Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack Read Free Book Online Page B

otherwise it looked normal. Last night though it made me scared. I started thinking about Lori again and I didn’t get back to sleep for a long time.
    I’m glad I’ve only got one test tomorrow that I had to study for because I’m going to sleep early tonight, I’m so tired and it hasn’t been a good day Anne.
    Lori was already home by the time I saw the street gang as it turns out. An older girl who knows Lori’s brother Tom and talked to him last night told Tanya’s sister and she told us this morning. So Lori wasn’t murdered in the street after all. But what is happening to her is almost as bad we all think. Lori’s parents are putting her in a toughlove camp inNew Jersey. They’ve been threatening to do it for ages but I never thought they would.
    â€˜What do they do to you there?’ Icky Betsy asked. She ought to go to bulimic camp.
    â€˜They shave your head’ Whitney said. ‘They tie you to your bed at night with big belts and they sharpen the buckles on the belts.’
    â€˜How do you know?’ I asked. ‘Because I know’ Whitney said. “You weren’t ever in one’ Icky Betsy said. ‘No but I’ve read about people who were and heard stories.’ ‘Why do they sharpen the buckles?’ I asked. ‘Because when you wake up in the night and have to go to the bathroom you not only cut yourself when you try to sit up then you’re pinned down’ she said. ‘How do you go to the bathroom?’ Icky Betsy asked. ‘You don’t they electrify the bed springs and when you pee you get electrocuted.’ ‘You don’t know that’ I said. ‘I do’ she said. ‘Then everybody would die’ Tanya said. ‘It’s not a strong electrocution just enough to hurt’ Whitney says. I still don’t think she knows what she’s talking about.
    Daddy came home from Los Angeles this afternoon. Me and Mama and Boob were so glad to see him. He brought necklaces he bought for us, pretty gold strands. They’re not real gold I don’t think. We put them on right away and of course five minutes later Boob’s fell off and she lost it. We found it though. At dinner he talked about his trip but mainly about how everyone was handling the riots. I asked if his producers ever came out from under their desks and he said they did. They think the air force should bomb the neighborhoods, Daddy said. He didn’t think that was a good idea. On TV they said that’s what they were thinking about doing though so I bet they do. We asked if they bought his movie and he didn’t say they did. He said it was under consideration but that almost always means no. He didn’t act like he was sad or anything but he was fudging. Daddy was real jetlagged and he went to bed early tonight.
    Then a really bad thing happened Anne. I tried callingLori’s house. Her mother picked up the phone and when I told her it was me she said I wasn’t allowed to talk to Lori anymore. ‘Why not?’ I said but she hung up on me. ‘That’s so incredibly rude my darling let me take care of this’ Mama said when I told her. An hour later she called Lori’s house. When Mama got off the phone she told me what was going on.
    â€˜She said she was sorry for hanging up on you sweetie but it’s what she’s been told to do’ Mama said. ‘Who told her?’ I asked. ‘The toughlove goons angel they say when a child enters their programs they have to stop talking to all their friends because it’s impossible to tell which one led them astray’ she said. ‘I never did’ I said. ‘Oh sweetie I know but that’s what they tell them to do.’ ‘She can’t even talk to Katherine?’ ‘No angel no you’re all heathens in their eyes.’ ‘That’s not fair.’ ‘No angel’ Mama said. ‘Can she talk to us when she