I Died to End Their Lie novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Notebook

The house was quiet the next evening, and nobody had eaten.

Dad sat at the kitchen table with the accounting notebook open in front of him.

Mom sat beside him with her hands wrapped in gauze, because she had torn her nails on the rug.

I hung above them, near the ceiling light.

Dad turned the pages one at a time.

Every page held a column of dates and numbers in my handwriting, small and careful.

Twelve dollars for washing the neighbor's car.

Six dollars for walking a dog.

Forty dollars for a math tutoring session, with a small note: Parents paid late.

"He wrote it all down," Mom said. "Every dollar."

"Since he was twelve." Dad turned a page. "Since he was twelve years old."

He turned another.

"Look at this one."

It was a short line, dated the winter I was twelve.

Got a sweater at the church sale. Two dollars. Don't tell Mom, she'll say I'm wasting money.

Mom made a small sound.

"I bought him a sweater every Christmas," she said.

"No," Dad said. "You bought Cade one. And you gave Jesse his old one."

She put her bandaged hand over her eyes.

Dad turned to the last page.

I had written it in blue pen, in clean block letters.

Total saved: $10,000. Paid down on plot at Evergreen Memorial. Balance due on my 20th birthday if I'm still here.

Under it, one more line.

Once I've paid for my grave, I'll finally be free.

Dad stared at it for a long time.

Then he covered his face with both hands and made a sound I hadn't known a man could make.

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