Gone Home✔️

Chapter 09: The Forbidden Zone

I didn't like how dark the short hallway was, but there was at least enough light to see another potted plant at the end of it, perched on a table right up against a window. It had big, waxy leaves and almost looked fake, but I knew it wasn't. Mom wouldn't bother with fake plants. I also saw Sam's backpack up against the wall. There was a note beneath it. It was an old note, the back-and-forth conversation that had culminated in my little sister seeing Pulp Fiction. That was still kind of funny to think about.

There was just one other door, almost directly across from the one I'd just come through, so I opened it up and flipped on the light. A bathroom. The first thing I noticed was a big tub to the right, it had what, at first glance, looked like a lot of blood splashed onto it. My heart leaped into my throat...but then my eyes fell to a bottle on the floor beside it. I walked forward, knelt and grabbed the bottle.

"Whew," I whispered, letting out a sigh of relief.

Red hair dye.

I set it back down and stood up, looking along the length of the tub. I realized that the hair dye wasn't fresh...it was old, stained in, actually. Then, as I looked down to the other end of the tub, where a simple table was, I saw it.

Another journal entry.

I grabbed it and started reading.

Oct. 22, 1994

"Dealing With Roots"

Lonnie brought her hair dye over today. She said, "I
need to fix these roots. Think you could help?" Dyeing
hair is weirdly intimate. I don't know if I've touched
someone else's scalp before. That's pretty intimate,
right? It felt intimate.

We looked into the mirror together after and I
expected her to say something about how it looked
crappy, or good or whatever. But that's when she said,
"You're so beautiful." And she was looking at me.
Right in that moment, I wanted to say...something. But
I waited, and the moment was gone.

I folded up the note and slipped it into my pocket. I guess she had a point, touching, or even massaging in the case of hair dye, someone's scalp would be pretty intimate. The only other thing in the bathroom that was interesting I found when I opened up the cabinet over the sink. Printed out in block lettering, made with one of those label-makers, and slapped to the inside of the cabinet door, was: LONNIE RULES.

Wow, Sam really liked her.

I left the bathroom.

There was a door directly in front of the short hallway. Well, it was next on the list, I guessed, so I walked up to it, opened it up...and froze.

Mom and dad's room!

Even in my snoopiest of snooping days, I stayed out of my parent's bedroom. I just...did. You don't go in mom and dad's room. It just isn't done. But my curiosity was piqued more than ever because it looked like someone had already been through here. There were two dressers and an armoire, and a lot of the drawers were pulled open in the dresser, one of them actually pulled out all the way. Well...I'd come this far.

No going back now.

I stepped into the room.

I started by searching the nearest dresser, but all I got for my troubles was, (barf!), a condom still in the wrapper. Ew, so gross. Not thinking about it, not thinking about it. I moved on to the armoire, which was actually a TV cabinet. There was a TV, and a bunch of VHS tapes and...oh boy. Hook ups for a missing VCR player. Uh-oh, really, really not good. Sam had apparently stolen from mom and dad...how the heck was I going to explain this?