Diane’s mother, Hannah is sitting in her office, muttering to herself about a true story of a father who was driven to madness as he tries to find answers for his missing son, a few years after his daughter vanished due to mysterious circumstances. Diane sits in her room parallel to her mother’s. She listens as her mother delivers each line with suspense and confidence.
Diane never thought of her mother’s job as ‘strange’, but only a little unordinary. She can only count one other person in her school with a mother who hosts a podcast, but it isn’t as popular and is still pretty underground. After all, no one can do it better than Hannah Pluck.
“And that’s when they realised… the answer had been in front of them all along.” Diane listens to her mother as her voice seeps down, becoming almost a silent breath before she suddenly yells to inform her viewers about what the father has found. Diane listens as her mother explains each part of the story in-depth. Her fingers glide across her paper, half focused on her essay.
Eventually, Diane has to force herself to pick up the pen and continue writing, too invested in the story that her mother is telling in the other room. Once she gives up writing, she imitates her mother’s speaking techniques. The way she misses her r sounds and emphasises the t or d when wanting to hold suspense. Diane hangs her head in defeat when she can’t seem to imitate her mother, sighing as she picks up the pen.
She hears a sound from upstairs and has to hope that the neighbours don’t start arguing again, forcing Hannah to redo the entire episode. Hannah doesn’t like it when her sessions are interrupted and has to redo it entirely so that it can be ‘perfect’, although even with the interruptions, Diane thinks her mother’s voice would be loved.
