Read Online Someone Else's Fairytale by E.M. Tippetts - Free Book Online

answered the operator on my cellphone.
    “Hi, I'd like to report someone breaking windows in my mom's trailer home.”
    “Who was it?”
    “Don't know. Not sure if there are any witnesses. I wasn't there.”
    “Can you put your mother on the phone?”
    I looked over at Mom, who now lay on her side, a throw pillow clutched to her stomach. She still sobbed, like a little girl who'd lost her puppy.
    “Probably better if you just talk to me. I'm coherent.”
     

     
    Half an hour later, I stood outside Mom's trailer home. Its white siding flashed blue and red, the reflection of the police car lights. Two cruisers were parked out in front. The air was chill and I shivered even with my windbreaker on.
    “No forced entry,” one of the cops said. “Just looks like vandalism.”
    Another cop strode up from the direction of the neighbor's. “No one saw anything. They heard the breaking glass, but just assumed someone had dropped a dish or something. They say it happened around ten.”
    “This been a problem before?” The first cop asked me.
    I shook my head. “No.”
    “Well, no one else in the neighborhood got hit. Your mom get in a fight with anyone recently?”
    “Let me get her.”
    Mom was seated in the passenger seat of my car. She'd stopped crying, but her eyes were huge. Even if she'd been my age, the expression would have looked immature. On an almost forty year old woman, I thought it looked like she was missing a few marbles. “Mom, come out,” I ordered her. “Talk to the cops.”
    She scrambled to obey and came to stand right beside me, her eyes still wide.
    “Ms. Hanson,” said the first cop. “Do you have any idea who this was?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    “You sure?” I said. “Who've you been dating recently.”
    “No one.”
    “No one – no one or no one you think would do this? Come on, Mom!”
    “Could you calm down please?” the cop said.
    “No one who would do this. I've been talking to a guy on e-Harmony...”
    I rolled my eyes.
    The cops exchanged a look. “All right,” said the second one. “Tell us all about that.”
    “He's in North Dakota .”
    It was all I could do not to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. E-Harmony! Her extramarital affair with my father hadn't worked, out, so then she'd jumped into a series of other similar affairs, and now she'd turned to internet dating. Great.
    I paced around while the cops examined the house for clues, packaged up the rock (which I doubted they'd bother to fingerprint) and wrote up a report.
    I didn't get home again until five.
     

     
    When I woke up again, it was to my phone ringing. My bedside clock told me it was eleven. I grabbed my phone and cleared my throat a bunch of times before answering, “Hello?”
    “Oh, did I wake you up?”
    Dang it! My voice had still given me away. “Um...”
    “It's Jason.”
    “Hey.”
    “I didn't mean to wake you up.”
    “It's okay. Just had a weird night last night. Someone vandalized my mom's house.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “No big deal. Broken windows. Probably just some kids.”
    “Wow. That's awful.”
    “It's Albuquerque . You know.” Well, he probably didn't. That kind of thing was less common in the Northeast Heights .
    But much to my surprise he said, “Yeah, unfortunately. Someone tagged Steve's house a couple of weeks ago. That was fun, wondering if there was a gang moving their boundaries into his neighborhood. He says nothing else has happened.”
    “Where's he live?”
    “West side. Over by Montano Bridge .”
    “That's not too dangerous, is it?”
    “Like you said, it's Albuquerque . There's a reason they filmed so many episodes of Cops there. Anyway, I was just calling to say that I'd be in town next week. You want to meet up?”
    “Um, sure.”
    “Turns out I know the guy who runs the Sandia Tram these days. He says I could get a ride up the first ride – when they take the restaurant staff and visitors center staff and everyone up, before they let