Tell My Dad (5 page)

Honks looked disappointed, compressed his lips, and watched the rest of the video feed after Theaker clicked the play button.

The man pulled the sun visor down using his left hand without looking away from the woman, before banging her head on the steering wheel. He acted very casually, as if he did such head-banging on a regular basis.

“The bastard planned this,” Theaker murmured as he watched the man in the video opening the backdoor and lifting the girl out of the car.

H
arrison logged
onto the website and noticed seventy new posts in the last twenty-four hours. That was a lot for a day. He had been a regular visitor to underground Internet forums since the day he returned to the United States. If anyone had any doubts about human evolution, they should pay a visit to one of these shady websites. It was pretty much impossible to spot anyone with basic human decency.

He started reading new posts one by one. Someone from Cambodia offered human kidneys for sale. Some guys asked for partners to trade drugs. When Harrison looked at the next post, he stopped and stared at it. It was written by a guy who went by the username funSeventeen. He asked whether vodka could be mixed with Gatorade and if the mixture could give away the smell. It was obvious from the tone of the post that the guy was not just planning to drink Gatorade with vodka; he also wanted to give it cunningly to someone, possibly an innocent girl. Harrison posted a convincing reply. Then, he sent a private message to funSeventeen with the offer to help if he had more questions.

The bait worked, funSeventeen replied in less than a minute. “Thanks, bro. It should be fun. We have a party tonight. Will have fun with school nerd. Asian chick!”

“Cool. Keep vodka-to-Gatorade ratio, one to three. I can supply vodka to you,” Harrison replied, hoping that he would get a chance to meet with funSeventeen.

“No, man. we have it already, lots of it :-)” The message came back at lightning speed.

He sighed and sent out a reply. “Okay. Have fun!” Then, he checked all the other posts by funSeventeen. Some of the posts were about having sex with the teacher in a school bathroom. Some were about his adventure in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, which was closer to the San Jose area. Then, he noticed funSeventeen’s avatar, which was the image of a T-shirt. There was some picture on the shirt, but he couldn’t make out what it was. The website’s avatars were mostly sixteen-by-sixteen icons. It was hard to make sense of that small space. He downloaded the avatar and used open-source software to magnify the image without losing the quality.

The avatar appeared to be a school mascot. But there was no school name on it.

Now, he had to find the school. He started with private high schools in the San Jose area. There was no match for the logo. He checked the websites of all public high schools in the San Jose School District. Then, he found it.

* * *

T
racy Zhang was
a little excited and a lot anxious. She could not believe when Dave, the coolest guy in the school, asked her to come to the party. She was totally clueless about what had attracted him to her. She was a resident geek, not a striking beauty. When she enrolled in Bay Creek High School two years ago as a freshman, she had a panic attack. She had wanted to stay in middle school forever and did not have the confidence to survive high school. However, two years flew by.

During her junior year in high school, she wrote a research paper about the Internet of Things when her classmates were trying to figure out how Internet communication protocols worked. The research paper won the science competition at San Jose State University. The school principal was very proud and put her picture on the notice board with the slogan “Resident geek of Bay Creek!”

Until that point, Tracy had had few friends. When the new title “resident geek” came along, those friends also disappeared.

When Dave showed up in her physics lab one day and congratulated Tracy, she was speechless for a few seconds. “I’m sorry. What is this about?”

Dave seemed to enjoy her innocence. “Oh, you are so modest! The entire school knows you won the science competition!”

“Oh, that…It was last month! It’s no biggie.”

“Hmm, maybe for you. But for the rest of us, it’s a big deal! I wish I could be like you.” Dave shook her hand.

Tracy was mesmerized. She had replayed that moment in her mind thousands of times since then.

Although she was not a fan of any sports, she started following football so she could have a meaningful conversation with Dave if he ever came around. He did come around a few times but never discussed football. He kept on talking about how brilliant she was, which was pretty boring.

Last Wednesday, he stopped her in the hallway when she was rushing toward the lab. “Hey, Tracy! We’re having a party on Saturday night. Can you come?” Before Tracy could say a word, Dave put his palms together and said, “Don’t say no! Please!”

It was the first time in her life someone had invited her to a party. On top of it, the school’s heartthrob had almost begged. Tracy felt the butterflies in her stomach as she smiled and said, “Yes!”

* * *

T
racy adjusted
her hair to hide the big forehead she had inherited from her father. Then, she adjusted the rim of her glasses and looked at the GPS screen mounted on the car dashboard. “Mom, we’re almost there.”

“Are you sure this boy gave you the correct address? I do not see any party house!”

“They don’t put a sign in front of the house, Mom! Turn right; I know that boy.” She was totally excited. As soon as they turned right, they saw the house with the school crowd on the front porch. She spotted a girl from the senior class. “Mom, this is the house!”

Jennifer Zhang stopped the car at the curb. “I think I should wait here. I am not going to do anything at home. I have the Kindle with me. I will be reading until you come back.” She did not want to leave her alone.

Tracy leaned forward, hugged her, and smiled. “You are so sweet, Mom! I don’t know how long the party is going to last. I don’t want Dave to think I’m a little child or something, you know. I want to act like a grownup. If you stay here, the guys are going to notice. It’ll be embarrassing!” She pointed at the cars leaving the house. “See, every other parent is just dropping off. No one stays here, Mom.”

Jennifer Zhang sighed. “I never thought I would let you go to a party at this age. Be safe…”

“I’ll be fine, Mom. Don’t worry!” Tracy jumped out of the car and waved as she made her way into the crowd. She was a little scared and a lot excited. This was her first party ever. Her eyes eagerly looked for Dave, but there was no sign of him.

She spotted some girls she knew from the school and nervously greeted them. They basically ignored her. She looked around the house. There was still no sign of Dave. She started wondering if she had entered the wrong house.
Oh God, that would be embarrassing.

Someone touched Tracy’s shoulder from behind. “Hey, Tracy! Thanks for coming.” Dave seemed surprised.

“Thanks for inviting me.” She thought it was lame immediately after saying it. “Cool party. You have a beautiful house.”

“Thanks. My folks are out of town. That’s another reason to throw a party!” He appeared a little drunk as he laughed out loud.

Tracy wanted to ask when the party would end. It was different from what she had imagined.

“Do you want a drink?” he asked.

“No! I’m not supposed to drink. My mom will kill me!”

“Oh, Crazy Tracy, I was asking about soda and such. There’s also a lot of food there in the kitchen. Come on.” He held on to her hand as he walked toward the kitchen. She wanted to hold on to his hand forever.

The kitchen was huge. It was bigger than her living room. Her mom would have cried in joy if she had seen the size of that kitchen. Pizza boxes were scattered all over the place, along with soda cans and cookies. A big box of chocolates was sitting on the middle of the island.
Chocolates!

“Take whatever you need. I need to run now, but I’ll be back. Lots of people here know you. Socialize! Don’t be shy.” Dave quickly turned around and ran toward the living room.

Lots of people know me? That’s strange.
Tracy took a plate, gathered a lot of chocolates, and grabbed a Diet Pepsi. She looked around the kitchen until she got bored and then walked into the living room. She saw a boy running around without a shirt. Two boys screamed in the backyard.
Weird.

A long, dark-blue couch was moved from the center to the far-right corner of the living room. Some boys were busy setting up the stereo system in the far left corner. By the size of the speakers, she realized that she would need to tolerate lots of decibels.
How do they even get these things in the car?

Tracy walked around for a few minutes and then went into the backyard, which was huge as well. There was a long wooden table in the left corner on which beer bottles were stacked and lots of bags of potato chip. A few guys danced without any music.

She looked at the cloudy sky and wondered what her mother was doing.
Probably worrying.

“There you are!” She turned around after hearing the voice from behind. Dave ran his hands through his hair and smiled like Prince Charming. “I was looking for you in the living room. What are you doing here?”

“Nothing. Just looking around.”

“Come on; let’s go to that table.” He pointed to the small table in the far right corner. “I just brought Gatorade for you. Let’s see who finishes the bottle first!” He laughed as he lifted two bottles. She wanted to keep looking at his smile.

“Gatorade drinking contest? That sounds lame!” She winked.

“Okay then, how about a beer contest?”

“Hell, no. I’ll take Gatorade!” She shook her head and laughed.

“There you go. Let’s do it!”

Dave gulped the entire bottle of Gatorade while Tracy finished only half. “Looks like you lost! Do you want to try again?”

“I had some soda already. I feel full.”

“Come on; don’t give up!” He winked, quickly walked to the table in the left corner, and brought two more Gatorade bottles. “Okay, let’s try these on the count of three!”

She finished the bottle in two gulps. It didn’t taste like Gatorade.

“Wow! You did it. Way to go!” he shouted behind a blurry white screen.

She felt the burning sensation in her stomach. “I don’t feel very good. My stomach hurts.” She burped.

“Oops, come on. I’ll take you to the washroom upstairs.” He grabbed her hand and led the way. The stairs were wobbly and slippery. She promised herself not to get into any more stupid drinking contests.
What was I thinking?

He turned right after reaching the second level and ushered her into the large bedroom. “This is my parents’ bedroom. Bathroom is in that corner. Take it easy. I’ll run downstairs and see if I can find any medicine in the kitchen.”

She felt warm as she walked toward the bathroom door and then stopped. Her head hurt. She sat cross-legged on the king-size bed, which faced the window, and stared at the full moon. She caught a glimpse of a shadow near the bathroom door. She wanted to check it out, but her legs were numb. She placed a pillow on her lap and clutched it with both hands to soothe her trembling stomach. When she closed her eyes, she felt like she was floating in the air.

W
hen Dave came back
to the bedroom, Dima and Ray came along. “Check this out!” Dave threw his hands up and started making movements, which resembled a folk dance from the early fifteenth century. “She’s already crashed! Man, just two bottles! Man, just two!” He took his iPhone and checked the battery to make sure he had enough juice to take pictures—maybe a couple of videos.

Dima locked the door. “Today is our lucky day, man. I never did an Asian chick!”

“Her mother is Chinese. Father is Korean. It’s multicultural man!” Ray giggled.

Dima and Ray dragged Tracy gently from the corner of the bed and placed her in the middle. Dima lay down on one side of her. Ray took the other side and removed her glasses. Both got ready to undress her.

Dave looked at them and winked. “Guys, do your thing. You’re in a movie, folks!”

Dima laughed like a hyena and showed his smoke-stained yellow teeth. He looked at Ray and said, “Since eighth grade, Dave has wanted to direct a porn movie. Can you believe that?”

Ray didn’t reply. He looked confused and stared at the white wall adjacent to the bathroom door.

Dave stopped smiling and followed Ray’s eye movement. Just then, he felt like someone had put his head inside a bonfire. “Fuck…” He dropped the phone, put both his hands on his head, and knelt down on the floor. Someone grabbed his neck, pulled him up, and threw an elbow strike to the center of his head. He wasn’t sure if someone had attacked him or if the vodka was doing its magic. He fell on his face on the hardwood floor and tasted varnish.

* * *

H
arrison looked
straight at the people on the bed. He wasn’t sure if the girl was half-awake. The boy on her right jumped off the bed. He was six-foot-two, well-built, and looked like a quarterback.

“Who the hell are you? Who let you in here?” Ray started shouting as he moved forward. He looked at Dave, who was flat on the floor, with disgust and fear.

Harrison twisted his neck, generating a bone-cracking sound, and stared at Ray without saying a word.

“You’re in big trouble, asshole.” Infuriated, Ray threw a punch at Harrison, who quickly moved to his left and let Ray’s hand pass by the right side of his face. Then, Harrison threw a hard punch with his palm. The punch landed right below Ray’s bottom teeth. Ray felt the blood on his lips.

Now, Harrison threw his right elbow with full force at Ray’s head, which was the final blow in Ray’s life.

Harrison pulled a knife from under the robe and slid it through Ray’s neck. Lifeless, Ray fell down like a slaughtered sheep.

It took a few seconds to sink in for Dima. He had been close friends with Dave since kindergarten. When the principal had decorated the school notice board with Tracy’s picture, he provoked Dave. “Lot of girls may fall for you, but not this one. She’s too nerdy for you!”

Dave took that as a challenge and took baby steps to gain her trust and make her come to the party. Just like they planned, she was drunk and was only a few inches away from him but still not touchable.

“Who are you, man? Get the hell out of here. There’s no money here.” Dima wasn’t sure whether that was the smart thing to say. He was too nervous to think of anything meaningful. He just wanted to open the door and run. When he saw the monk in a red robe walking toward him with a gun, he could not control it. He peed in his pants.