Chapter 23

Jodi: The start of summer was the best yet. After a meeting with my social worker, John signed a few things and well, now he's my legal guardian. She'll be checking up on us every few months at first but apart from that, I'm free. Free from all the foster homes and foster parents. I'm finally home and it feels great.

John's working most days now to get us some money. I do a paper round in the mornings too. Andy's parents agreed for him to stay here over the summer so we've been doing a lot to the house. We cleared out the basement which took ages. John and I hadn't been down there since before we started high school. It was full of our old childhood stuff. We sorted the garden out too. Claire and Allison helped me plant some flowers while the boys started building a dog kennel for Bear. Everything was just going perfectly.

Andy: It was just Jodi and I today. Brian and Allison were going out for the day, John was working and Claire was visiting family. It was about 2 in the afternoon. Jodi and I had been outside all day, I was trying to finish Bear's kennel and Jodi was working through some boxes she found somewhere. It was just too warm to stay inside.

I went into the house to get us a drink each when I remembered we hadn't checked the mailbox this morning. I went out the front and removed the mail from inside. There was two letters, one each for Jodi and John. I left John's in the kitchen and took Jodi's outside to her. I handed it to her, she read it, and her face dropped.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's from the court. Did you say John had a letter too?"

"What's it say? Yeah it looked exactly the same."

"Yeah. It will be the same. They want us to testify against my dad in court."

John: I got home late. Bear came running up to me. It was dark. I locked the door and walked into the ktichen. I flicked the light on. There was a letter laying on the table with my name on it. I opened it up and read it. Shit.

Jodi: I woke up at 6am. I got changed quietly so that I didn't wake Andy before going into the lounge. When I walked out of my room, I noticed John sleeping on the sofa with Bear. I grabbed his leash and took him out with me to do my paper round.

When I got back, John wasn't on the sofa. Andy was stood in the kitchen in only a pair of shorts. His hair was all messy and he looked tired. He turned to face me when I came in.

"Hey baby. How come you're late?" He asked me. I looked at the time and realised that I had been gone an extra half hour.

"I was just thinking about stuff. Sorry."

"It's no worries! I just missed you that's all." Andy walked towards me and gave me a huge hug. Suddenly, he picked me up over his shoulder and walked towards our bedroom. I laughed and pretended to protest.

"Hey put me down!" I shouted.

Andy placed me down on the bed and kneeled over me. He tickled me and kissed me. We were laughing together. All of a sudden, I could smell smoke.

"Hey hey wait. Can you smell that?" I asked.

Andy sniffed the air. He jumped up suddenly and ran into the kitchen. "Shit!" He shouted. I followed him into the kitchen. When I got there, he was holding a frying pan with smoke everywhere. He looked at me, "I tried to cook you pancakes." I couldn't help but laugh.

John: It was Wednesday. I only saw Jodi briefly yesterday, we talked about the letters we had on Monday. This morning, another letter arrived. It was addressed to Jodi only, not me. In the top left corner of the envelope was a stamp from the prison dad was in. He had written to Jodi asking her to go and see him before his court hearing. Jodi didn't react well. She took the letter and went into her room. At around 7:30pm, Jodi finally came out of her room.

"I'm going to see him."

Andy and I looked at each other. "What?" I asked.

"I'm going to see him. Tomorrow. I want to know what he's got to say."

"Are you crazy? Jodi he killed our mom!"

"Yeah Jodi, John's right. Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"Look I've made my mind up okay."

"Then I'm coming too. You're my sister, you're not going alone."

"Thank you. Andy, will you drive us?"

"Um well yeah, I mean if it's what you really want."