while it was at one point a
55:48
big mining town, it lost its economy in the fifties
55:51
and families like the Prescotts revitalized it. So that's probably
55:56
why all of these different families have such predominance in
55:59
the town, because they kind have saved it from an
56:01
economic collapse.
56:03
Speaker 1: Kind of makes me, It made me think of like
56:07
like mine carts and stuff, the grindings and everything I'm wondering.
56:12
I'm wondering if the sound is My immediate thing is
56:16
thinking that the sounds are coming from the minds, especially because, uh,
56:21
down here a bit, there's some dialogue and basically the
56:23
kids after the presentation, Kyle's like, so boring whatever, and uh,
56:29
they're kind of giving Sam a hard time for asking
56:31
about it, and Sam says, I just wanted to know
56:33
about the mines. Minds are creepy, that's all. Yeah, but
56:37
all other yeah, but all of our minds were blown up.
56:40
You can't go in them anymore, Kyle said, blown up,
56:43
I asked. Kimber nodded. Some kids died after going in
56:46
the mind So the city set off some controlled blast
56:49
and imploded the caverns. At least that's what my mom said.
56:52
They messed up, though, and I heard they blew up
56:54
the water table or poison it or something. What How
56:58
do you know that, Kyle asked Kimber shrug. I heard
57:00
my dad talking about it. Do you see four or something?
57:03
I guess that's very question. So, like we all drink
57:10
the water, so we have C four in our bodies
57:12
and we don't explode in any minute, Cole said excitedly,
57:16
do you think that's do you think that's what's happened
57:18
to all the missing people? I asked him, just sitting
57:21
there one day and boom, yeah, dudek, grab my shoulders,
57:24
and that's where the skin men come from. I made
57:27
the intentional symbol of mind blown and we laughed hysterically.
57:32
I don't know what what what do you what? If
57:34
you had? Well? What sucks is that you already know?
57:37
I will I need someone here to.
57:40
Speaker 2: It's funnier if I torment you with it, though, if
57:43
I'm like it is true, Yeah, good question. Why don't
57:47
you tell me more of your theory? So?
57:53
Speaker 1: But what are you sinking?
57:53
Speaker 2: What are you thinking right now?
57:56
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean like they're setting up some stuff.
57:59
I don't think that we're getting Like I don't think
58:01
any of the information that we're getting so far is
58:04
like not intentional, Like I think it's it's not intentionally.
58:07
It isn't just random that we hear about Thomas Prescott
58:11
going insane, right, and how it's a big deal that
58:16
the younger Prescott, who Kimber finds creepy is doing the
58:20
presentation and stuff. There's just too many little subtle things
58:24
being hinted and dropped at, especially a big emphasis on
58:27
mining and like how mining built a town. You know,
58:33
to me, I think that I think that we're gonna
58:37
end up in the mind somehow. But I'm wondering how
58:40
it correlates with the treehouse or even if the man
58:44
that the Scared men or the man from the poem
58:50
might be. I don't know people that have gone insane
58:52
or like in my head, says Thomas Prescott. But I
58:55
have no idea to know how old the poem is
58:57
because to my head, I'm wondering if the Prescott's who
59:00
are obsessed with this town, especially the mining and stuff,
59:03
if they're like lurking around up there or or something.
59:06
I don't know.
59:07
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, really, I'll give you this. You are
59:10
holding all of the right pieces everything. You're saying, all
59:13
these thoughts in your head. You you've got all the
59:15
pieces together. You're not putting them together right per se.
59:18
But I think you know that. Yeah, No, I mean,
59:22
you're catching everything you should be.
59:24
Speaker 1: It's becoming one of those things where it's like I'm theorizing.
59:27
But every time I like say it, especially when I'm
59:29
saying out loud, for the viewers to hear because it's
59:32
you know, it's embarrassaying, it sounds very dumb. But I
59:35
do think that like it's going to I mean, obviously,
59:38
as we get more information, it'll piece itself together, but
59:41
I think it's going to be one of those things
59:42
where I'm like, how did not see that? You know
59:44
what I mean? I think that the story is going
59:46
to be one of those stories where from beginning to end,
59:48
it's like you had every you had every clue right
59:52
in front of you, or every answer right in front
59:54
of you the whole time. Yeah, so I'm curious.
59:57
Speaker 2: Okay, So the story has a very dramatic tonal shift here,
1:00:02
right because after that conversation, the two of them says
1:00:06
they go home from school, and Kyle says, specifically, I
1:00:10
remember thinking in that moment that I was happy here
1:00:12
in Drisking, Missouri, but these two people happier than I'd
1:00:16
ever been anywhere else. It was the last truly happy
1:00:19
moment I ever had. Less than an hour later, mister
1:00:24
Diamond's phone rang and he exchanged a few quiet words
1:00:27
with the person on the other end, his eyes flicking
1:00:29
to and front my desk. It was hard to be
1:00:31
surprised then when he hung up and asked me to
1:00:34
come up to the front. When I got there, he
1:00:39
told me my mom was waiting for me in the
1:00:41
office and I was going home for the day. I
1:00:44
traded a confused and worried look with Kimber, and then
1:00:46
packed up my backpack and went to the office. When
1:00:49
I got there, my mom was crying. We drove home
1:00:52
and strained silence. I was too afraid to ask what
1:00:55
was wrong. Mom parked the car a block from our house,
1:00:58
which was blocked in by several cars. When an explanation
1:01:01
didn't come, I broke the silence myself. Is it Dad,
1:01:04
I asked, quietly, holding back tears. No, honey, Dad's fine,
1:01:08
she whispered. Then what happened? Whitney never made it to
1:01:13
school this morning? Her voice broke over my sister's name.
1:01:17
Oh no, Mom, I think she ditched, I said quietly.
1:01:20
I saw her leave this morning, and it was really early,
1:01:23
like six, and she was with her friends, Pete Whittaker
1:01:26
and that kid Taylor. We know about all that, Sam,
1:01:29
But they made it to school and Whitney wasn't with them.
1:01:34
They said she wanted to stop by the circle k
1:01:36
near drisking high, so they left her there and no
1:01:38
one's seen her. Sense well, my brain struggled to come
1:01:43
up with an explanation. Maybe she's schedule. No, honey, my
1:01:47
mom put the car back and drive and drove up
1:01:49
to our house, parking behind a police cruiser. The police,
1:01:53
as well as your father think that Whitney is with Jay,
1:01:57
but she has a new boyfriend here. We found all
1:02:00
our books on the floor of her room this morning,
1:02:02
and half her clothes gone, along with some cash of
1:02:05
your dad's. But right now we think that she did
1:02:10
hitched a ride to Saint Louis and that she's with Jay.
1:02:14
The sheriff office is trying to contact the boy's parents.
1:02:16
Now Whitney run away. Anyone who knew my sister knew
1:02:22
she was prone to dramatics and empty threats. Plus she
1:02:25
was dating Chris Whitaker's older brother, Pete. I'm sure of it.
1:02:29
We walked up the steps and into a house filled
1:02:31
with stale coffee and quiet murmurs. Oh gosh, that's a
1:02:34
great hot That line gave me goosebumps of like that
1:02:38
pulp I love so much. Just then, sorry, sorry, stale
1:02:44
coffee and quiet murmurs. I tried to remember if Whitney
1:02:47
herself had ever actually confirmed she was dating Pete, but
1:02:49
I drew a blank. When we walked into the kitchen,
1:02:52
I saw my father sitting at the table staring at
1:02:54
phone records, head in hand. He looked up when I
1:02:57
came into the room and gave me a weak smile. Dad,
1:03:01
I have to tell you something. I felt a heavy
1:03:04
hand on my shoulder and turned to look up at
1:03:07
solemn Shariff Clary. Everything and anything you might know, son,
1:03:11
no matter how trivial you think it is. I nodded
1:03:15
and sat down at the table with my dad as
1:03:17
my mom handed the big man a cup of coffee.
1:03:19
Here you go, Sheriff, she asked weakly, Please missus Walker
1:03:23
call me Killian. My mother nodded and retreated back into
1:03:27
a darkened corner to talk quietly with Sheriff Clay's wife, Grace.
1:03:32
What do you know, sam My dad asked, as he
1:03:34
rested his chin on his hands in a mock symbol
1:03:36
of prayer, as though I made deliver him from his suffering, bro,
1:03:40
what's the writing turned up a bit and got into
1:03:44
the last well. Just I heard Whitney had a boyfriend
1:03:49
that guy, Pete Whittaker, that she's been hanging out with,
1:03:51
and I saw them and Taylor Stranger leave this morning
1:03:55
before me. What time did they leave, asked the sheriff.
1:03:58
I don't know, like before, Sir. He nodded, that matches
1:04:02
the statements of Taylor Dranger and the Whittaker boy. My
1:04:06
father's head silk lower to his hands, and I knew
1:04:08
i'd let him down, but I rushed. I don't think
1:04:11
she went back to Saint Louis because she was dating Pete,
1:04:14
and I don't think she wanted to be with her
1:04:16
boyfriend back home anymore. I understand that, son, but a
1:04:20
teenage girl's mind is a complicated thing. My officers are
1:04:24
trying to get a hold of the boyfriend's family back
1:04:26
in Saint Louis. Clary nodded to my father, Now, why
1:04:29
don't you head up to your room and let us work, Samuel,
1:04:33
I looked at him, up at him in surprise. What No,
1:04:37
I want to stay down here? I can help No, son,
1:04:40
there's nothing more you can do here. You've been a
1:04:43
good brother. Now let us handle this. But I can
1:04:46
help you already, have dad. I looked over at my
1:04:49
dad with begging eyes. Go to your room, Sam, he
1:04:52
said quietly. After a moment, I balked, Dad. Now I
1:04:58
was angry. I did the the only thing I could
1:05:00
do to take to make my rage known. I stopped upstairs,
1:05:04
slammed the door, and then set on my bed in disbelief.
1:05:07
The tears came then, and I laid there, feeling helpless, worthless,
1:05:11
and scared for my sister. I thought about all the
1:05:14
places Whitney could be. Was she scared, was she alone?
1:05:19
Was she dead? When the sun began to set, I
1:05:23
finally got out of bed and went to check my email.
1:05:26
I was expecting lots of messages from Kimber and Kyle,
1:05:29
but there was only one. Did she go to the
1:05:32
tree House? I sat staring at the computer screen for
1:05:36
almost a minute. Kimber's words from last fall echoed in
1:05:39
my brain. If you entered the tree house without the
1:05:43
proper ceremony, you'll disappear, and then you'll die. I didn't
1:05:48
buy that Whitney had gone to Circle K that morning,
1:05:50
and I especially didn't believe that she'd hitchhike out of town.
1:05:54
Nothing they were saying downstairs made any sense if you
1:05:56
knew my sister. But maybe this did. Maybe she and
1:06:00
her boyfriend went to the treehouse to make out or something,
1:06:03
and maybe he'd left her there. Maybe she'd got and
1:06:06
lost her maybe the skin man had found her. That
1:06:09
was the worst thought of all. I didn't need to
1:06:12
sneak out, because the police were too busy with my
1:06:14
parents to care about me. Anyway, I stuck my bike
1:06:17
out of the garage and rode the three miles to
1:06:19
the west Rim Prescott Or Trail. When I got there,
1:06:22
I saw two bikes already locked to the signpost, and
1:06:25
my two best friends sitting in the snow next to them.
1:06:28
I knew you'd come, Kyle said. When I pulled my
1:06:30
bike up, and Kimber ran up to hug me. I'm
1:06:33
so sorry, Sam. There is really nothing for me to say,
1:06:37
and they did a bush. Kimber took my arm and
1:06:39
we started up the trail. The silence between us was
1:06:42
stretched but comfortable. We trudged through the snow, and all
1:06:45
the while I searched for the tailtail footprints of others,
1:06:48
but the snow was coming too fast. The hike up
1:06:51
of the mountain was harder and wetter than when we'd
1:06:54
come in the fall, And when Amber caught fork finally
1:06:57
came into view over the ridge. It was a welcome side.
1:07:00
The sun was getting low and we hadn't brought flashlights.
1:07:04
I fell as I ran up to the tree, calling
1:07:06
my sister's name to the quiet wild Kyle was right
1:07:10
behind me and leapt impressively onto the rope ladder, climbing
1:07:13
quickly up the planks. I kept calling Whitney's name, waiting
1:07:17
for Kyle to yell that he'd found her, or that
1:07:20
there was at least some sign of her. And then
1:07:22
I heard Kimber quietly say my name from where she
1:07:25
stood at the triple tree. I ran over and tried
1:07:28
to follow her eyes to confirm what I already knew
1:07:30
was there. And then I found it, freshly carved near
1:07:34
the top, Whitney w My breath froze in my chest,
1:07:40
and my vision blurred with unwelcome tears. And as the
1:07:43
sun took its last desperate breath before plunging into the
1:07:46
deep of the horizon, a deafening metallic world sang out
1:07:50
from the wilderness and spilled down the mountain side. Ugh,
1:07:55
and that's the end of part one.
1:07:57
Speaker 1: End of part one. Beautiful really, the flavor of that
1:08:02
like I mean, the the prayer hands of prayer, you know,
1:08:06
and that line there, so I can find that again
1:08:09
because that was awesome. It's weird too. We're doing a
1:08:11
lot of reading, but it's hard because there's so much.
1:08:13
Speaker 2: There's just a great good there's just so.
1:08:16
Speaker 1: Much great flavor. Yeah, it's really good. I think that
1:08:20
I don't know now. It makes you think that every
1:08:22
time that we hear the metallic ringing, makes you think
1:08:25
that someone has been captured, or someone's been caught, or like,
1:08:29
you know, the skin men have taken victim or something
1:08:32
like that is what it kind of feels like. Because
1:08:34
I was wondering I could be getting my time wrong here.
1:08:37
So a lot of stuff. A couple thoughts before we
1:08:40
move into part two, which is uh, which is a
1:08:46
couple of cool things. One is, were they on the
1:08:50
playground this morning when the metallic thing rang? It was
1:08:54
at the same day that the sheriffs came and talked about.
1:08:56
Speaker 2: Now this has spread out over the course of like
1:08:59
several months many Okay, so the metallic worrying was the
1:09:03
first week of school, and then the sheriff saying was
1:09:05
around December. And this is like in the winter, early winter.
1:09:08
Speaker 1: School okay, because yeah, I was wondering if it was
1:09:11
the same day, if Whitney left that morning, that uh,
1:09:18
if it would just help me figure out more if
1:09:20
it's like, oh, she was walking to school and she
1:09:22
got caught or whatever. But the idea too, where this
1:09:25
happens around the same time, because though it is months
1:09:29
or though it is weeks or months in between stuff,
1:09:31
the idea that the sheriffs are coming there and they're
1:09:33
talking about people. You know, he was talking to the
1:09:36
fifth and sixth graders about walking home from school and stuff,
1:09:39
and this is like the literal a parent's literal worst nightmare.
1:09:44
Yeah kind of thing. Yeah, I don't I'm very curious
1:09:48
to see I once again, I don't know. I mean
1:09:51
the dad, I don't sheriff Sheriff Clary just I don't know.
1:09:59
I don't like him, don't trust him, don't trust him
1:10:02
at all. He's always just kind of around, big, ominous
1:10:05
kind of thing. Made a real good point to talk
1:10:07
about how weird his his pose was when he was
1:10:11
talking to the kids the first time, and then even
1:10:14
the whole thing about him putting his large hand on
1:10:16
the kid's shoulder and just kind of being like, tell
1:10:18
us what you know it does, and it's nothing really
1:10:22
justified yet. But I think it's just because we're so
1:10:25
early on to it and still so much unknown that
1:10:27
right now, it's kind of like it's that early part
1:10:30
of the game of Clue where everyone's kind of a
1:10:33
suspect in a weird way. But I think, I don't know.
1:10:38
I feel bad for the parents. The dad feels very
1:10:40
realized now too, and I feel like I am a
1:10:43
little more on his side because I think that he's
1:10:46
just thinking the worst of like his daughter running away.
1:10:49
But once again, it's just the it's just the idea
1:10:52
of them completely ignoring I guess the kid, but he's nine.
1:10:58
You know, if your kid ran away, probably wouldn't be
1:11:00
like you wouldn't try.
1:11:03
Speaker 2: To get especially if you're discussing like the concept of Okay,
1:11:07
maybe your daughter, let's discuss kidnapping, let's discuss maybe she
1:11:11
got involved with drugs or something. You don't want to
1:11:13
discuss that in front of her younger.
1:11:14
Speaker 4: Brother, right, Yeah, yea, So it makes sense, but yeah,
1:11:20
that whole that whole sequence feels and we're seeing it
1:11:24
from the kids perspective, but it feels very odd how
1:11:27
everyone's like yeah, I guess she just went back to
1:11:30
Kansas City after half a year, you.
1:11:32
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, or it just doesn't make any sense, like
1:11:36
we're gonna she's going back with her new boyfriend to
1:11:38
Saint Louis, but she's not even the guy.
1:11:42
Speaker 2: Louis one of those Midwest yeah.
1:11:44
Speaker 1: Whatever, But it just doesn't make sense, like why would
1:11:50
she go back to say which the only thing is like, well,
1:11:52
there's more to do, But I don't I don't really
1:11:54
think that she there was enough of a discussion about uh,
1:11:59
I didn't think i'd I don't think that she was
1:12:00
super happy with it, but I think that she was
1:12:02
more so at the beginning of the story, worried about
1:12:05
not being able to be around her boyfriend. So it's
1:12:08
just weird. There's no real reason why she would have
1:12:10
gone back, especially she's not dating that guy anymore. She's
1:12:12
dating a new guy. So the weird like puppy you know,
1:12:16
puppy dog love kind of thing that of a young
1:12:20
girl might have. But to just go back to a
1:12:22
city just doesn't make a lot of sense, especially since
1:12:24
she hasn't made a lot of you know, vocalized. It's
1:12:30
so as she's complaining all the time, like there's nothing
1:12:32
to do, I'm so bored, blah blah blah, because that's
1:12:34
usually a trope that people do too. But I don't know.
1:12:37
I'm hoping that she, you know, wasn't taken into the
1:12:40
mountains or something like that. But we'll see. But yeah, part.
1:12:43
Speaker 2: Two, Yeah, part two, Oh boy, I will say that
1:12:47
like I'm I'm almost skidding. I have this such a
1:12:53
weird I don't know what the emotion to describe it is.
1:12:55
But like I remember reading Burroska when I was I
1:13:00
guess I would have been fifteen, fourteen or fifteen when
1:13:03
I read it, and I remember reading it and being like, wow,
1:13:07
I it's one of the ROSCA is one of those
1:13:10
pieces I can say made me like want to be
1:13:12
a storyteller. Like it was one of the early pieces
1:13:15
I read that really impacted me. So coming back to
1:13:18
it and seeing that it's like it's still this good
1:13:23
is it's weirdly encouraging. It's a I don't know, I'm
1:13:27
having a great time just just like I mean.
1:13:29
Speaker 1: I mean, so far, this is this is easily leagues
1:13:33
above anything that we've read in terms of like and
1:13:36
that isn't just say that none of the other stuff
1:13:38
that we've read s.
1:13:39
Speaker 2: It's a different kind it's a different kind of because
1:13:41
stuff like I'm a search and rescue officer is very anecdotal.
1:13:44
It's supposed to be about the mystique of it, you know.
1:13:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's good still, yeah, just in terms of
1:13:49
just a different story kind of story. Yeah, it's just
1:13:51
a different kind of story. And I think that it's
1:13:54
it's very flavorful, like it's it's it feels extremely realistic.
1:14:00
This is my biggest compliment so far to it is
1:14:03
the like, I mean, the dialogue of the kids. You know,
1:14:06
how hard it is to write dialogue for children that
1:14:08
feels believable that isn't coming from like an adult's voice.
1:14:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very hard.
1:14:12
Speaker 1: So all of it feels like how many times did
1:14:15
we sit there and talk about like you know, you know,
1:14:19
laughing about how cute something is? Are Like, it's just
1:14:21
so believable. There's so many moments where you're like, yeah,
1:14:24
I've said that exact thing before. Yeah, that is how
1:14:27
a kid would say something like this. It's just little
1:14:29
cute moments that are extremely impactful of like immersion, Like
1:14:33
I feel fully immersed into these characters. It's it's awesome.
1:14:37
I I must continue, which part two. Part two once
1:14:43
again starts starts with the poem.
1:14:45
Speaker 2: I will say, there has been a you'll see it
1:14:48
in a minute, but just you know, there's been a
1:14:50
significant time jump here.
1:14:52
Speaker 1: Okay, so you continue, Okay, So the it starts off
1:14:56
again with the poem of underneath the triple Tree, there's
1:14:58
a man who waits for me. And should I go
1:15:01
or should I stay? My fate's the same either way.
1:15:04
Good morning. The words faded back into the ether, and
1:15:07
I awoke with a start. Jimmy Prescott was lounging against
1:15:10
the wall near the door and amused yet disapproving a
1:15:13
look on his face. Shit, sorry, mister Prescott, I didn't
1:15:16
hear you come in. You know I worked in here
1:15:18
when I was a kid too. I installed the bell
1:15:20
on the door for this very reason. Didn't seem to
1:15:22
wake you up, though, he laughed. I mumbled another apology
1:15:25
and idly straightened the stack of business cards in front
1:15:27
of me. Late night kind of very I hope you
1:15:33
weren't out on the bonfires with all those other underage drinkers, no, sir, yep.
1:15:37
Oh yeah, so this is setting up to be like,
1:15:40
I wonder how old he.
1:15:41
Speaker 2: I think he's like if I recall, right, he's like
1:15:43
fifteen here something.
1:15:44
Speaker 1: Like that, because it feels like a significant jump.
1:15:48
Speaker 2: He's going he's going out to bonfires getting drunk with
1:15:51
other kids. Yeah, it's like high school.
1:15:53
Speaker 1: And and also he just now has a relationship with
1:15:56
Jimmy Prescott.
1:15:57
Speaker 2: Now, yep, he's working. He was in aw Yeah, he
1:16:00
works out a business the Prescott owns.
1:16:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, good. Anyway, I'm just here for my lunch.
1:16:06
I'll take parmers on chicken with avocado on rye. Yes, sir.
1:16:09
Happy the conversation was over, I walked over to the
1:16:11
sandwich counter and unwound the twisty tie from the rye bread.
1:16:14
Jimmy Prescott stepped back from the counter and idly studied
1:16:17
that pictures on the wall. Though he'd seen the thousand
1:16:20
times before, more of the photos were of the Prescott family,
1:16:23
taken over the last century. I'd always thought it was
1:16:26
odd decor, but then the shop was named after them
1:16:28
after all? Or sorry, is Mira here, Prescott asked as
1:16:32
I wrapped a sandwich. She's in the back. Ah, I
1:16:35
thought she'd still being saint Louis. Well, when you're finished,
1:16:38
would you mind getting her for me? Shit, yes, sir.
1:16:41
I handed him a sandwich and went back to the
1:16:43
to find Mira. She was in the office, furiously punching
1:16:46
the keys on her accounting calculator. Uh, Mira, Jimmy Prescott's
1:16:50
out front. He wants to talk to you. She turned
1:16:52
and gave me a dubious look. Did he say what about?
1:16:56
I shook my head. Okay, she sighed, you can go
1:17:00
home for the day, Sam, But are you sure I
1:17:03
still have three hours on the clock. He's the only
1:17:06
customer we've had since we've opened. Don't worry, I'll pay
1:17:08
you for the whole day, kiddo. Thanks, Mira, good luck.
1:17:11
I guess which I just want to say, uh, before
1:17:15
I keep going on. It's kind of a sad thing,
1:17:17
like you you'd have to assume here too, with this
1:17:19
time jump, with what this is, which the it's not
1:17:22
that we've you know, it's not like the it's not
1:17:26
like the story is like ten years later or anything.
1:17:28
It's just an assumed time jump. But you also have
1:17:31
to assume that his sister was never found. It's kind
1:17:34
of what I'm assuming and.
1:17:36
Speaker 2: Tan to spoil it for you. She was never found. Yeah, yeah, so,
1:17:40
and it's such a depressing note too, because, like you said,
1:17:43
it's like, oh, well, the story will pick back up
1:17:45
when there's a development in the case. And it picks
1:17:47
back up and there's no development in the case, it's
1:17:50
very Yeah.
1:17:51
Speaker 1: Not only is there no development in the case, but
1:17:53
it's just like life has had to continue with this
1:17:56
mystery for years now, which is so torturous, like so
1:17:59
extremely you.
1:18:00
Speaker 2: Know, it's an interesting narrative device that I guess I
1:18:03
don't really think about until I see it like right there,
1:18:06
because emotionally we're still there, right, We're still in that
1:18:09
living room with the family, like what happened to Whitney?
1:18:12
Where's Whitney? And now our characters are completely distant from it.
1:18:15
They're six years separated, if not more like it's in
1:18:19
the back of their mind. They're not thinking about it,
1:18:20
but that's still at the front of our thoughts. So
1:18:23
it kind of it disconnects us from the narrative for
1:18:26
a second to kind of replace this somewhere else.
1:18:28
Speaker 1: It's interesting, it is, Yeah, which to continue I let
1:18:35
the store out the back door so I wouldn't have
1:18:36
to see Jimmy Prescott again. His weird yellow to amber
1:18:39
eyes always set me on edge, not to mention he
1:18:43
was a total tool. Interesting. I thought that he was
1:18:47
very enamored with him when he was younger. I hopped
1:18:50
in my car and texted Kyle that I was off work.
1:18:52
He answered immediately and told me to come meet him.
1:18:54
I happily whipped my apron off over my head and
1:18:56
threw it in the car into reverse. Crystal Lake was
1:18:59
my favorite place in all of drisking. I had the
1:19:02
park almost.
1:19:03
Speaker 2: Isn't Crystal Lake the name of the Friday Crystal Lake?
1:19:06
Speaker 1: Yeah?
1:19:06
Speaker 2: Ok, yeah, yeah, I thought so, just making sure.
1:19:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, how funny would it be if we're like confident
1:19:13
the whole time and then Jason is the person is
1:19:16
the skin name taking people?
1:19:18
Speaker 2: What if that's what it was? It's like Jason just
1:19:20
because the Slasher for like, none of the characters sent
1:19:23
ups matter or anything.
1:19:25
Speaker 1: Just just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful writing. All for it to
1:19:29
be a Friday the thirteenth fan fic, bro, that.
1:19:32
Speaker 2: Would be hilarious. That'd be such a break it would be.
1:19:36
Speaker 1: It would be a pretty good.
1:19:37
Speaker 2: Way, even if it's not Friday the thirteenth, Like it
1:19:40
gets to the end of the story and it's just
1:19:42
like and then a creature appeared. The creature appeared and
1:19:47
killed everyone, like you just like I'd be that.
1:19:53
Speaker 1: Uh, that was definitely not worth it. Yeah, so I
1:19:58
had to park almost a mile away. The lake was
1:20:00
so packed. I eventually found Kyle and Kimber sitting on
1:20:03
a rock that jutted out over the beach. Kimber was
1:20:06
some bathing in a blue floral bikini and Kyle was
1:20:08
wearing his no one can tell where my eyes are looking.
1:20:10
Speaker 2: So yeah, brother, Yeah, So also we see some stuff here, right,
1:20:18
because like when they were nine or ten, say, it
1:20:23
was like Kimber's kind of cute, you know, she like
1:20:25
like I see her as a girl, And now like
1:20:28
when they're sixteen seventeen, Kimber was wearing a blue floral bikini, Like, yeah,
1:20:33
we know where his mind's at.
1:20:34
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, especially with the don't know where my
1:20:38
eyes are looking, which kind of insinuates I think he's
1:20:40
like jealousy of like is he looking at her.
1:20:42
Speaker 2: At her or just women in general, because it's a
1:20:44
packed like yeah, right, he's just looking at all the
1:20:46
girls going by. He's they're teenagers. Now right, they're like
1:20:50
young adults, and he also was able to drive, so
1:20:53
not fifteen, like sixteen seventeen. I think they're still in
1:20:56
high school if I remember right, So yeah, like sixteen seventeen. Uh,
1:21:00
times changed a little bit, right, But like you said,
1:21:04
there's this like melancholy because we know nothing's changed with
1:21:07
his sister, because you know, the story isn't going to
1:21:09
be like Whitney runs up. Oh hi, guys, real weird.
1:21:11
I disappeared for a few weeks the fat when we
1:21:13
were like tin right, because Whitney would be Whitney would
1:21:17
have to be like twenty two, twenty three at this
1:21:20
point something like that. But yeah, she hasn't been seen since.
1:21:24
Speaker 1: Just very interesting. I'm curious to I really want to
1:21:28
see where the character dynamic comes in which they start talking.
1:21:31
They're kind of like joke around with each other until
1:21:34
Sam says, you know, Prescott came in today, you kimber squirmed.
1:21:39
He totally freaks me out. He's been staring at me
1:21:42
since like fifth grade.
1:21:44
Speaker 2: That's an interesting because there's the mention she had remember
1:21:48
where she's like Jimmy.
1:21:49
Speaker 1: Gemi's yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, and now she's.
1:21:53
Speaker 2: Old enough to like think about the implications of that
1:21:56
and be like, oh, that was weird.
1:21:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, next time he stares at you at you, let
1:22:00
me know and I'll knock him the fuck out. Kyle
1:22:02
has always been protective over Kimber, but ever since they
1:22:05
started dating, I'd gotten ten times more unbearable. Oh they're
1:22:11
dating now, Kyle. Kyle and Kimber are dating. Kimber weaked
1:22:15
at him. Did so what did he want? Sam? He walked,
1:22:18
He wanted to talk to Mira, probably about the sandwich shop.
1:22:21
You mean, about how no one goes there and the
1:22:23
business should have closed years ago, but it won't because
1:22:25
the Prescott's are stubborn in vain. Kyle said, yeah, probably,
1:22:28
I mean she looked pretty worried. I can count on
1:22:30
one hand how many sandwiches I've sold in the past month.
1:22:33
Out Kimber grimaced. Yeah, I'm sure she's going to get
1:22:37
chewed out. I really don't like the guy. I thought
1:22:40
about the squirmy yellow eyed freak yelling at sweet little Mira,
1:22:43
and it made my blood boil. They really emphasize his
1:22:46
yellow eyes, like his jaundice or something like that. You
1:22:50
should have met his dad, Kyle storted, he was a
1:22:52
piece of work. His dad. Yeah, Tom Prescott, Kimber said,
1:22:56
the family put him in a home a few towns over.
1:22:59
Why is he in a home? I heard he got
1:23:01
dementia and he was embarrassing the family in public. Kyle said,
1:23:04
I heard that too, Kimber brushing her long curls off
1:23:06
off her shoulders. I always liked Tom Prescott. He was pretty.
1:23:11
It was a pretty shitty thing to do. Hey, kids,
1:23:14
we turn in use and to see Phil Saunders comes
1:23:16
stomping out of the bushes behind us, with Mike Sutton
1:23:19
falling behind. So this is where the cool people hang out,
1:23:22
high above the Kingdom and pride rock, so Mike, Kyle said,
1:23:26
ignoring Phil, who he disliked ever since Phil had briefly
1:23:29
dated Kimber, Phil was either unaware or uninterested in Kyle's feelings.
1:23:33
Of course, that may also have been because Phil was
1:23:35
stoned out of his mind. Was of the time and
1:23:38
now was no expectation or no exception. What's funny about this, too,
1:23:42
is I love that our introduction to this is like
1:23:44
nine year olds and it's just like, look how cute
1:23:46
all these kids are, And now it's like they're stoned
1:23:48
they're all dating and fucking and you know, all that
1:23:50
kind of stuff.
1:23:51
Speaker 2: It's like, but at the same time, it's it still
1:23:55
keeps that kind of like storybook coming of age thing, right,
1:23:58
because it's a still sound the kids. You know, Kimber's
1:24:01
dated a few of the guys and there's a mention
1:24:04
where they talk about round nose down there, but one
1:24:07
of them around face or whatever. But one of them
1:24:09
ran off to be with a college guy. Like it's
1:24:12
a small town, but things have grow up, dynamics have changed,
1:24:15
but there's still kind of that tight knit community.
1:24:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's which they go on to talk
1:24:24
about pretty much, just talk about being high, and it's
1:24:26
just kind of like some browie stuff and they're doing
1:24:28
some real introspective things, but we're all just drinking the
1:24:30
kool aid and they're having a big group group chat here.
1:24:34
But I think that an interesting part to pick back
1:24:37
up on is when Kyle, who I knew had been
1:24:41
monitoring the conversation for mention of this very thing, sprang
1:24:45
to his feet and open his mouth to yell at
1:24:46
Phil Now Whitney Walker ran away to Saint Louis. Remember,
1:24:49
Mike said, I saw Kyle and Kimber exchange a quick
1:24:52
look as I try to remain passive from behind the
1:24:55
Blue Boxers. That true man, Phil asked, and there it was.
1:24:59
I knew Kyle and Kimber. I had always wondered what
1:25:01
I thought about Whitney and if I'd ever accepted the
1:25:04
official statement that she and Jay ran away together. They
1:25:07
were kind of They were kind enough not to bring
1:25:08
it up, and I knew they wanted to know what
1:25:10
I believed, what I thought had really happened. I loved
1:25:13
them both, and I wanted to talk to them about it.
1:25:15
I just couldn't. Everyone thought that I had spent spent
1:25:19
the last seven years quietly grieving, and then I'd put
1:25:21
the incident behind me. At least that's what I tried
1:25:24
to show them. The truth was that I had never
1:25:27
given up on Whitney. I'd waited years for Jay to
1:25:30
show up on social media, and when I finally found
1:25:32
him last year, I'd been devastated. I'd always hoped the
1:25:35
official report was right and that Whitney was somewhere far
1:25:37
away from here, alive and happy with Jay Bauer his
1:25:41
but his MySpace page showed a thriving teenager still living
1:25:45
at home with his parents and his ex girlfriend Whitney,
1:25:48
the furthest thing from his mind. Ah, so we finally
1:25:53
get some you know, we officially know that seven years later.
1:25:56
So he's sixteen, Sam sixteen, all those people are sixteen,
1:25:59
and that people, you know, they haven't really brought it up.
1:26:02
And then the whole thing now, too, is that Sam
1:26:05
has never really stopped. I don't think that he ever
1:26:07
really believed this statement, but with the use of social
1:26:10
media and stuff, he found that it officially isn't true,
1:26:13
which I'm wondering if the parents know that as well,
1:26:16
so or.
1:26:18
Speaker 2: To cut you off to clear up that thought. The
1:26:20
next paragraph says, when I brought the evidence to my dad,
1:26:23
he read the pages I printed off and then shut
1:26:25
the door to his office. Me on the other side.
1:26:28
I heard him crying in there for hours as I
1:26:30
waited for him to reopen the case and bring the
1:26:32
smack down on the Butler County Sheriff's Department. But justice
1:26:36
had never come and we never mentioned Jay Bauer again. Yeah,
1:26:41
so sad.
1:26:42
Speaker 1: The whole thing there too is you know that the
1:26:43
dad is probably like, because what's the I mean, the
1:26:45
first thing that you think is like, Okay, one kidnapped,
1:26:49
two murdered, like horrible. I mean, especially as being a
1:26:53
parent here it's terrible. And then now here Sam has
1:26:56
to just be like, Okay, you know, he's wanting there
1:26:59
to be justice, he's wanting to find his sister, but
1:27:02
it's just something that apparently we never we never get,
1:27:07
which is also oddly suspicious too. I God, damn that
1:27:10
Sheriff Cleary. I do not trust him. Uh. For whatever reason,
1:27:15
I never told Kyler Kimer about any of that. Maybe
1:27:17
it was because I was worried they blow it off
1:27:19
like my dad had. Or maybe and far more likely,
1:27:22
I didn't want them to know how obsessed I'd become
1:27:24
with Brosca and the skin Men. I knew as assuredly
1:27:27
as the sun would rise tomorrow that Whitney's death had happened,
1:27:30
that they're just like all the others who had gone
1:27:33
to the Triple Tree. Okay, so he is fully invested
1:27:35
into that. Still, it's good to know too that just
1:27:38
to let a little bit of line lets us know
1:27:40
that he's still because I I actually thought that this
1:27:43
was going to go that he's like that. Maybe Sam
1:27:46
was like, oh, Brosca, that's a kid's thing. Yeah, you know, skin,
1:27:49
you know that's unrealistic. But no, he's fully invested still,
1:27:53
like still he may.
1:27:54
Speaker 2: Have done that, like, oh, it's the kids thing. Had
1:27:56
it not been for Whitney's name being carved on the
1:27:58
triple tree, yeah, I mean it's it's yeah, how do
1:28:03
you reconcile that? Right?
1:28:04
Speaker 1: Well you can't, yeah, I mean you can't.
1:28:06
Speaker 2: She disappears, her name was on the tree, and then
1:28:08
you heard the metal noise.
1:28:10
Speaker 1: Like especially out of all those names too, it's like
1:28:13
because the old thing. Because I was thinking about this
1:28:15
and I was like, oh, justifying it. It's like, oh, well,
1:28:18
maybe it's a different Whitney, but it's at the very top.
1:28:20
It's a fresh marking.
1:28:21
Speaker 2: Like yeah, I don't know, it's Whitney w you know,
1:28:24
same last.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: Name exactly, yeah, exactly.
1:28:27
Speaker 2: So from there, Sam says, yeah, it's true. She ran
1:28:30
off with the guy j from our hometown. I answered
1:28:33
that was enough for Kyle. All right, guy, seriously, he's
1:28:36
the sheriff's kid. What do you think is gonna happen
1:28:39
if he gets caught with the weed? Little man is right, Phil,
1:28:43
let's bounce. I don't need any more trouble with the
1:28:44
cops around here. Mike said, So we have a couple
1:28:47
of things there. For one, Sam is saying to the
1:28:50
group like, yeah, the official story is correct, because he
1:28:53
doesn't want them to know how obsessed he is with it.
1:28:56
And also we have the fact that recently Sam' dads
1:28:59
be I'm sheriff.
1:29:01
Speaker 1: We're trying to make this as congested or as digestible
1:29:05
as possible because there is a lot of there's a
1:29:07
lot of dialogue that is that I think for our sakes.
1:29:12
I don't think it's super necessary that we included in,
1:29:14
but I think it. But if you're reading it, I
1:29:17
think that all this dialogue, it's just straight immersion, Like
1:29:20
I mean, it is solely making it as realistic as possible,
1:29:24
and honestly, it sets up a great way of character building.
1:29:27
You get you know exactly who these kinds of people are.
1:29:31
I think that, like a lot of people would say
1:29:33
that this is like filler or fluff or something like that,
1:29:35
but I just I think that it just completely sets
1:29:37
up the dynamic of these characters. And also with a
1:29:41
lot of the things here, how you know, it sets
1:29:44
us up to tee up new bits of information. Yeah,
1:29:48
as well, I do.
1:29:49
Speaker 2: Want to read this one dialogue between Kyle and Kimber.
1:29:51
So after they leave, Sam, here's this going on behind
1:29:54
them years. I did say I wanted to go. I
1:29:57
said I had to go. Kimber set it's only two
1:30:00
and it's Sunday. I know, but my parents have been
1:30:03
fighting a lot lately, and I don't want to leave
1:30:05
my mom alone too long. I thought she was doing
1:30:08
better a little, but she still depressed. Kyle, do you
1:30:12
want to stay over at my place tonight? Kimber's voice
1:30:14
dropped into a whisper. I just don't. I don't think
1:30:19
I'm ready for that yet. What No, Wait, that's not
1:30:22
what I meant. I'd sleep on the pull out in
1:30:24
the basement and you would have my room. Very awkward silence.
1:30:28
My parents love you, you know, he added. Kimber left.
1:30:31
I know. I just want to be there for my
1:30:34
mom right now. But thank you, sweetie. And then the
1:30:37
absolutely disgusting sound of my best friend's kissing. I would
1:30:41
never get used to. On that note, I'm out of
1:30:44
here too, I stood up and gave them both a
1:30:46
shaming look. Oh come on, Sam, don't be jealous. We'll
1:30:49
find you a girlfriend someday. Kyle joked, I really don't
1:30:53
need your help with that, I muttered, glancing out of
1:30:55
the beach where Emmeli and Adler was sunbathing. I'll see
1:30:58
you guys tomorrow. Last week of school, Kimber yelled at
1:31:01
my retreating back. Thank God. So yeah, continuing off with
1:31:06
there you mentioned this is sophomore year. So yeah, sixteen
1:31:08
year old. Like we mentioned, it says that the summer
1:31:14
met no distractions, more time to thank and even more
1:31:16
hours aboredom at Prescott Artisan Sandwiches, which from one imagine
1:31:22
in this small town and you set you put it
1:31:25
a sandwich shop and you call it your your last
1:31:28
name artisan Sandwiches. I hate this guy.
1:31:34
Speaker 1: They are they are setting him up to be just
1:31:37
one of the biggest pieces of ship. And this is
1:31:39
the kind of person you know too, where you're like, God, yes,
1:31:42
the Prescott's And I'm thinking exactly, this a corner shop
1:31:46
of artists and sandwiches. It's like, yeah, no ship, nobody
1:31:48
wants to go.
1:31:49
Speaker 2: In there and.
1:31:52
Speaker 1: Sandwich. Yeah he went, and he's like the only person
1:31:56
that buys sandwiches to it there. It's like his own
1:31:58
personal store of getting rye bred sandwiches. Yeah, Prescott sucks
1:32:04
we find here, you know, Sam saying he's looking forward
1:32:07
to his sophomore year beginning on Monday, and that his
1:32:10
sophomore ditch day that's happening. His dad knows about it,
1:32:14
and he's just like, you know, set a good example,
1:32:18
you know, but he's gonna do it. Anyways, Kimber and
1:32:21
Kyle were sympathetic and had offered to share in my misery.
1:32:24
I had, of course said yes. Wait what I had
1:32:27
of course said yes, much to Kyle's sadness. As I'd expected.
1:32:30
My dad was waiting for me when I got home.
1:32:32
We shared a brief staying conversation about respective days, and
1:32:36
then he finally got to it. Remember Sammy, we're cracking
1:32:39
down on truancy this year. I went to see you
1:32:43
at school tomorrow. Yeah, I got a dad, and I
1:32:46
hope I won't have to write a ticket to Kyle either.
1:32:48
I sighed, it's a tradition. Even the teachers sort of
1:32:52
encourage it. On Friday, they said, I don't care what
1:32:56
they said, Sam, besides the fact that on the sheriff,
1:32:59
I'm also your father and I want my son in school.
1:33:01
Oh so did he get so? Is he the main
1:33:03
sheriff in town. Now, is that is that where we're insinuating?
1:33:05
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, so he's become the sheriff's election.
1:33:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Sheriff Clary, the man that I was super
1:33:11
suspicious of.
1:33:13
Speaker 2: Didn't one or the other.
1:33:15
Speaker 1: Hmmm. I laughed and shook my head. What a joke.
1:33:19
I can't control what Kyle does, fair enough, but you
1:33:21
can't control but you can control what you do. I
1:33:25
said nothing in Dad's side. It's almost over, Sam, Just
1:33:28
get through these last five days and you can be
1:33:30
done with school for a few months. Fine. I walked
1:33:33
out of the kitchen, rudely, ending the conversation. I climbed
1:33:36
the stairs and passed the Whitney's door on the way
1:33:38
to the room. The light was on and silence was
1:33:41
behind it. I knew my mother was in there. She
1:33:43
was always in there doing god knows what. Sad and crisp.
1:33:49
That is heartbreaking, man, heartbreaking in and also you wonder too,
1:33:54
they haven't really dived too much into it. I mean,
1:33:57
I'm curious the relationships strain between everybody, like I almost
1:34:02
expected the mom to have because usually when this stuff
1:34:04
happens too we usually find that like the mom and
1:34:06
dad divorce because it's like too much of a strain
1:34:09
on the relationship. So now it kind of seems like
1:34:11
she's just like it at least seems like if the
1:34:14
mom is always in there doing god knows what, which
1:34:16
means that like Sam probably never goes in there because
1:34:18
he's too you know, emotionally driven by it. But it
1:34:24
almost makes the the mom is probably fundamentally emotionally and
1:34:29
mentally broken still, ye like, and probably and probably will
1:34:33
never recover.
1:34:33
Speaker 2: I mean, how do you get over that? I like,
1:34:36
I don't think you have lost kids, and it's like
1:34:39
it's like I'm not to say that they're stuck there forever.
1:34:42
I mean some of them, like you know, they have
1:34:43
lives afterwards, but a lot of them just they they
1:34:46
just it's like time freezes, you know, in that place.
1:34:53
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where I think it's you
1:34:56
will never know how it feels unless it happens to you.
1:35:00
It's so easy to be like that's horrible or whatever,
1:35:02
but I think it's a different kind of pain, a
1:35:04
different kind of loss, Like it's just a whole piece
1:35:08
of you completely missing.
1:35:09
Speaker 2: So yeah, I.
1:35:10
Speaker 1: Can't even imagine. I walked to my own room shut
1:35:13
the door behind me and locked it. The next day
1:35:15
at school ended up being more embarrassing than anything else.
1:35:18
There were a few others that hadn't skipped, maybe a
1:35:20
total of ten of us, And then in the looks
1:35:23
they shot and the looks they shot at me made
1:35:26
it clear that my dad was the reason they were there.
1:35:32
Speaker 2: So from there it's off about the officers going around,
1:35:36
they collect attendants and everything. Then eventually it says that
1:35:39
at lunch, Kyle and Sam go out to his car
1:35:43
to get high, and they're setting in the car smoking,
1:35:46
and it says that Sam begins and said, did you
1:35:49
text Kimber? I asked him while he hit it. Yeah,
1:35:52
he said, through tight lips as he let the smoke
1:35:55
sit in his lungs and then blew it all over
1:35:57
my dashboard. She went home after fourth period. She said
1:36:00
her mom called her and she was going home to
1:36:02
take care of her I don't know, man, doesn't her
1:36:05
mom hates.
1:36:05
Speaker 1: So one second, I was gonna say, real quick, did
1:36:09
we ever figure unless I missed it? Is there a
1:36:12
reason why her mom is so distressed.
1:36:14
Speaker 2: Or heard so far, is that her parents fight and
1:36:17
she's depressed.
1:36:19
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, as far that's the unless we've tragically missed something, which,
1:36:24
if I recall, right, we have it, that's all I don't.
1:36:26
Speaker 1: I don't think we have. But that's why. I just
1:36:28
it's just something where it's like if a high schooler,
1:36:31
especially a sophomore, is going home to take care of
1:36:33
their parent. I just didn't know if she was sick
1:36:35
or something. But it makes it even more. Yeah, I
1:36:37
guess kind of weird that she's just I guess depressed
1:36:40
and the kid has to go home and help. It's interesting.
1:36:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, so doesn't her mom hate you? I asked, taking
1:36:48
my turn with the bowl? Yeah, I mean that's a
1:36:50
fairly new development ever since Gimber and I started dating.
1:36:53
But I'm pretty sure she's always hated me and just
1:36:56
hit it better before. Now that she's all depressed or whatever,
1:36:59
she doesn't give a shit. It was hard to picture
1:37:02
anyone hating Kyle. Why can't Kimber's dad take care of her?
1:37:06
I don't know. I hit the pipe again. Hey man,
1:37:09
let's not even go back today, Kyle said, you think
1:37:12
I asked? Yeah, I mean, you put in four periods.
1:37:15
You've been a good son and officer. Dick Ass already
1:37:18
came around and collected the attendance sheets. Although I feel
1:37:24
like this next few are you this is the hyalog lines.
1:37:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like, dick ass, Really you're better than that, man,
1:37:31
officer asked Dick seriously, Man, let's go.
1:37:41
Speaker 2: That's pretty good. From there, they're like, all right, let's
1:37:45
get out of here. Let's go. Let's ditch school, right,
1:37:50
And then there's the mention that Kyle had let the
1:37:54
insurance laps on his card didn't have money for gas.
1:37:57
Kyle's count of your typical like you know, I don't
1:38:01
want to say dead beat, but like, you know, bumming
1:38:03
his way through high school type of guy, and Sam's
1:38:06
forced to not be that by his dad basically, so
1:38:12
uh Anyway, it says that a lot of the stuff
1:38:14
Kyle does is to impress Kimber, and then while Sam
1:38:16
is thinking about Kimber and Kyley says they started dating
1:38:19
in the fall and Kyle quit his job to spend
1:38:21
more time with her. Kimber didn't seem like the kind
1:38:24
of girl to be impressed by a pontiac Bonneville, but
1:38:27
Kyle was convinced that was how he'd want her over.
1:38:30
I was sure, Yeah, that'll get right.
1:38:33
Speaker 1: Girls like the Pontiac Bonneville. That's the panty drop.
1:38:41
Speaker 2: But do you remember, like being in high school and
1:38:43
like we had thoughts of that, like bro, I bet
1:38:45
they like cars like that is the last yeah, going
1:38:48
through their mind.
1:38:50
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you depending on what year the Pontiac
1:38:53
Bonaville is, it's a solid car. Yeah, solid card. If
1:38:56
it's a nineties one, probably not as much. But you know,
1:39:00
it's it is. It's you know who knows? I think
1:39:03
it was. I'm a I'm Kyle supporter here, yep.
1:39:07
Speaker 2: I was sure all the car had really done was
1:39:09
given him the confidence to ask her out. And now
1:39:12
that it's part in their way, and now that it's
1:39:15
part in their romance ended, the car sat in the
1:39:17
garage of the Landy home collecting dust instead of memories.
1:39:20
Oh that's good man. I like I like this story anyway.
1:39:24
I love to write it. Uh. GameStop didn't have what
1:39:28
I wanted, any of the drisking games and media. Since
1:39:31
I had nothing else to do, I decided to show
1:39:32
up to work early and hope that Mira would let
1:39:34
me leave early too. I parked in front and walked
1:39:37
in the door, unsurprised to see no one at the
1:39:40
front counter. There were only three of us that worked
1:39:42
at the shop, and sadly I never got to see
1:39:44
the other girl, Emmaline, who worked on the days I didn't.
1:39:48
This was disappointed to me, since she was half the
1:39:50
reason I applied there in the first place. I went
1:39:53
into the bag.
1:39:55
Speaker 1: And show one like Imma, Emmaline is hot.
1:40:01
Speaker 2: I went into the bag to tell Mira I was
1:40:02
there and found her slumped over her desk on a
1:40:04
pile of her seats and paperwork. This wasn't an unusual
1:40:08
way to find Mira, but something seemed different today. I
1:40:11
immediately fell to disturbance in the force, but before I
1:40:13
could run away, she turned toward me, and I saw
1:40:16
I was right to flee. Mira was crying. Are you
1:40:22
are you? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, she said, quickly, wiping
1:40:25
her eyes. Is it four already? No, it's two fifteen.
1:40:29
I just thought maybe if I came in early. Oh right,
1:40:32
it's your ditch day. Mira wiped her eyes, only to
1:40:34
have them fill with tears again. I don't understand, Sam.
1:40:37
This store had been operating in the red ever since
1:40:40
I was hired to manage it. What am I doing wrong?
1:40:43
I don't know, I offered lamely. The instinct to escape
1:40:47
never stronger. No one comes in here, ever, and mister
1:40:51
Prescott refuses to let me put signs up to advertise.
1:40:54
He says they're insightly, But how does he expect me
1:40:57
to pull in business? I need this job, Sam God,
1:41:00
I just I must have looked like a frightened deer,
1:41:03
because when Mirror glanced over at me, she seemed to
1:41:05
subtly collect herself. Go ahead and go out to the front.
1:41:08
I'll do your time card. She didn't have to tell
1:41:11
me twice. I really liked Mirror, and I hated seeing
1:41:13
her like this. The front didn't end up being much better.
1:41:17
I could hear Mirror crying over the store's dated music track.
1:41:21
Her sob.
1:41:23
Speaker 1: She's just like this guy sitting there like making ham sandwiches.
1:41:30
Speaker 2: Would you like black olives?
1:41:31
Speaker 1: With that scream crying in the bag, Her.
1:41:40
Speaker 2: Sobs went from Her sobs went from painfully audible, somefled whispers.
1:41:49
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, she's like and then it turns out to.
1:41:55
Speaker 2: She's like throwing stuff like you're stuff freaking.
1:42:01
Speaker 1: It's especially weird too when you're a kid, when you're
1:42:03
kind of like younger. Like if you're fifteen or sixteen
1:42:06
and you are like looking at an adult cry, it's
1:42:08
even more awkward. I don't know why, but it's just
1:42:10
something where it's like you're not supposed to do that,
1:42:13
you know what I mean. So it's like this is
1:42:16
there's like adult woman who's just like bawling, and this
1:42:18
is like fifteen year old kid who's just like I.
1:42:22
I'm just here to make pastrami sandwiches. I have nothing
1:42:25
to give, Like.
1:42:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're so, he says, he, he says. After half
1:42:30
an hour, I decided I had to do something since
1:42:33
I was entirely unequipped to deal with an adult woman's emotions. Man, brother,
1:42:38
aren't we all?
1:42:40
Speaker 1: Hey? It never gets it easier, Sam, It never gets
1:42:43
it easier.
1:42:45
Speaker 2: That's how it is. It is earth. I decided to
1:42:49
call Mer's husband Owen. He was thankfully at home and
1:42:52
answered on the second ring, I'll be right there. I
1:42:55
breathed the cyber leaf when I heard a carpool up
1:42:57
outside and saw the tall Girthy Owen get out of it.
1:43:00
He walked in, he walked. The story likes him, so
1:43:05
it doesn't call him fat, It says Girthy exactly. If
1:43:10
it was mister Prescott, he'd be.
1:43:11
Speaker 1: Fat, fat piece Prescott. Owen, he's like a chod.
1:43:19
Speaker 2: He walked in during a quiet lull in his wife's breakdown.
1:43:25
It has its faces and cycles. I'm sorry to call
1:43:29
you at home, mister Daly. I just didn't know how
1:43:31
what else to do. That's okay, Sam, you did the
1:43:34
right thing. He looked tired, and I could tell this
1:43:36
situation wasn't new to him. Is she okay? I mean, like, like,
1:43:40
will she be okay? Oh? Yeah, he nodded. We're just
1:43:43
going through some things. Oh, Mirror said, the story is
1:43:47
going bankrupt too. I winced as soon as the words
1:43:49
were out of my mouth. Yeah. Owen ran a hand
1:43:53
through his hair. That's part of it, although I don't
1:43:56
think Jim is going to let that happen. Mirror's more
1:43:59
upset about he sighed. Has Mira told you about her appointments? Uh? No, Well,
1:44:08
we've been trying to get pregnant for years, long painful year.
1:44:13
Speaker 1: Kind of a long.
1:44:19
Speaker 3: Painful I'm sorry, it's not funny. It's a train of
1:44:27
a twelve year old. I'm sorry, long painful year.
1:44:37
Speaker 2: Okay, It's just so important for her to have a baby,
1:44:41
and you know, she blames me for our problems. Man,
1:44:44
he's dumping on a sixteen year old.
1:44:46
Speaker 1: This I was gonna say, this sixteen year old is
1:44:48
I mean, this is a fucking this is a heavy load.
1:44:51
Speaker 2: This is a lot. Yeah, you know, do you know
1:44:54
that my wife in there, who's losing her job, blames
1:44:57
me for infertility? Do you know she thinks it's fine.
1:45:00
And he's like, I just I'm still high. I'm ditching school.
1:45:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was exactly. He's like, he's like, did you
1:45:06
know we got Swiss cheese in we offer Swiss cheese now,
1:45:09
And he's like, I want her to be pregnant. Wait
1:45:12
drive it trying so hard, but you know she blames me, right, yeah.
1:45:17
Speaker 2: Looks at me like it's me. Do you know what
1:45:19
that's like to look to come home?
1:45:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we actually make our own saradough bread here.
1:45:24
It's like just trying so hard to like get the
1:45:27
fuck out of this conversation.
1:45:29
Speaker 2: And then I have to go to work. I have
1:45:30
to provide for this house while she runs this deaded job,
1:45:34
and then I'm the monster. I come home and it's me,
1:45:36
I'm the devil.
1:45:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm hoping to graduate in two years. It's
1:45:41
just like, Okay, do you want PEPSI with that? Or yeah?
1:45:51
He walked around the room staring at the pictures, not
1:45:53
really talking to me anymore. I understand why it's important
1:45:56
to her, I just don't understand the obsession with it,
1:45:59
you know, because she's the last one in her family,
1:46:02
because she's the last McCaskey on the planet. I mean,
1:46:06
does she even realize that our baby wouldn't be in McCaskey,
1:46:09
he'd be a daily I tell you, Sam, never marry
1:46:12
a woman with a crazy father and four dead uncles.
1:46:14
They developed these obsessions with lineage and which. First off, dude,
1:46:19
this is it's just this is a this is a
1:46:22
crazy conversation.
1:46:24
Speaker 2: This is a wild thing to say.
1:46:26
Speaker 1: Like we were, we were joking around, but that pretty
1:46:28
much nailed the exact paragram.
1:46:30
Speaker 2: That that is the vibe that's happening in the room.
1:46:36
Speaker 1: Four dead uncles what oh yeah, the famous ones, you know,
1:46:41
the four brothers who died in the drisking minds. Well,
1:46:44
that only left her dad and her parents were the
1:46:46
only able to conceive her, which leaves her as the
1:46:49
last McCaskey and the hope for and hope for the
1:46:52
family line, So of course you know this is all
1:46:55
my fault. We looked at him blankly inside. I'm sorry, kid,
1:47:00
these aren't problems, and they're way over your pay grade. Anyways,
1:47:04
I'm just very stressed out these days or funtil the
1:47:06
issue and Mirror's absolute abhorrence to our only other option.
1:47:09
It's but how did they die? It was best to
1:47:13
talk about anything else, and the story of Mirror's uncle's
1:47:16
interested me. The Caskei boys, I don't really know they've
1:47:20
done on the mountains somewhere. Oh, well, have you heard
1:47:23
about the skin men? Sama needs to find a better
1:47:26
way to approach people about the skin men?
1:47:29
Speaker 2: That's weird. I have you heard of skinned men before?
1:47:32
Speaker 1: Yeah? Exactly. This guy's like pouring his heart out. He's like, yeah,
1:47:35
I mean, you know, it's a lineage thing. I don't
1:47:37
know if our marriage is going to survive it. And
1:47:39
he's like, yeah, that's weird. Have you learn about the
1:47:41
skin men? And then the guy's like, skin men?
1:47:45
Speaker 2: Man, we were joking, but we hit the nail on
1:47:47
the head for album.
1:47:49
Speaker 1: Third God, I don't think so. What about Barrasca? Yeah,
1:47:54
Sam just doesn't give a fuck. About it.
1:47:56
Speaker 2: He's just letting them fly like out there here.
1:48:00
Speaker 1: Owen Daly squeezed his eyes and pushed in on his
1:48:03
temples with his fingers. What what does a what does
1:48:06
braska have to do with anything? Owen? Mirror voice squeaked
1:48:10
from the doorway. Oh baby, are you okay? Sam called
1:48:13
the house? Uh? Oh, Sam called the house. I want
1:48:18
to do it? You do, Owen asked dubiously. I called him.
1:48:23
His eyes flicked over to me and immediately looked away.
1:48:26
Another conversation. I didn't want to be a part of Sam.
1:48:30
Why don't you take off for the day, mir and
1:48:32
I will handle things here, Okay, I mumbled and bolted
1:48:36
to the door. Once I was in. Once I was
1:48:38
in my car and backing away, I called Kyle, Dude,
1:48:42
fucking weird shit is going down in this town. What happened?
1:48:46
I can't explain it over the phone. Where are you at?
1:48:48
I'm at Kimber's. Are you at for work? Yeah? I'm
1:48:50
coming to get you. I want to do it. What
1:48:52
does that mean? What did what did Mirror mean when
1:48:55
she said that?
1:48:55
Speaker 2: So? I assume she's referring to when he said right
1:48:58
before Kyle cut him off the lines Owen said, was
1:49:04
our fertility issues and mirrors absolute abhorrence to our only
1:49:07
other option. It's and then uh, Sam or sorry not Kyle.
1:49:12
Sam cuts him off to talk about how the how
1:49:14
her uncles died. So I imagine it's referring to like adoption,
1:49:20
Like she abhors the idea of like maybe maybe because
1:49:27
because it's not blood exactly, yeah, maybe some kind of
1:49:31
some other step to having a kid, but now mirrors
1:49:33
at the point that she's like, I called him, we're
1:49:35
gonna do it.
1:49:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, that makes sense so pretty which
1:49:41
Sam is freaking out thinking that weird shit's going on,
1:49:44
and he's going to go meet up with Kyle and
1:49:47
Kimber at their house. By at Kimber's, Kyle meant sitting
1:49:50
on the curb in front of the house, kicked off
1:49:52
the property again. When I pulled up, Kimber came out
1:49:54
and met us at the curb. I'm so so, I'm
1:49:56
so sorry, Kyle, she said, she's really upset today. She
1:49:59
would and even let me leave the house to sit
1:50:01
with you. It's okay, he said, don't worry about me.
1:50:04
I just want to make sure you and your mom
1:50:05
are okay. Man, her mom must be like it almost
1:50:07
seems like she's going insane something. Now, yeah, like it's
1:50:11
it's some kind of like like swinging episodes or something
1:50:14
like that. Well, okay, and my dad will be home
1:50:17
soon Texas when he gets home and will come get you,
1:50:19
I said, I wish I could. I'm babysitting tonight until
1:50:21
seven thirty maybe after that. Sure. Kyle and Kimber hugg goodbye,
1:50:26
and Kimber rushed back to her house as something crashed inside.
1:50:30
Jesus good God. The mom's like breaking vases and shit inside.
1:50:34
So what's going on? Kyle asked, taking a drink of
1:50:37
warm doctor pepper sitting in the cup holder. You're still
1:50:39
wearing your apron now, mirror had a breakdown, I said,
1:50:42
peeling it off. Really what happened? I told Kyle the
1:50:45
full story. I give a particular attention to the four uncles. Yeah,
1:50:48
the mccaskeys. I've heard of them. Didn't know Mira was
1:50:50
one though, I thought they were all dead. Yeah, she's
1:50:53
the last one. So, like, do you think the McCaskey
1:50:55
deaths have anything to do with the other disappearances. It
1:50:58
had been a while since I mentioned anything about Barasca
1:51:00
and Kyle choked a little on the doctor Pepper. I
1:51:03
don't I don't know, man, I mean, maybe if the
1:51:06
disappearance started around the same time, how can we find
1:51:10
that out? Maybe the cops. There have to be police reports. Okay,
1:51:15
but what if I uh, but what if I couldn't
1:51:18
ask my dad? Kyle shook his head. I don't know.
1:51:20
Then what about the like records historical society people. Maybe
1:51:25
Oh yeah, he said, nodding, we can try them. They're
1:51:28
ever on second, they're over on second. They share an
1:51:30
office with Drisking Arts and Antiques. I made a U
1:51:33
turn and started back towards the town. So yeah. So
1:51:36
now basically Kyle sam is uh really fixated on the
1:51:39
four uncles being missing, and I think he's thinking of
1:51:41
a way how it could correlate with even Whitney's disappearance.
1:51:44
And I think that he really I think he realizes
1:51:47
too that he can't ask his dad because I think
1:51:48
it would send him and his probably his dad and
1:51:51
his mom into I would assume a emotional, you know,
1:51:56
an emotional episode as well. Like, I think that he
1:51:58
just doesn't want to put that on them.
1:52:00
Speaker 2: Plus, like I get the feeling Sam's a little suspicious
1:52:04
of his dad because he's like, I brought all the
1:52:07
evidence that the official story of Whitney was wrong to
1:52:09
my dad. He cried for three hours and then never
1:52:12
reopened the case.
1:52:13
Speaker 1: So well, that's the weirdest thing is that the dad
1:52:15
is emotionally they're on the same page, or like at
1:52:19
least Sam and his dad are on the same page
1:52:21
of like, Okay, well she definitely didn't run away, but
1:52:24
it's so odd that the dad didn't do anything to
1:52:27
try to rectify or find out the truth. So it
1:52:30
is it is very suspicious. It's like it's one of
1:52:31
those things where he probably doesn't want to bring it
1:52:33
to him because who knows, he might just like not
1:52:35
do anything with it again.
1:52:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so from there, And I also liked the
1:52:41
idea of like Sam like there's a lot happening in town,
1:52:44
Like sure he was weirded out by Mirror's emotional breakdown,
1:52:47
but as soon as Owen mentioned like, oh, the minds,
1:52:49
He's like, what do you mean the minds? What happened?
1:52:51
Tell me? More like he's trying to learn everything he
1:52:53
can about what might have happened to his sister.
1:52:56
Speaker 1: Well, well, we kind of get it's like almost like
1:52:58
a flashback to when he was nine again and how
1:53:00
pressing he was about it then too. Yea, because it's
1:53:02
been up until this point, it's been all of these
1:53:05
characters are so new. It feels like, you know, they're
1:53:09
all older, they're doing different things. But this immediately made
1:53:11
me it's like he's right back, which is is cool
1:53:14
because it puts him right back into his mind when
1:53:17
he was there and he was obsessed about it, which
1:53:19
I know they say he has been obsessed, but even
1:53:21
like the verbiage used in the story here makes it
1:53:24
seem like it's he's like nine years old and obsessed
1:53:26
with this thing again.
1:53:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like I like so the sex part says
1:53:31
he makes the U turn to go back towards town,
1:53:33
and Kyle says, Hey, why are we doing this? I'd
1:53:36
known the question was coming. I'd hope to have more
1:53:38
answers to myself before I had to give him one.
1:53:41
Just Whitney was all I could say. Kyle didn't ask
1:53:46
anything more. I like that. I like how like even
1:53:48
though Kyle's like kind of foolhardy with dumb kid, like,
1:53:51
he hears that and he gets it.
1:53:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, he catches up on it. I mean, you even
1:53:57
see that too early in the story when Kyle and Kimber.
1:54:00
None of them ask about that, Like, none of them
1:54:03
have ever pressed him about it, you know what I mean.
1:54:06
I think that they just kind of understand. They like
1:54:08
there is a level of respect that his friends have
1:54:09
for him, which is it's nice. I really I really
1:54:13
enjoy Kyle and Kimber.
1:54:14
Speaker 2: Yeah I do too, so so from there is is
1:54:18
Caldon asking thing more. The Historic Preservation Society of Drisking
1:54:22
was at the back of the building, and we had
1:54:24
to walk through the antique shop as the owner, mister Dranger,
1:54:28
I just warely. At the end of a short hallway,
1:54:31
we found a small room with two desks pushed together.
1:54:34
One was empty and the other was stacked high with
1:54:36
books and folders of loose paper. We could hear someone
1:54:39
typing behind the stacks. I cleared my throat. Hello. A
1:54:43
small woman popped up from behind the desk. I recognized
1:54:46
her as the same woman who had given us a
1:54:48
lecture in fifth grade. Hello, how can I help you, boys,
1:54:51
she asked, walking out to greet us. Uh. Yeah, I
1:54:54
have a few questions about Drisking's history. I guess. Oh great,
1:54:59
is this for an end of year report? Have a
1:55:01
sea boys, She gestured to the empty chair sitting behind
1:55:04
the other desk. I nodded a Colony said down, I'm
1:55:07
looking uneasy. Yeah, it's for an essay we have to write.
1:55:10
Uh hey, I think you gave a lecture to us
1:55:12
like seven years ago at school. Oh yes, I give
1:55:16
lectures every year with mister Prescott. She smiled. Yeah, it
1:55:20
was you and one other guy too, a bald guy,
1:55:23
Kyle said, shifting uncomfortably in the wooden chair. Yes, that
1:55:26
was my fiance, Wyatt douting. He passed several years ago. Oh,
1:55:31
Kyle said, Kyle the king of Oh he's dead. Gross.
1:55:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, that was my fiance. Why doubting he passed
1:55:43
even years ago. Yeah, just so instead of just being like,
1:55:46
oh I'm sorry, oh oh yeah, I read it very
1:55:50
much like.
1:55:51
Speaker 2: Oh so, uh, miss miss Scanlon. But you can call
1:55:58
me Catherine, she said, Catherine, I tried. I hated calling
1:56:02
adults by their first names. We want to know about
1:56:06
the McCaskey kids, oh, Catherine said, shaking her head. Dark
1:56:11
part of history there, but still history nonetheless. Yeah, so
1:56:15
when did that happen? And how did they die? Kyle added, Well,
1:56:19
they didn't die. I mean, they certainly perished in the mines,
1:56:22
but their bodies were never recovered.
1:56:24
Speaker 1: So they they didn't die. I mean, they certainly perished in.
1:56:32
Speaker 2: God, they didn't die, but their bodies succumbed to them.
1:56:39
Speaker 1: To the grave.
1:56:41
Speaker 2: They were swallowed by the earth, returned to their once more.
1:56:44
But no, they weren't dead per se. I don't think. Well,
1:56:49
they certainly perished in the mines, but their bodies were
1:56:51
never recovered, so we don't know the answer. Did that?
1:56:54
I would thank dehydration, starvation, and exhaustion killed them within
1:56:58
days of getting lost down there. And to your second question,
1:57:01
that was nineteen fifty three, I believe, and the mines
1:57:05
closed that year. Well, actually, the mines officially closed the
1:57:08
year after. There was a legal spat between the city
1:57:11
and the Prescott family, who wanted to leave the mines
1:57:13
open until the bodies were found. The city won and
1:57:16
the mines were condemned. Wait why did the Prescott's care
1:57:20
don't you want to write this down? Catherine asked. Kyle
1:57:23
tapped his head twice with his finger. Catherine shrugged and continued, Ah,
1:57:27
don't worry it's all up here, lady.
1:57:29
Speaker 1: All up here, Catherine, don't you worry about it?
1:57:35
Speaker 2: Well, the Prescott and the McCaskey family were closely related.
1:57:39
Tom Prescott was paying teams of unemployed miners to go
1:57:43
down in the mines and search for bodies. The city
1:57:45
had had enough of it. The mountain was unstable and
1:57:48
they didn't want any more deaths. The mines had been
1:57:51
abandoned years before and were structurally unsafe. After the city
1:57:56
banned the recovery teams from the mines, members of the
1:57:58
Prescott family start going down there themselves. Finally, the city
1:58:02
had enough and they had the mines collapsed with bombs.
1:58:07
Kyle asked, well, with explosives, and that's what led to
1:58:11
the incident. By this time, by this time, the mines
1:58:17
had been unprofitable for a few years and the city
1:58:19
was quite broke. They hired a less than reputable company
1:58:22
to collapse the mines, and well, when they set off
1:58:25
the explosives, they accidentally broke into Drisking's water table. The
1:58:29
city went into debt trying to purify the water of
1:58:31
silt and iron ore. It wasn't until two years later
1:58:35
that things started getting better thanks to the Prescott's who
1:58:37
truly did revitalize drisking Kyle's phone shirt and he pulled
1:58:41
out of his pocket. It's Kimber. She wants us to
1:58:43
come over. Okay, thanks, miss Scallion, I mean, Catherine. Sure.
1:58:48
If you have any other questions, feel free to come by.
1:58:50
We're almost always open during the day. Oh, or you
1:58:53
can email me. She dug into her jacket pocket pulled
1:58:56
out a loose business card. It was creased and had
1:58:58
a dusty smudge on it. Thanks. So what do you think,
1:59:02
Kyle asked when we got in the car. I don't know.
1:59:05
It's weird, isn't it. I mean, why would the Prescotts
1:59:08
give a shit if the town suffers after they refuse
1:59:10
to help him find their family and were actively working
1:59:13
against them. Maybe they forgave and forgot. Kyle shrugged. Does
1:59:18
Jimmy Prescott seem like a guy to forgive and forget to?
1:59:20
You know? And his dad's even worse? Exactly? Maybe we
1:59:27
should turn here. Sorry, Kimber's still babysitting and she's over
1:59:31
at Amherst. When we pulled up, Kimber was out in
1:59:33
the front yard with two young boys who were playing
1:59:35
in the driveway. She was holding the sleeping baby and
1:59:38
waving to us. We parked in the driveway and she
1:59:40
introduced us to the two older kids. They got a
1:59:43
shy hello, so then ran off to continue their day.
1:59:46
Speaker 1: So did the Prescotts. Were they interested in fighting the
1:59:52
bodies or were they are the ones that were more
1:59:54
interested in shutting the mind in the city.
1:59:56
Speaker 2: So it's mentioned that the Prescotts and and the mccaskeys
2:00:02
were very close to each other, right, And then the
2:00:05
four McCaskey brothers die in the mines, so the Prescott
2:00:09
Prescott starts sending in untrained crews into the mines to
2:00:13
try to recover the bodies, and there's danger that the
2:00:16
crews are going to go missing or die as well.
2:00:19
So the city wants to have the minds condemned so
2:00:22
no one else goes down there, and the Prescotts are
2:00:24
fighting to leave the mines open so they can recover
2:00:26
the bodies. Eventually, the city wins blows up the mines,
2:00:30
but it was done unprofessionally and it poisoned the water table. Interesting, Okay,
2:00:36
So that's that's the history lesson we got there, which yes,
2:00:39
I will confirm that all of this does come back
2:00:41
later in this like, this isn't just dressing for.
2:00:44
Speaker 1: The second Yeah, no, I figured, I mean it also
2:00:47
shows some stuff too well. It sets some stuff up
2:00:50
to where why the Prescott would have mcclass key, the
2:00:53
last remaining mcclasskey, run this dying business and keep it
2:00:57
open to give her work or whatever. But there's still
2:01:00
something malicious with the Prescotts. There's too much emphasis also
2:01:03
on people being like, oh, the Prescotts really did help
2:01:07
and stuff like that. I just I there's something fishy
2:01:10
going on.
2:01:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So they're sitting there with uh, the three
2:01:14
of them now and Whitney still I'm sorry, not Whitney.
2:01:18
Kimber's still babysitting the two kids and says, once they'd left,
2:01:22
we explain everything that happened to Kimber while she listened
2:01:24
and rock the baby in her arms. Sam's right, that
2:01:27
doesn't make sense. But why are we even concerned about
2:01:30
something that happened decades ago? Whitney Kyle said, so I
2:01:34
didn't have to, a flash of surprise crossed Kimber's face,
2:01:37
and she walked over to put the baby down in
2:01:39
his playpen. That she walked back and pulled me into
2:01:41
one of her famous super comforting, not at all awkward hugs.
2:01:46
When she released me, she began to pace around the driveway. Okay,
2:01:50
so we think Whitney somehow got involved in all of this,
2:01:52
And you're right. If we want to figure this out,
2:01:55
we need to start at the beginning. Phil is right.
2:01:57
Every mystery in this town is one piece of a
2:02:00
larger puzzle. It's all related. She stopped and looked over
2:02:03
at us. We need to go to the source if
2:02:05
we want answers. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Kyle agreed.
2:02:09
I know he likes to hang out in the hideaway
2:02:12
and get drunk with ex Sheriff Clary. No, Kyle, not Jimmy.
2:02:17
His dad Tom. He's so crazy they put him in
2:02:21
a home. He's the horse's mouth, though, isn't he. Jimmy
2:02:25
isn't likely to know half as much as his dad.
2:02:27
But as Kylin Kimber argued, I watched the kids chase
2:02:30
each other around the tree in the front yard. There
2:02:33
seemed to be something carved from the bark words, not
2:02:36
unlike the triple tree at Ambercott, for it was too
2:02:39
far away to read what it said. He got you,
2:02:42
he got you. I heard the youngest one called to
2:02:45
his brother, the skinned man got you. Now you have
2:02:48
to die. Now I'm Peter. I was touching the tree.
2:02:51
No you weren't. You're liar. One of them got you,
2:02:54
and now you have to meet the shiny gentleman. No,
2:02:57
I don't kim. Oh my gosh, bro, I I'd forgot
2:03:01
about that detailed the story. Oh man, I can't talk
2:03:04
about it because I know where this is going. But
2:03:06
the shiny gentleman, Oh my gosh, bro.
2:03:10
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. All I know is I'm sure
2:03:12
as soon as one of as soon as one of
2:03:14
the people said something about skin tree, I feel like, Sam,
2:03:16
probably shit a brick. You did not, did you just
2:03:19
say the skin men? And then also now a new
2:03:22
a new introduction into somebody called the shiny gentleman. This
2:03:26
is something always so creepy about just children saying stuff
2:03:29
like that. If it was an adult saying shiny gentleman,
2:03:31
you're like, oh, But for some reason, a kid saying
2:03:33
it just makes it so much worse.
2:03:35
Speaker 2: I've been about to blow a gasket this whole time
2:03:39
because I can't talk about like what the foreshadowing that's happening.
2:03:43
But for the people who know this story the shiny gentleman.
2:03:46
I'm gonna I'm going to die. I'm about Oh my gosh. Okay, uh,
2:03:53
you have to meet the shiny gentleman. No, I don't. Kimber,
2:03:57
Josh is cheating. I shut and turned away from them.
2:04:01
Where's the nuthouse? I interpreted them? Is it close? I
2:04:05
love this dynamic too, because like, Okay, Kimber hears that
2:04:09
it's about Whitney, and she's immediately like, all right, we've
2:04:11
got to fix this. You know, it's Sam, he's our friend.
2:04:14
We got to do something. Yeah. And then they're talking
2:04:16
about how absurd it would be to go find, you know,
2:04:20
this old man who just may know something that's going on.
2:04:23
And then Sam hears the kids plane and making skinned
2:04:27
man jokes and all of that, and he's like, all right,
2:04:29
where's the nutthouse? Where is it? Is it close? Can
2:04:31
we make it to it? Like the urgency's kind of
2:04:33
picking up in his mind.
2:04:35
Speaker 1: Well, it immediately makes me think they put such an
2:04:38
emphasis on like, oh, yeah, the oldest grandpa, Thomas Prescott. Yeah,
2:04:43
he's crazy, which anything, he could be in a place
2:04:46
of hysteria, but he could be telling the truth also,
2:04:49
so he could be like ranting and raving about the
2:04:51
skin men or shiny gentleman and stuff. So I feel
2:04:54
like whenever they go meet him, I think it's going
2:04:55
to be something where he is going to spill some beans. Yeah,
2:04:59
I I do think Jimmy Prescott is going to be pissed.
2:05:02
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't. I can't say anything. But those are
2:05:05
interesting ideas you have. We'll see how they played out.
2:05:11
So anyway, it's it's not a nuthouse, it's more like
2:05:15
a hospice. Kimber Chiden. The rumor I've heard is that
2:05:17
he's at Golden Elm and that's in Cape Girard. Girardo.
2:05:21
I'm sorry, Gerard. Yeah, that's that's about forty minutes away,
2:05:29
Kyle said, and pulled out his phone. I'll check the
2:05:32
visiting hours for tuesdays, Sam, do you work tomorrow? I
2:05:35
work every day, but I'll get out of it, I promised. Okay, cool,
2:05:37
Let's plan to leave after school. So three of them
2:05:40
are going to set off and they're going to head
2:05:42
to meet the old Prescott to see if they can
2:05:44
get any information out of him. So after school's over,
2:05:48
they get in their card says the drive took longer
2:05:50
than we expected. When I got lost in Cape Girardio,
2:05:53
I would get lost to if I couldn't pronounce it
2:05:55
the town. The town was bigger than drisking, and the
2:05:59
street weren't laid out with any sort of planning or logic.
2:06:02
By the time we arrived at Goldenelm, we only had
2:06:04
twenty minutes left for visiting hours. We're here to see
2:06:07
mister Thomas Prescott, Kimber told the nurse at the front desk.
2:06:10
We let her do the talking, since she had a disarming,
2:06:13
old fashioned charm about her that put people in a
2:06:15
friendly mood. Old Tom, Wow, he hasn't had a visitor
2:06:19
since Christmas when his son came up. Since the check
2:06:22
in sheet and signed the check in sheet and take
2:06:25
a visitor sticker your family? Then do you know where
2:06:28
his room is? The nurse arched a thin, suspicious eyebrow.
2:06:32
I'm sorry, we don't, Kimber apologize. My mother has been
2:06:35
asking me to check in on my great uncle while
2:06:37
she's away doing Doctors without Borders. I should have gotten
2:06:40
more information from her, but you know she only has
2:06:42
so many minutes to call home. Oh smart, smart girls,
2:06:46
very smart girl.
2:06:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
2:06:47
Speaker 2: Oh of course, dear, let me get someone to escort you.
2:06:51
Unorderly led us to Tom Prescott's room, which we found empty.
2:06:55
He pointed down the hall and said he likes to
2:06:57
read in the sun room. We walked down the hall.
2:07:00
I found an old thin man with I think it meanswhile,
2:07:04
an old thin man sitting alone and whispering to himself.
2:07:07
He was sitting at a table in front of a
2:07:09
batgame and board, moving chess pieces around it. Tom Prescott,
2:07:13
Kimber said, smiling. He didn't look up, and I wondered
2:07:17
if he hurt her at all. Kimber took a deep
2:07:19
breath to try again, but the old man suddenly slammed
2:07:22
his fist on the table. It's him. I'm wait, wait, Okahart.
2:07:27
Speaker 1: I'm him, Yeah, I'm him. God, damn it. I'm mister
2:07:31
Thomas Prescott. Don't call me Tom. People's kids used to
2:07:36
have more respect. I'm sorry, Sir, Kimber said gently as
2:07:39
she sat down in the chair opposite of him. You
2:07:42
kids have no respect. Do you even know who I am?
2:07:45
It's my son that's done it. That's that boy's mama
2:07:49
should have whipped him, but she was soft, and now
2:07:51
he's run around my town spraying the vulgarity and disrespect.
2:07:55
Our apologies, mister Prescott. We never meant to be disrespectful.
2:07:58
We greatly admire you. You're the man who built our
2:08:01
town into what it is today. Ever remembers that Driskie
2:08:05
was suffering and the town was dying, and you fixed it.
2:08:08
We know that I did what I had to do.
2:08:10
The old man grumbled. It was my town. It still is.
2:08:15
Who are you? Who are you little girl to come
2:08:18
in here and suggest otherwise? Uh no, no, that's not
2:08:22
what I said. Kimber changed tactics. As for who we are,
2:08:26
we're mere McCaskey kids. Do you remember the mccaskeys. Huh,
2:08:30
so you're Ada's granddaughter. That explains why you're not there.
2:08:34
That explains why you're not there. We exchanged puzzled looks.
2:08:37
We're right here, mister Prescott. Kimber said, you know what
2:08:41
I meant, young lady. They all know, they know I
2:08:44
rescue the town. That's my town. Of course we're going
2:08:48
to let uh of course, we're going to let me
2:08:51
do anything I want. Fuck sex. Of course, they weren't
2:08:54
going to let me do anything I wanted as long
2:08:55
as the money kept coming in. That's why it's my town.
2:08:59
Is the money still coming in? Kimber tested, well, you're here,
2:09:02
aren't you. They didn't like it, but they kept but
2:09:05
they took the money. They didn't know, not everything. They didn't,
2:09:10
but they suspected some and they must have been okay
2:09:13
with it because they kept electing Clary and they kept
2:09:16
taking the money. Prescott picked up upon and ran his
2:09:19
finger acrossed as as he talked. It's just a powder,
2:09:23
you know, so unassuming, a fine, soft powder. A powder
2:09:29
doesn't know what it is. He doesn't know it's bad.
2:09:32
It's the people who say it's bad. But it needed
2:09:35
to be done. You know that, Ada, You know we
2:09:38
had to do it. Kimber hooked him. Kimber hooked him in.
2:09:42
I know, I know we had to. But it's your son.
2:09:46
I don't think he's doing it right. Well, of course
2:09:48
he isn't. The elderly Prescott slammed his fist on the
2:09:50
table again, and two rooks tumbled to the floor. They
2:09:53
were mine. He took them from me. He thought he
2:09:56
could do it better, but he took mine, and he
2:09:58
ruined my legacy, decades of work, and now it's all
2:10:02
run by powder. It's the dust of the crumbled empire.
2:10:07
What about the skin men, I asked, God, Sam Jesus,
2:10:10
give it the fuck, give it fucking ten minutes, ten minutes.
2:10:14
What about the skin men? I asked, caught up in
2:10:16
the moment, What are you talking about?
2:10:18
Speaker 2: Boy?
2:10:19
Speaker 1: He growled. And the tree house, the triple tree? What
2:10:23
is it? What is it for? Triple tree? I didn't
2:10:28
authorize that. We paid triple the price, but it was
2:10:32
only for a short while when things were slow. We
2:10:35
never changed triple. That's bad business. Where's has my idiot
2:10:40
boy been telling you that? Did he offer? Did he
2:10:43
offer you triple for them? He's ruining my town, isn't he? God?
2:10:47
Damn it? Jimmy? You get him in here? Ada, get
2:10:51
me my boy, Get my boy on the phone. You
2:10:53
tell Jimmy I want to talk to him. You tell
2:10:56
him they're still mine. Ada, Ada, get Jimmy on the phone.
2:11:01
Kimber jumped up and Kyle pushed her behind him as
2:11:04
the old man rose to his feet, tall and imposing.
2:11:07
We were backing toward the door when the orderly came
2:11:09
in with disapproving look on his face and shoot us out.
2:11:12
Long after we'd made it to the lobby. We could
2:11:14
still hear Tom Prescott yelling for his son. The ride
2:11:17
home is quiet, and I spent it trying to fit
2:11:19
the pieces of the puzzle together. The skinned men, the
2:11:22
triple tree, the shiny gentleman, the powder. These things seemed
2:11:27
to have been pulled blindly from it. The ether, random
2:11:30
and meaningless. The veil over my eyes was thick and heavy,
2:11:34
but I was closer to Barrasca than I'd ever been before.
2:11:37
I could feel it all around me, but I couldn't
2:11:39
see it. I could almost touch it, but I couldn't
2:11:41
yet comprehend it. I suddenly realized that Kyle was pulling
2:11:44
over up the road, and I snapped out of my contemplation.
2:11:47
He put the car and park and turned over and
2:11:49
looked at me in the back seat. Is this really
2:11:52
about Whitney, Sam, Yes, Kimber washed us with worried eyes.
2:11:58
Why do you think that the mean even your father
2:12:01
confirmed that Whitney ran away. I don't believe them, I said,
2:12:05
through clinched teeth. Look, Sam, we're getting pretty deep in here,
2:12:09
and I'm only and I'm with you every step, but
2:12:12
I have to know that there's a reason we're doing
2:12:14
this and pulling Kimber into I have to know this
2:12:18
is important to you for the right reasons and not
2:12:21
just an obsession. I looked out the window and realized
2:12:23
he'd pulled over near the west Rim Prescott or Trailhead.
2:12:27
He was right to worry, and even more so to
2:12:29
be protective of Kimber. Kyle was thinking. Kyle was thinking it,
2:12:33
and so was I. The powder If Broscar really did
2:12:36
involve moving mass amounts of drugs, did I want to
2:12:39
be involved with my friends any further? This wasn't their fight.
2:12:43
I love these people. Could I really risk their safety
2:12:45
for my own curiosities and vendettas? But as hard as
2:12:48
I wish I could let them go, I knew I
2:12:51
needed them. I have to know what really happened to Whitney,
2:12:54
I whispered. I turned back around without a word, and
2:12:58
Kimber placed her hand on mine, jerked my hand away
2:13:00
and crossed my arms and immediately apologized. Kimber just smiled
2:13:04
at a forgiving sort of way. Kyle sighed sam He
2:13:09
was interrupted by the piercing ring of Kimber's phone. She
2:13:11
scrambled for herself to silence it, but when she saw
2:13:14
the name on the screen. She quickly answered Dad, Wait, wait,
2:13:20
what do you mean Dad?
2:13:24
Speaker 2: No?
2:13:24
Speaker 1: Wait, slow down. Hello. She took the phone away from
2:13:27
her ear. Something happened to my mom and she's at
2:13:30
the hospital. Tears filled Kimber's soft green eyes.
2:13:34
Speaker 2: Kyle threw the card gear and screeched into the parking lot.
2:13:37
We made the ten mile trip to the hospital in
2:13:39
as many minutes, which was criminally fast on service streets.
2:13:44
Kyle stopped the car at the emergency entrance and Kimber
2:13:46
and I ran inside. A deputy was there waiting. He
2:13:50
refused to answer Kimber's desperate questions as he led us
2:13:53
to her father. When the deputy swung open the doors,
2:13:56
I saw my dad standing next to Kimber's and I
2:13:58
braced myself for the work. Kimber's dad took her in
2:14:01
one direction, and my dad took me in the other.
2:14:04
Before he said a word, I saw Kimber crumble to
2:14:06
the floor on the other side of the room. I
2:14:09
looked at my dad helplessly, and he gave me a
2:14:11
sympathetic nod and pulled me into a hug. He sat
2:14:15
down in a corner and I stared at my hands
2:14:17
as he quietly explained that missus Distaro had gone grocery
2:14:22
shopping at around one o'clock, come home, put the groceries away,
2:14:27
made two lasagnas and a meat loaf, put them in
2:14:29
the freezer. Then she got in her car, drove to
2:14:32
the hospital, parked in the shade, took the stairs up
2:14:36
seven floors to the roof, and jumped off of it.
2:14:39
She lived long enough to apologize to the EMT who forever.
2:14:43
Oh my god, I watched Kimber fall apart as her
2:14:45
mother's body slowly grew cold in the morgue one floor
2:14:49
beneath us man.
2:14:53
Speaker 1: End of part two, end of Part two, and the
2:14:56
end of part one of our episode here.
2:14:58
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, So that's the end for what? Just
2:15:02
real quick? What do you think of the story so far?
2:15:05
Speaker 1: I think it's very good. The thing about it so
2:15:07
far is that it's it's tapping it. It has very
2:15:12
It has a lot of eccentricies. Eccentricy eccentric eccentricies is
2:15:16
that the right word. I don't know. It's the idea
2:15:18
of like you're talking about stuff called Baraska, which is fine,
2:15:21
but you're talking about stuff like the skin men and stuff,
2:15:23
and there really hasn't been any elements of actually visually
2:15:27
being able to see anything. Really the horrors of a
2:15:30
lot of the stuff so far of the story has
2:15:32
been putting yourself in the shoes of somebody of like
2:15:34
a brother or a parent, losing a child, or a
2:15:37
sister or a sibling, and even so much of this of
2:15:41
dealing with somebody with mental health issues that had that
2:15:45
try it there unlive themselves and having to deal with that,
2:15:48
and the long periods of stretches of how that affects you.
2:15:51
So I think that it's it's it's extremely well written,
2:15:54
but I also more so like that it's taking its time.
2:15:58
It's really not trying to reveal too much. It's not
2:16:01
trying to be big and flashy. There's moments too, Like
2:16:04
I think the biggest thing from this one I thought
2:16:06
was interesting was I really thought that we were going
2:16:08
to get something a little more than our meeting with
2:16:12
Thomas Thomas being obsessed with Thomas Prescott being well obsessed
2:16:16
with the ownership of the town and stuff. I thought
2:16:19
was going to go in a different direction.
2:16:21
Speaker 2: So I would like to highlight something about that conversation. Right, Yeah,
2:16:27
so we know that the Prescotts revitalized the town in
2:16:31
the fifties. Right, Yeah, so the Prescotts did something right.
2:16:38
Town starts making money. And we hear at the beginning
2:16:41
of the conversation he's talking about it's my money or whatever,
2:16:44
and they apologize and they says and the old man says,
2:16:47
I did what I had to do. It was my town.
2:16:50
Who are you to suggest otherwise? And he says whenever
2:16:55
she identifies herself as AA's granddaughter, he says, oh, then
2:16:58
you know what I mean, young li. They all know,
2:17:01
they know I rescue the town. That's my town. Of course,
2:17:04
they were gonna let me do anything I wanted as
2:17:06
long as the money kept coming in. That's why it's
2:17:09
my town. And then whenever Kimber says, is the money
2:17:13
still coming in, he says, well, you're here, aren't you.
2:17:16
They didn't like it, but they took the money. They
2:17:19
didn't know, not everything they didn't, but they suspected some
2:17:24
and they must have been okay with it because they
2:17:26
kept electing Clary and they kept taking the money.
2:17:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's trying to assume that it's bad like
2:17:34
that it's a crooked cop. And especially the emphasis of
2:17:38
him continuously using the word powder and stuff, which is
2:17:41
usually people associate that with like cocaine. But I don't
2:17:45
think it's that. I don't think that it has anything
2:17:47
to do with a drug ring or anything like that.
2:17:50
What I am curious is potentially like an HP Lovecraft
2:17:53
situation thing where the powder could be, you know, something
2:17:58
not of this world, something that maybe they found in
2:18:00
the mind that like presented them some kind of wealth
2:18:03
or whatever, which is also maybe why the Prescotts were
2:18:06
so advantageous to keep the minds open, not necessarily to
2:18:12
find the people, or if they were to find the people,
2:18:14
to have them, you know, because the mcclaskey's were important
2:18:18
to them somehow as well. Yeah, so I'm very intrigued.
2:18:23
I'm extremely intrigued, and I really I don't know, Like
2:18:27
so far in terms of dialogue and believability, this is
2:18:30
just extremely well written, such a it's like so visually clear,
2:18:36
and I'm and I think that just the way that
2:18:38
each part one. Thing that I love about the so far,
2:18:41
especially with part one and two, is it ends on
2:18:43
such a great moment, like such an impactful moment that
2:18:46
sits with you.
2:18:48
Speaker 2: Plus that conversation is derailed when he asked about the
2:18:53
skin Man, because Prescott goes from talking about like, oh,
2:18:56
the dust, it's the dust of the crumbled impart, like
2:18:58
he's talking about something tangible, and then when he says
2:19:01
to skin and he goes, what are you talking about?
2:19:03
And then at the mention of triple Tree, he's like,
2:19:05
I didn't authorize that. Why would we ever charge triple
2:19:08
Like he he has that the old Man has no
2:19:11
idea what the skinned Man or the Triple Tree is
2:19:13
or anything like that.
2:19:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I think that Sam's uh eagerness and
2:19:18
Sam's obsession because even like I think that Kimber and
2:19:21
Kyle are starting to see it too. He's like, I
2:19:23
just need to make sure that this is actually for
2:19:25
something tangible and not just your obsessive mind needing to
2:19:29
get your fix or whatever. But I think that even
2:19:31
when they were talking to Thomas and it is an
2:19:34
obsession in a way for Sam, and I think that
2:19:37
it's like it's it's like a it's like a scratch
2:19:41
or it's like a it's like a thing that needs
2:19:43
to be itched, you know what I mean. Like he
2:19:44
he he couldn't wait any longer. He had to like
2:19:46
bark out and say it. And I completely derailed this
2:19:49
thing when it seemed like Kimberly or when it seemed
2:19:52
like kimber had uh you know her, it seemed like
2:19:55
she was controlling the conversation pretty well, like she was
2:19:58
like navigating it well and like following his sways of emotion.
2:20:02
Speaker 2: But yeah, whatever he was saying, and then Sam killed it, Yeah,
2:20:07
good job, Sam.
2:20:10
Speaker 1: Sam's obsession with him, like do you do you know
2:20:13
the skiin Men and People? What are you even talking about?
2:20:18
Speaker 2: That is the old pieces of the puzzle that Sam has,
2:20:22
and he had just heard kids mentioned in it earlier,
2:20:24
so he thinks that it's a common thing around like
2:20:27
he did. Sure, I see why he would have asked that.
2:20:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not totally unjustified for sure. And also it's
2:20:33
become a thing where now it's this like it's almost
2:20:36
this symbol or it's this like kind of tangible you know.
2:20:39
And he says it too in the cards, like he
2:20:41
feels like he's right there, but he just can't comprehend
2:20:44
it yet, you know. It's like he feels like he's
2:20:46
right by it, but he just can't see it. So
2:20:48
it's it's plaguing him. And I think that it's the
2:20:50
only thing. It's like the only ounce of hope he
2:20:52
has left to solve this thing with his sister and
2:20:57
even just this greater mystery of everything else going on
2:21:00
on the town. So it's awesome. I mean, I'm totally
2:21:03
bought in. I cannot wait to see where this goes.
2:21:05
And it seems like a lot of people have read
2:21:07
this story too, so I'm curious to see because this
2:21:09
has been kind of a fun juxtaposition of you've read this,
2:21:12
you know where this is going, and then you're kind
2:21:14
of been just like grinning and like over me trying
2:21:18
to see where it is going. So I'm curious to
2:21:20
see if people haven't read this so far, if they're
2:21:22
kind of who's in the wheelhouse with you and who's
2:21:24
in the wheelhouse with me? Of people speculating, and then
2:21:27
also people seeing how you know, if you've read the story,
2:21:32
how it could be perceived or hopefully my first time
2:21:35
reading experience is making sense with people.
2:21:38
Speaker 2: I will say, because I can't give away stuff right now,
2:21:40
but I will say that I forgot how like well written,
2:21:44
Like actually the specific segments of it were, like how
2:21:47
much I like the dialogue moments then are kind of
2:21:49
more pulpy, but I love stuff like stale coffee and
2:21:52
quiet you know, quiet conversation or whatever. Like I forgot
2:21:55
how expertly done it is in like a literal sense,
2:21:58
but also some of this foreshadowing, some of the character
2:22:02
drives getting built up and stuff. I'm so thrilled to see.
2:22:06
It's even better than I remembered, so I couldn't be
2:22:08
happier with it.
2:22:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it does it in the best ways.
2:22:14
I love a lot of flavor, and like you're saying,
2:22:16
pulp with that of it rises fine line of extremely
2:22:20
believable dialogue and descriptions and content, and then it just
2:22:24
gives you these beautiful little cherries on tops with little
2:22:26
moments like that where it's just these little lines that
2:22:28
are just so tasty, so nice. And also I'm assuming
2:22:32
that the sandwich shop has to be some kind of
2:22:34
like Ponzi scheme or like front I think is a
2:22:38
big thing. That's what I was gonna say too. I
2:22:41
think that like a failing business like that. I don't know.
2:22:43
I don't know what they're using the sandwich shop for.
2:22:45
I'm not saying that it's a skinned men sandwich shop,
2:22:47
but I do think that the sandwich shop being open
2:22:50
and it being a business, and also we haven't you know,
2:22:54
I'm curious to see what Jimmy Prescott said to Mira
2:22:58
in private and kind of that stuff, and also her
2:23:03
being so you know, we get we have gotten conversations
2:23:06
about you know, she's probably depressed because of the business,
2:23:10
She's probably depressed because of the baby situation and stuff.
2:23:13
But I'm I think there's more to that as well.
2:23:15
Like I think it's just that I think that all
2:23:17
of those things are true, but I think it's not
2:23:20
the full picture.
2:23:21
Speaker 2: So and not to mention, we have the death of
2:23:23
a Kimber's mother that is also supposedly just a manic
2:23:27
depressive episode.
2:23:28
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it just feels too coincidental, especially because you
2:23:32
would almost assume that like, instead of Kimber's mom, it
2:23:35
would be Sam's mom or something that would be going
2:23:38
to this fit, you would think. But it's like we
2:23:40
just had I think there's just even stuff that Kimber
2:23:43
hasn't told us yet. You know, it's all just so vague.
2:23:46
It's so vague, and the mystery it's thickening and it's
2:23:49
really making it's it's peaking a lot of stuff. It's peaking,
2:23:52
a lot of curiosities, and it's it's a lot of fun,
2:23:55
it's a lot of uneah. Yeah, but for now that
2:23:58
that is our part one of BROSCA. I think this
2:24:00
is amazing, it's really good. But next time we'll be
2:24:03
tackling the part three and four, so please be sure
2:24:08
to show up next time. And also, uh, you can
2:24:10
listen to these episodes on Spotify. I think we're I
2:24:13
don't know if we're all up on Apple yet everything.
2:24:16
Speaker 2: I think I think we're about pretty sure, but yeah,
2:24:18
on Spotify better, so prefer.
2:24:20
Speaker 1: That, yeah, spot Yeah, I never use Apple, but you know,
2:24:24
what do you do? But if you do listen to
2:24:26
things anywhere, be sure to give us a positive rating
2:24:28
if you like it. I think that helps us out.
2:24:30
And yeah, we will see you in the next one.
2:24:33
Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for watching. It means the
2:24:35
world and can't wait to finish out this great story
2:24:37
and hopefully you all enjoy it. And again thank you
2:24:39
for watching.
2:24:40
Speaker 1: Hugs and kisses. Bye,