Monday, August 8, 9:00 AM. Claire.

My name is Claire Tabitha Wilcox and I am ten years old. It is exactly 9 o’clock on Monday morning and a very pretty day. It is getting hot already though. I will go in the pool today if I can but yesterday it was getting green and Daddy said he had to get some new chemicals to clean it before we could go again.

Now it is 9:01.

Last night Daddy read to us from his diary and said that we should keep one too if we want to because it will help us think about what we are feeling and later we can remember things we saw or thought, and that can help us figure out what is happening. He gave us books that are all white inside. He said we can write down our prayers and see if God says “yes” or “no” to them. I hope he says “yes” to all my prayers. Daddy says he hopes so too but he sometimes says “no” and you have to be ready. I don’t want to be ready. So far he has said “yes” to all my prayers and I think that’s because my faith is so big he will keep doing that.

I used to keep a diary a long time ago but I gave up. This time I’m going to keep it forever and when I get old I will read it to remember what things were like.

I have a sprained ankle but it is better today and I can walk on it a little without crutches. Trevor made me a crutch which was very nice of him but then Daddy got me some real crutches from Walmart that he stole I think except it’s not stealing really now and I can glide on them fast, which is fun. The boys take them away so they can do it, but I don’t mind.

I am very scared and very, very, very, very sad because all my friends are gone and we can’t understand where they all went. I am even more sad because Mimi left too and Grandma and Grandpa are in Florida and the phones don’t work or anything that we could talk to them.

All of us are sad, though with Daddy and Garrett it’s not so easy to tell because they are Stoic. On the outside they look fine but on the inside they are sad and scared. I can tell anyway because I am an Empath which means I usually know what people are feeling before they do. That’s what Mom says.

With her it’s not so hard to know what she’s feeling. Right now she’s feeling very sad and VERY scared, though not as bad as Saturday. On Saturday when Daddy came back from Dallas she cried and cried and then she screamed and screamed and all of us hugged and cried because we were all scared. She cried all the rest of the day and stayed in bed and Daddy was worried. Even Garrett cried, and Garrett never says or does anything unless it is plays video games. Trevor cried too but he does that because he is little. Trevor is a Logician like Sherlock Holmes and he hates crying but he can’t help it like every other day.

I think we are going to be okay even though everyone is gone, because we are a very good family and I am praying that God will not let happen to us what happened to all the other people and I don’t think he would say “no” to that.