Arriving at my house a bit later after encountering the boy by the stop sign, Pearl says "Do you think the boy is okay? You know after disappearing like that?"

"I hope so. Whatever he got into, hopefully he's at least safe and at home. Walking around like that at night isn't safe even in this small town. Weird stuff can still happen regardless, I guess. Remember One eye Joe and his whole crazy thing with the old lady Marge down the street? Everyone was talking about it for weeks." I said, grabbing my purse while opening the front door of her car to get out.

"Yea the whole thing with one eye Joe was pretty bad. Especially when the police found out what he had in his basement." Pearl says as she closes the car door before putting her purse on her shoulder.

Pearl locks the car first before we walked to the front door, talking about other random stuff like shoes, cute boys and customers who we think would be interesting characters in a murder mystery movie.

We walked into the house, where I could hear my mother setting the table and my father watching television.

"Macy! Is that you? And is Pearl with you?" I hear mom shout from the dining room.

"Yes, mother. It's me and pearl is here too." I replied back to her.

The front of the house was a little small but it had the usual wallpaper of a light green color and floral print covering most of it and into the living room. The coat rack stood to the right of the front door and had a few coats and hats hung over it. The stairs were a white and old looking wood that went up to the second floor of the house were on the left and a small hallway lead from where the stairs were into the living room and kitchen areas. From where Pearl and I stood, we could also see a small brown, wooden table in the hallway that was just big enough to fit there and had a few small books and a blue china vase sitting on a white cloth covering the table to keep it from getting too dusty. We took off our coats and placed them on the coat rack and then put our purses on a small bench next to the coat rack. We then made our way to the living room where my father was watching television on the couch.

The living room was a decent size and had the couch pushed against the wall that had the entryway leading from it to the foyer with a small side table with a small lamp on it next to the couch near the light switch. There was a arm chair on the other side of the couch with a plant in between both in the corner. In the middle was a red rug and a coffee table along with some magazines placed on top. The television was on the opposite side of it on a tv stand.  It was turned on and playing a black and white game show of some kind as my dad watched, somewhat bored with the whole thing. He was dressed in a white shirt that was stripped brown along the front and wore blue jeans with brown shoes that were nearly clean. His black hair that was slicked back and neatly combed started to look white and his pale face although a bit wrinkled had a slight tan from when he worked outside for a yard crew for so many years. His eyes were a light ocean blue and his lips big and bow like. Dad was of average height when he stood up only being 5'8 but when sitting down, he looked short than he was.

He turned to look at me and Pearl, and said "Hey girls. How was the diner? Not too busy I hope."

"Good, though the lunch rush was busy as always." I told him.

"Yea I bet. Everyone coming up for the weekend and the fair. Not uncommon for them to get here early and check out the town first." He said.

"Anyways we should see if mom needs any help with setting up dinner." I say before starting to go into the kitchen and dining room area.

Pearl quickly said her thank you's to my dad for having her over like she always did before following me in the kitchen. Mom was at this point, already placing the food on the dining room table, all warm and ready to eat.

"Hey sweetheart. You're just in time for dinner." She said with a smile on her face before coming over to me and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

Her brown hair was tied up in a bun and she wore a light blue checkered dress with tan pantyhose and blue heels. Her brown eyes lit up as I told her about today's events at the diner and about the boy, me and Pearl say just before getting here. She smacked her lips together before she realized she forgot to ask Pearl how she and her family were doing and if she wanted anything to drink before eating dinner. Pearl politely asked for a water and my mom hurried off into the kitchen to go grab some for her. Mom always liked Pearl and her family. Her mother was a secretary for a printing company and her father was a lawyer at the local law firm here in town that he owns. Her two older brothers were away at college, her oldest brother Justin was getting his degree to become a doctor and her other brother Ben was getting his in law to help their father run and maybe take over when he retires. Pearl also had two younger sisters, Rosemary and Jane. Jane was a freshman at our high school and Rosemary was in 7th grade at the local middle school. Whenever I would sleepover at her place, they would always welcome me with open arms and treated me like I was one of them since me and Pearl met in elementary school, her being in 2nd grade and me being 1st grade on the playground after some kids were bullying me. Since then, we've been friends ever since that day.

Once, mom came back with a glass of water for Pearl, it was time for dinner. Dad sat in the chair at the head of the table, his back to the kitchen while mom sat on his left and me and Pearl sat in his right. We said grace before we started eating dinner, mom and dad then talked about their day and what they had planned for today and for this week while pearl and I giggled over something that happened at school that we thought was funny. We all talked with each other while taking a bite of food here and there until out of the blue, we heard a knock at the door. By this point, it was 7:15, so it was unusual having someone by so late into the evening, at least by dinner time standards. Most people here in town were finishing up dinner or off doing something else by then. Dad excused himself from the table and gets up to answer the door. We all had stopped eating and we're listening to dad going over to the door and answering to whoever had knocked. Once we heard him open the door and the next thing we knew, we heard a "Land sakes, boy. What happened to you?" Coming from dad as we all got up to see what had happened. When we peaked around the corner, to not only Pearl's surprise but to mine as well, we saw the same boy who we encountered early, in a different outfit but this time covered in toilet paper and paint from head to toe.

"That's the boy we saw earlier!" Pearl exclaimed as she put a hand over her mouth in shock.

The boy looks from my dad then to me and says "It's you!" With the biggest look on his face.

Little did I know, things were about to change and not for the better.