“If he wanted to break in, he wouldn’t keep calling you.”

101. Watcher in the Dark – Beverly Hastings

Erin is trying to babysit for Abby while her father is on a business trip, but someone keeps calling and not saying anything…and then her mother calls (Abby’s mother doesn’t live there) and says things about “stealing her baby” over and over. Abby’s father becomes unavailable and her mother escalates – kidnapping Abby from school, calling repeatedly after Abby escapes and tells a neighbor she doesn’t like her mom, calling Erin’s parents’ house when Erin decides that would be safer for her and Abby, and tailing Erin in her Volvo when Erin decides Abby’s family’s cabin – where Abby’s half-brother Dan is currently camping – would be better since her mom is like everywhere all at once. Of course, she still manages to kidnap Abby. Abby’s mom is outside the realm of family court and she is not coming back.

Overall this read mostly realistically, a little When a Stranger Calls, a little normal shit people do acting like selfish jerks over custody and messing with their kids’ heads… The level of jumpy freakout Erin reaches quickly made a lot of sense to me. Hastings made sure to make most of the reasonable help unavailable in a normal way for the years of no cell phones.

 

What’s this about checking children? – Peregrine and Ozma, not ready.

 

I never even learned to drive, why would I answer a phone? – Merricat

 

Also – SALE – Threadless (linked below) has everything on sale through September 6! So if you’re keen to make your home just a bit more guinea piggy like I always am, it’s cheaper to do so until September 6th at Threadless

You know who would be terrible babysitters…these ladypigs, but they’re definitely about to be watched in the dark in this parody.
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