Removing the Mask Read Online Free PDF Page B

up the squeaky floorboards and when dad starts talking I know they don’t know I’m picking the lock on the imaginary cage.
    The carpet covering the stairs softens the sound of my footsteps and getting down the stairs and into the living room is too easy. Making a beeline for the kitchen, I take my iPod out my pocket before plugging my earphones into my ears. I catch the end of Heatwave by Wiley and Ms D before it changes.
    The cold air bites at my skin but it’s better than being prisoner in a room I wasn’t meant to leave, let alone the house. Splashing through the puddles left on the pavement, my thoughts go to where it all started. Before my computer was filled with documents filled with words, chapters, redrafts and more redrafts. We were in the living room, Dad, Roger and I. Mum was out with Trisha because it was Sunday, but she was having dinner out so we had to fend for ourselves; which meant we ordered Chinese and dad went and picked it up.  
     
    “What’s the matter McKenzie? You can’t be bored!” Dad’s sarcasm doesn’t stray my focus from the ceiling or more specifically the smudge on the ceiling. 
    On my back, I lay on the rug staring at the smudge wondering how it got there or who put it up there.
    “I’m not bored. Just trying to figure out how that smudge got on the ceiling.”
    Roger scoffs, “We were playing football remember? You kicked it up to the ceiling, it bounced off and broke the lamp on the side board.”
    My lips twitch as I remember the day it happened. Blinking, I scoff. “You were the one to kick it up to the ceiling! I threw it to you and said ‘we should take this outside!’ After you broke the lamp, you agreed!”
    Dad chuckles while shaking his head, his gaze never strays from the telly’s screen.
    Sitting up, I pluck a prawn ball out the carton on the coffee table before stuffing it into my mouth whole and chewing the battered goodness.  
    “Leave off Kenz. Go write a book or something!” Roger gestures towards the door, as If I’m just going to do as he says. What am I a dog? Should I bark and wiggle my backside?
    Dad erupts into loud laugher so hard I think he’s going to hurt himself.
    “What’s the matter with you?”
    Smiling he shakes his head. “It’s just the thought of you writing a book, it’s almost comical!” Roge r starts laughing away with dad. Looking between them; I try hard to not let on how offended they are making me feel.     
    “You don’t think I could do it?”
    His focus shifts to the telly and he deliberately doesn’t answer my question.
    Standing up I shrug casually, “Whatever.”
    I walk out the room and up the stairs to my room where I boot up my computer and start brainstorming for ideas about the book I’m about to start writing.
     
    I miss those nights. Roger, dad and I. We used to spend the evening watching whatever there was on the telly together. Roger and I used to bicker all the way through but I secretly loved our banter. Then he went off to college and now I’m mum and dad’s main aim of attention. Lucky me.
    The toe of my boot sends an empty can rattling across the pavement bringing me back from my thoughts. I lift my head in time to catch myself on the lamp post before I walk straight into it. 
    The black paints chipped under my hands and I wonder why they painted it in the first place. 
    Something draws me to take an earphone out . When I do, I know why because I can now hear the laughter coming from the park to my left.
    My feet had brought me here, I wish they hadn’t. 
    Tilting my head, I see Daniel, Greg and Nathanial; three players of my now old school’s football team.  
    Slipping my cold hands into my pockets, I walk towards them straightening my shoulders as I do. 
    “What’re you three cackling about like evil little old ladies?” My attitude comes in full swing and I feel myself rising for my second fight today.
    “Feeling a little absent today are we Kenzie?” Nathanial