What Nobody Saw: Day 10

Word Count: 60,002

Summary of Events:

Although severely nervous, Walker got ready and went to the restaurant to meet Dr. Schissler, who surprised Walker by being completely calm and quite conversational throughout the meal as he asked about what Walker was doing to his childhood home, as well as getting more background information on the papers as they dined . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“I do believe I saw you brought the papers,” Dr. Schissler said.

“Some of them,” Walker replied, picking up the bag and handing it to Dr. Schissler.

Dr. Schissler looked at the contents without opening the bag, looking intrigued, not upset, which granted Walker a lot of relief, considering how uptight Dr. Schissler had seemed about the papers over the phone.

“Zina kept a diary?” Dr. Schissler asked, sounding surprised, yet not altogether like he was expecting Walker to give him an answer.

“They supplied a lot of the information,” Walker said. “But they were hard to read.”

“Why?” Dr. Schissler asked, looking up at Walker critically.

“Well, just, they were, they made me mad,” Walker replied.

“Mad?” Dr. Schissler asked.

“Yeah,” Walker replied. “Some of the stupid stuff your dad would get mad at, it didn’t make any sense to me, and how he treated your mom. Like, I went to the archives to look up old editions of the Press because she said your mom had been injured in a car accident, but didn’t give a lot of details, and, like, your mom was the victim and her name wasn’t even mentioned. I mean, maybe it was convention of the day that they called her Mrs. Warner Schissler or whatever, but even you dad was just calling her his wife, not by her name.”

Dr. Schissler nodded, although he looked surprised.

“And, because my dad told me your dad was dead, I actually looked up the Press from the day he died and, like, your mom’s name isn’t even in the obituary,” Walker added. “There was, like, at least five other obituaries in the paper, and every single one of them had the spouse’s name, whether the spouse was dead or alive, except your dad’s. I got so mad. It’s not convention anymore to refer to a woman like that, and to forget a spouse’s name in the entire obituary?”

A muscle in Dr. Schissler’s jaw twitched in response to the expletive Walker had inserted into the sentence.

“Sorry,” Walker apologised. “But that kind of thing, that’s unheard-of.”

“It wasn’t something I noticed,” Dr. Schissler replied. “And I wasn’t really old enough to read the article of the accident. I’m surprised you would get upset about it.”

“I know what it’s like to be left out, even by people who are supposed to actually love me, but, I mean, it’s probably easier for a parent to forget about a child than it is for a husband to forget about his wife,” Walker replied. “And I think it was more than just forgetting, I think he deliberately left her out, and it’s just, why?”

“I’ve never found the answer to that question myself,” Dr. Schissler replied. “And trust me, I’ve been looking for probably forty years.”