[This is directly transcribed, without changes or edits, from a journal entry dated January 6th, 1997]<\/p>\n
I stand in the front window and watch as the car makes its second pass, making myself as visible as possible to the men inside . . . letting them know that there are people home and they\u2019ll have to find someone else to rob.<\/em><\/p>\n On their fourth pass, I make eye contact with the driver and I know then that this is no normal robbery. They want me to see them.<\/p>\n We stand there, watching the pass and I realize that we\u2019re being diverted.<\/p>\n Misdirection.<\/p>\n Someone is already in the house, I know. Someone came in the back \u2014 the car had been empty? The car had been full on the first pass, but the last few times, I could see that the men inside were not so cramped; one of them was gone.<\/p>\n They were already in the house.<\/p>\n Through the house I go, searching.<\/p>\n Passing by my room I see that the french doors have been kicked in.<\/p>\n Someone is in the house.<\/p>\n In a back room, my teenage daughter\u2019s room, I find them. He is sitting at the piano, holding a gun in her face. She sits on the bed, crying.<\/p>\n With a broken crystal candlestick, I stab him in the back \u2014 just to the left of the spine \u2014 before he can turn.<\/p>\n Push the splintered end deep into him, glancing off the shoulderblade, scraping against the bone.<\/p>\n He breathes once, heavy, and then dies.<\/p>\n When the car passes by the window again, I am there \u2014 his head in my fist, raising it high, my fingers in his hair.<\/p>\n I see the eyes widen as they see his glazed, empty gaze.<\/p>\n I meet the eyes of one in the car as it speeds off \u2014 that is the one, I know, who will return for revenge.<\/p>\n The car drives off into the night and I drop the head, realizing that \u2014 for the first time \u2014 it is snowing in the Midlands.<\/p>\n [2013 Addendum: This is a odd one to look at now. In 1997, I did not have a daughter. Now I have two. And, for what it\u2019s worth, my bedroom (four houses and sixteen years later) has French doors. That\u2019s not going to help me get to sleep any easier.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [This is directly transcribed, without changes or edits, from a journal entry dated January 6th, 1997] I stand in the front window and watch as the car makes its second pass, making myself as visible as possible to the men inside . . . letting them know that there are people home and they\u2019ll have to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,132,52,154,254,257,250,62,255,256,249,253,93,258,248,259,15,27,252,251,202],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dreams","tag-bedroom","tag-cars","tag-crime","tag-daughter","tag-decapitation","tag-eyes","tag-french-doors","tag-guns","tag-hair","tag-head","tag-home","tag-men","tag-night","tag-revenge","tag-robbery","tag-searching","tag-snow","tag-the-midlands","tag-threat","tag-watching","tag-window"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}