Captain Kangaroo was conversing back and forth with both Mr. Green Jeans and Mr. Moose on the television while Isaac spoke in a low, overcast tone to his father over the phone.

Dressed in the same clothes from the night before, Isaac watched Isaiah crawl and romp about on the floor with his Fisher Price toy phone while he sipped away on his fourth cup of coffee for the morning. Isaac's mind was from the TV and drifting even further away from his son.

Every so often he would stare down at his scarred fingernails that felt as if someone had pierced each of them with sharp needles.

"Isaac, are you still there?" Mr. Mercer worriedly asked.

Shaking himself awake, Isaac replied, "I'm fine, dad. I just got a bad headache. Did the fuzz bring your car back yesterday?"

"Yeah, they brought it back last night. I think the carburetor needs replaced."

Just then, a long pause prevailed. The pause was soon followed by a moan from Isaac's father.

"Son...is everything alright with you? You sure don't sound fine."

Just judging by his father's stretched out gap in speech Isaac could sense that he was stressed over his grueling ordeal. All the young man could do was sit and shut his eyes in angst.

"Yeah, dad, I just need some time to...to work things out."

"Where's Lynn at?"

"She went out to get some more medicine for Isaiah. She said she'll be back before nine."

"Isaac, just relax and let the good Lord take care of everything. You've got a friend in him."

Out of helpless frustration, Isaac threw himself backwards into the couch where he was sitting and

He flinched, trying with all his might not to sound like he was

work at five, come down to the church and we can talk then. I'd

hesitantly said, sitting

"I gotta go

"I will, dad," Isaac sniffed before

he hadn't heard before; it startled Isaac enough to where he

squealed out as he handed his father his toy phone

smile came across Isaac's battered face before taking the plastic receiver, holding

tiny hands as though a parade were trolling

re-ran reports of the murder of the kidnapper,

kind of animal could have possibly killed all seven people in one

Isaiah frolicking in his arms Isaac's eyes were locked firmly on the TV as the screen scrolled through every little Sanders girl. Their angelic faces were alive with euphoric

concentrated on the screen. He was completely void of any emotion at

"Here!" Isaiah blurted out, handing his father his red View-Master to play with

dressed photo appeared on the television. He remembered the generous man offering him a ride two days earlier, but what seemed

struggled as he lifted his aching body from off

into the warm bathroom Isaac promptly removed every item of clothing from off the child's body, cut on the warm

enjoyed being wet; just splashing about in the water was all playtime for him. He knew that he should have been

straight ahead at the grimy tile while listening to the little girl's scream in his head in a high pitched tone. Much like the proverbial 'fingernails across the chalkboard', Isaac couldn't help but to drown in the hellacious notion that everything that happened two nights earlier was nowhere to be found in his mind. Even the remembrances of the

to children, and yet, had it not been

sudden, sprinkles of soapy water splashed into Isaac's dead face,

with that thing, boy, it'll turn into a habit." Isaac

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