What The Hell Is In My Attic Chapter 4

I read through the paragraph at least 27 times. I went over the most important words I found. The most confusing, the most worrying.

A man walks this world, unaware of his role.
Secret of the Reid family.
A case that was never

A case what was never what?
Never solved? Never spoken of? Never found? Never existed?
No amount of brain racking will solve this, but one thing is for sure.
Solvang, California is an important place. I need to get to Solvang, California.

I'll pack my bags tomorrow morning and hide them underneath my bed, then I'll sneak out at night when everyone's asleep.
No. No, no, no. I forgot about school. I always forget about school. How about I tell Principal Duncan that I have to attend a funeral in Solvang.
My grandfather's. He can't possibly deny a kid the rights to go to his own grandfathers funeral, can he?
Then again, he is the principal. And principals have authority.
I can't go alone.
A 17 year old kid in a town he's never been in...it just calls for disaster.
Then again, I don't have even a single friend to bring with me, so that plan crashes right away.
God, if only I could tell Ahren about this all. After all, the guy is sniffing out adventure more eagerly than a dog sniffing out biscuits.
Then it dawned on me.
The one person I should have told from the start. My father.
He has every right to know.

"Dad?"
I tumbled down the stairs toward the living room.
"Father? Legal guardian?"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. Every time I needed a little privacy, he was always there, watching over my shoulder, like a hawk.
Now that I'm actually genuinely looking for him, he's no where to be seen. I hurried into his study and, surprisingly, there he was, sitting by his desk reading a newspaper.

"Dad, there is something I need to tell you."
I started, but he waved me away.
"It's really important. It's about grandfather."
Father's eyes widen and he puts the newspaper down.
Now he's only focusing on me.
I take out the diary and hand it to him.
Without even looking at it he slams the diary against his desk.

"Where did you find this?"
I was taken aback by his reaction, but I kept my calm.
"Dad, that's not important, the important thing is-"
He stood up and repeated himself, louder than before.
"I said, where did you find this?!"
I sighed and looked down.
I didn't even need to explain myself.

"You went up to the attic, didn't you? You think I don't know about this?" He waved the diary in the air and then slammed it against his desk again.
"I-I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me about it if you already knew?"
He shook his head and sat down in his chair again.
"I don't want this subject to come up ever again, Quinlan. Do you hear me? Ever."

I nodded. I'm not dumb enough to test his limits by being cocky.
Not tonight.
"Good. I will be keeping this."
He said, nodding at the dairy.
I had no choice but to let it go. I guess my plan didn't work out.
If I want to find out more about this I need to take matters into my own hands.

Monday comes up and school is back on.
I'm going to tell Ahren today. Well I have to tell someone, I can't do this by myself.
He is now involved in this.
I pulled Ahren out of the class room after our astronomy presentation.
He had a smirk plastered on his face.

"If you wanted to fuck you could've just told me. No need to be aggressive."
"Shut up," I rolled my eyes, "I need to talk to you."

I told him about the diary, about my grandfather and the date of his death, about my father taking he diary, about Solvang and how I need to get there, how I need to know what happened to my grandfather.

"I...I'm not sure about this."
"What? Weren't you the one saying there was probably some hidden family secret in my house?"
"This is not what I meant. I was talking more, who cheated on who, who's a bastard son, that kind of shit. Quin, this...this is dangerous. Whoever did this didn't do it for you to find out, so just leave it."
"I'm doing it, Ahren. I really am. Are you with me?"

Ahren sighed and after what felt like an eternity, he finally answered.
"Fine, I'll do it."
"Do what?"
A girls voice, behind me.

"Ayumi?"
Ayumi?
Oh right, purple haired girl Ayumi.
I turned around and there she stood with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Ren, are you going around planning things without me?"
I really don't need hormonal couple pda with me on this trip. I need someone who can help me, that's all.

"It's nothing, we're going away for a while but-" before I could finish my sentence Ahren started explaining the situation with my grandfather and the diary.
Before you knew it, Ayumi was squealing with excitement.

"Please take me with you. I'm smart, I'm tactical. I can decipher things. Actually, I can't decipher things but I can try...See, I'm really good at these kind of things. Please?" She intertwined her hands and gave us the puppy-dog eyes. Ahren raised his eyebrows at me in a what-do-we-do look. I sighed and shrugged.

"Fine, you can come."