Hush, Hush: Chapter 14
ZeldaQueen: Omph. I'm very sorry, ladies and gentlemen. I've been bitten by the fanart bug by way of Suburban Knights and between that and my work schedule, I've been MIA for far too long. But hey, you're not here for excuses, you're here for bland and boring plot advancement! And I've got it right here!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 14
ZeldaQueen: Nora returns home, and there’s a lot of pointless blather over how the lock on the front door has “developed a greedy disposition” after that night Patch fucked with it. I’m not sure what the point is, unless Fitzpatrick is implying that Patch can actually spread his assholishness to inanimate objects he touches.
Nora finally gets into the house and heads to the living room, to start a fire in the wood-burning stove. She hears something creaking at the opposite side of the room and naturally, she screams. Thankfully it’s her mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa. Nora works to lower her heart rate while having flashbacks to her stalker in a ski mask. For once in the book, she shows sense and decides to tell her mother everything, in the hope that they can get new locks for the house and have the police keep an eye open.
For no reason at all besides convenience, Nora’s mother chooses this point to announce that they probably will have to sell the house and move
“‘I was going to wait to bring this up,’ my mom said, interrupting my thought process, ‘but I'm not sure the perfect moment is ever going to present itself.’
I frowned. ‘What's going on?’
She gave a long, troubled sigh. "I'm thinking about putting the farmhouse
up for sale.’
‘What? Why?’
‘We've been struggling for a year, and I'm not pulling in as much as I'd hoped. I've considered taking a second job, but honestly, I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day.’ She laughed without any trace of humor. ‘Dorothea's wages are modest, but it's extra money we don't have. The only other thing I can think of is moving into a smaller house. Or an apartment.’
‘But this is our house.’ All my memories were here. The memory of my
dad was here. I couldn't believe she didn't feel the same way. I would do
whatever it took to stay.
‘I'll give it three more months,’ she said. ‘But I don't want to get your hopes up.’
Right then I knew I couldn't tell my mom about the guy in the ski mask. She'd quit work tomorrow. She'd get a local job, and there'd be absolutely no choice but to sell the farmhouse.’”
ZeldaQueen: Like I said, convenience. Nothing comes of this. All it does is serve as an excuse for Nora to not tell her mother that she’s being stalked by someone who is clearly violent and dangerous and probably trying to kill her.
Sure, Nora. You just keep that all a secret. I’m sure your mother would much rather stay in your farmhouse home than have you alive and safe. For heaven’s sake, there’s being selfless and there’s being stupid! Guess which one Nora is?
So yeah, the subject is immediately dropped after that. Nora tells her mother that Vee is doing fine and will be back in school the next day. With a busted arm and a concussion and - oh whatever, you guys know the drill.
The two start a fire in the stove and get hot chocolate and are all snuggly under some blankets, and Nora starts asking her mother about when she married Nora’s father. This would be pretty nice under other circumstances. Thing is, it’s blindingly obvious that Nora is fishing around to see how much like Patch her father was. Really.
First, Nora asks when her mother knew she was in love with her father. Nora’s mother replies that she wasn’t sure it was love until after they were married, but she married him anyway “Because I thought I was in love. And when you think you're in love, you're willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love”. Okay, that coupled with the horrible abusive vibes to Patch and Nora’s relationship is just squicky.
They then discuss the wedding itself, and apparently Nora’s mother found the whole thing very exciting. When asked if she was ever afraid of Nora’s father, her mother says “Whenever the New England Patriots lost”. Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to the trees in the backyard whenever that happened, and their woodshed is still filled up from the last time that happened. *scratches head* Okay then. And I also have to wonder, wouldn’t Nora’s mother at least ask why her daughter would wonder something like that? I mean, I might just be odd but “Were you ever scared of Dad?” doesn’t sound like a question a lot of kids ask, especially if their parents are in a loving relationship, as Nora’s parents apparently were.
We get the clichéd point where Nora’s mother says that she (Nora) takes after her father because they both were clever (I’ve yet to see any examples of that), and then Nora asks if her father was mysterious or rebellious ever. Nora’s mother laughs at the thought of her husband being like that, and finally cottons on to the notion that Nora has something specific in mind with these questions.
Nora debates telling her mother about Patch, because she doesn’t think a description will come out well. She finally vaguely mentions that there’s a guy at school she’s thinking of. When prompted, Nora says that he’s into pool as a hobby and Nora’s mother assumes that by “pool”, Nora means “swimming”. Nora decides not to correct this misconception. Why are these young adult heroines always deceiving their parents? For that matter, why would Nora think that telling her mother what sort of pool Patch plays would be a bad idea? There are plenty of reputable people who love playing pool. My college paid for all commuters to have access to several pool tables. Is Fitzpatrick under the impression that playing pool is another “bad boy” symptom?
Anyway, this conversation is interrupted with a phone call from Nora’s mother’s boss, who is horribly incompetent and needs her to pick up some paperwork from his office to…somewhere. It’s pretty much a vague excuse to get the mother out of the house for an hour.
Nora sits down to do her homework, but of course bringing up the thought of Patch insanely distracts her. She finally quashes the idea of tracking him down at Bo’s Arcade and heads up to her room, where she finds that someone has broken in and completely trashed the entire place. She catches a glimpse of something in the mirror and turns around in time to see the ski mask-wearing creeper in her room. When he sees that she has spotted him, he escapes through the window. Showing more sense than the average young adult heroine, Nora runs back downstairs and calls 911.
Fifteen minutes later, two police officers show up. Their names are Detective Holstijik (and oh how my spellcheck hates that name) and Detective Basso. It’s hammered into our heads how Detective Basso looks like Patch, with the same “Mediterranean complexion, symmetrical face, eyes with an edge”. Guess which of these dudes will be important later on in the series.
They get right down to business and are no-nonsense while Nora tells them what happened. And to her credit, she does try her hardest to remember anything at all to help even though she’s still freaked out.
When the questioning is over, the officers have her lead them up to her bedroom where they find…it’s perfectly in order. Nora is understandably very freaked out by this, especially when the officers note that jumping out the window like the ski-mask person did would at the very least result in a broken leg and that the door was somehow locked between Nora calling 911 and their arrival.
It’s made pretty clear by this point that Detective Basso doesn’t believe Nora. He tells her that it would have been sensible of the intruder to just push past her and run out the front door, and then asks her to think very hard about what might have really happened. Um, is it me or is that really bad police work? He’s basically influencing her thinking, after all.
Nora is sat down and asked more questions, the first of which is, of course, if she has a boyfriend
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, what is up with this book? That’s all anyone ever talks to her about! Although at least this does have a modicum of justification, given how the next few questions seem to be fishing for possible explanations (if she’s ever had any problems with drugs and where her father is, if she lives alone with her mother). At least you could argue that they’re trying to determine if she has some possessive, abusive, stalkery boyfriend. Which she does, but everyone including Fitzpatrick is trying to ignore it.
Nora finally sees that they aren’t going to believe her and give up. Because yeah, they’ve clearly wasted a lot of time and effort going over there, even though Nora in no way gave the impression that it was a frivolous or crank call and clearly believed she saw something. They say that they have things to get done, so they’re going to leave her alone until her mom gets back, at which point they want her mother to give them a call. Wow, that’s really great! Just leave the scared girl all alone where she may or may not be getting stalked!
And thus, we end our chapter with them leaving and Nora wondering how the ski mask dude cleaned up her room in fifteen minutes. Oy
Onward to: Chapter 15
Back to: Chapter 13
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 14
ZeldaQueen: Nora returns home, and there’s a lot of pointless blather over how the lock on the front door has “developed a greedy disposition” after that night Patch fucked with it. I’m not sure what the point is, unless Fitzpatrick is implying that Patch can actually spread his assholishness to inanimate objects he touches.
Nora finally gets into the house and heads to the living room, to start a fire in the wood-burning stove. She hears something creaking at the opposite side of the room and naturally, she screams. Thankfully it’s her mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa. Nora works to lower her heart rate while having flashbacks to her stalker in a ski mask. For once in the book, she shows sense and decides to tell her mother everything, in the hope that they can get new locks for the house and have the police keep an eye open.
For no reason at all besides convenience, Nora’s mother chooses this point to announce that they probably will have to sell the house and move
“‘I was going to wait to bring this up,’ my mom said, interrupting my thought process, ‘but I'm not sure the perfect moment is ever going to present itself.’
I frowned. ‘What's going on?’
She gave a long, troubled sigh. "I'm thinking about putting the farmhouse
up for sale.’
‘What? Why?’
‘We've been struggling for a year, and I'm not pulling in as much as I'd hoped. I've considered taking a second job, but honestly, I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day.’ She laughed without any trace of humor. ‘Dorothea's wages are modest, but it's extra money we don't have. The only other thing I can think of is moving into a smaller house. Or an apartment.’
‘But this is our house.’ All my memories were here. The memory of my
dad was here. I couldn't believe she didn't feel the same way. I would do
whatever it took to stay.
‘I'll give it three more months,’ she said. ‘But I don't want to get your hopes up.’
Right then I knew I couldn't tell my mom about the guy in the ski mask. She'd quit work tomorrow. She'd get a local job, and there'd be absolutely no choice but to sell the farmhouse.’”
ZeldaQueen: Like I said, convenience. Nothing comes of this. All it does is serve as an excuse for Nora to not tell her mother that she’s being stalked by someone who is clearly violent and dangerous and probably trying to kill her.
Sure, Nora. You just keep that all a secret. I’m sure your mother would much rather stay in your farmhouse home than have you alive and safe. For heaven’s sake, there’s being selfless and there’s being stupid! Guess which one Nora is?
So yeah, the subject is immediately dropped after that. Nora tells her mother that Vee is doing fine and will be back in school the next day. With a busted arm and a concussion and - oh whatever, you guys know the drill.
The two start a fire in the stove and get hot chocolate and are all snuggly under some blankets, and Nora starts asking her mother about when she married Nora’s father. This would be pretty nice under other circumstances. Thing is, it’s blindingly obvious that Nora is fishing around to see how much like Patch her father was. Really.
First, Nora asks when her mother knew she was in love with her father. Nora’s mother replies that she wasn’t sure it was love until after they were married, but she married him anyway “Because I thought I was in love. And when you think you're in love, you're willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love”. Okay, that coupled with the horrible abusive vibes to Patch and Nora’s relationship is just squicky.
They then discuss the wedding itself, and apparently Nora’s mother found the whole thing very exciting. When asked if she was ever afraid of Nora’s father, her mother says “Whenever the New England Patriots lost”. Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to the trees in the backyard whenever that happened, and their woodshed is still filled up from the last time that happened. *scratches head* Okay then. And I also have to wonder, wouldn’t Nora’s mother at least ask why her daughter would wonder something like that? I mean, I might just be odd but “Were you ever scared of Dad?” doesn’t sound like a question a lot of kids ask, especially if their parents are in a loving relationship, as Nora’s parents apparently were.
We get the clichéd point where Nora’s mother says that she (Nora) takes after her father because they both were clever (I’ve yet to see any examples of that), and then Nora asks if her father was mysterious or rebellious ever. Nora’s mother laughs at the thought of her husband being like that, and finally cottons on to the notion that Nora has something specific in mind with these questions.
Nora debates telling her mother about Patch, because she doesn’t think a description will come out well. She finally vaguely mentions that there’s a guy at school she’s thinking of. When prompted, Nora says that he’s into pool as a hobby and Nora’s mother assumes that by “pool”, Nora means “swimming”. Nora decides not to correct this misconception. Why are these young adult heroines always deceiving their parents? For that matter, why would Nora think that telling her mother what sort of pool Patch plays would be a bad idea? There are plenty of reputable people who love playing pool. My college paid for all commuters to have access to several pool tables. Is Fitzpatrick under the impression that playing pool is another “bad boy” symptom?
Anyway, this conversation is interrupted with a phone call from Nora’s mother’s boss, who is horribly incompetent and needs her to pick up some paperwork from his office to…somewhere. It’s pretty much a vague excuse to get the mother out of the house for an hour.
Nora sits down to do her homework, but of course bringing up the thought of Patch insanely distracts her. She finally quashes the idea of tracking him down at Bo’s Arcade and heads up to her room, where she finds that someone has broken in and completely trashed the entire place. She catches a glimpse of something in the mirror and turns around in time to see the ski mask-wearing creeper in her room. When he sees that she has spotted him, he escapes through the window. Showing more sense than the average young adult heroine, Nora runs back downstairs and calls 911.
Fifteen minutes later, two police officers show up. Their names are Detective Holstijik (and oh how my spellcheck hates that name) and Detective Basso. It’s hammered into our heads how Detective Basso looks like Patch, with the same “Mediterranean complexion, symmetrical face, eyes with an edge”. Guess which of these dudes will be important later on in the series.
They get right down to business and are no-nonsense while Nora tells them what happened. And to her credit, she does try her hardest to remember anything at all to help even though she’s still freaked out.
When the questioning is over, the officers have her lead them up to her bedroom where they find…it’s perfectly in order. Nora is understandably very freaked out by this, especially when the officers note that jumping out the window like the ski-mask person did would at the very least result in a broken leg and that the door was somehow locked between Nora calling 911 and their arrival.
It’s made pretty clear by this point that Detective Basso doesn’t believe Nora. He tells her that it would have been sensible of the intruder to just push past her and run out the front door, and then asks her to think very hard about what might have really happened. Um, is it me or is that really bad police work? He’s basically influencing her thinking, after all.
Nora is sat down and asked more questions, the first of which is, of course, if she has a boyfriend
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, what is up with this book? That’s all anyone ever talks to her about! Although at least this does have a modicum of justification, given how the next few questions seem to be fishing for possible explanations (if she’s ever had any problems with drugs and where her father is, if she lives alone with her mother). At least you could argue that they’re trying to determine if she has some possessive, abusive, stalkery boyfriend. Which she does, but everyone including Fitzpatrick is trying to ignore it.
Nora finally sees that they aren’t going to believe her and give up. Because yeah, they’ve clearly wasted a lot of time and effort going over there, even though Nora in no way gave the impression that it was a frivolous or crank call and clearly believed she saw something. They say that they have things to get done, so they’re going to leave her alone until her mom gets back, at which point they want her mother to give them a call. Wow, that’s really great! Just leave the scared girl all alone where she may or may not be getting stalked!
And thus, we end our chapter with them leaving and Nora wondering how the ski mask dude cleaned up her room in fifteen minutes. Oy
Onward to: Chapter 15
Back to: Chapter 13
Return to to: Table of Contents