Sitting by her mail-box, Allison
impatiently waited for the blue mail truck to come into view. Picking at her nails because she had nothing
else to do, she tried to calm her excitement.
She waited for her potential acceptance letter to her dream college,
Stanford.
Suddenly, from the corner of her
eye, Allison saw a blue streak slowly making its way to her house. She jumped to her feet and stared expectantly
at the mail truck.
After a few minutes, the mail man
pulled up to Allison’s house, leisurely got out of the truck and sluggishly
handed Allison her mail. Snatching it
from him, Allison quickly rifled through all the envelopes to fine the one she
was looking for. Grabbing hold of the
letter from Stanford, she forgot about all the other mail, which fell
carelessly to the ground.
Ripping the letter open, Allison
quickly skimmed the content. Numbly
staring at nothing, she let the letter fall to the ground.
Feelings of inadequacy and sorrow
filled Allison as she attempted to hold back her tears, but they overwhelmed
her eyelids and gushed from her eyes.
Her knees buckled and she toppled to the ground.
What had seemed like such a bright,
sunny day had abruptly turned cold and gray. Allison vaguely heard thunder
growl in the distance. Too dazed to feel the pelting rain begin, she just sat
by her mail-box getting soaked.
Crushed, Allison stayed put until
she realized the rain had stopped and the sky was splashed with color from the
setting sun. Gathering what strength she
could, she stood up to walk into her empty house and to start the long journey
of moving past the pain.
An hour later, Carmen stepped out of
the car after arriving at the Wellington
mansion. Glancing down at herself, she
was embarrassed by her rumpled and grungy clothing.
Walking towards the house, Carmen
noticed the multitude of cameras surveying the area and the many guards lurking
in the shadows, who were ready to pounce at the first hint of a threat.
Before Carmen could stop the memory
flooding her mind, she was suddenly eleven years old again…
“Tell me again. What do you look for when approaching a
building?” Her father asked.
“Umm… You look for the cameras, if
there are some. Then, you find if there
are guards and if they are armed. Umm… Then, you… Umm…” Young Carmen struggled
to remember the next step.
“The next thing you look for is what
kind of alarms the house has.”
“Oh, yeah! I can’t believe I forgot
that.”
Carmen shook the memory from her
head and once again was ashamed of her father’s career. As a young naïve child,
she had admired her father and his vast knowledge, before she understood he was
only a lowly criminal.
Brushing off her anger towards her
father, Carmen instinctively made mental notes of the protection around the
house. Slowly, Carmen walked up the
steps to the front door and knocked.
The door flew open to reveal the
austere butler. “What do you want?” He asked in a crisp monotone voice.
“I was wondering if any of the Wellingtons were in. I am
a friend of the family.” Carmen’s voice held more confidence than she felt.
“Who, may I ask, are you?” The
butler stiffly inquired.
“I am Carmen James. No, Ford! Carmen
Ford.” Carmen decided to giver her father’s surname rather than her mother’s
maiden name. She had changed her name
when she had wanted to distance herself from her father.
The butler allowed Carmen to enter
the house but commanded, “Stay here and don’t touch anything.” Carmen bitterly
chuckled to herself, remembering her purpose for being here.
Gazing around the room, Carmen tried
to guess just were the vase would be.
Thinking back to what the voice had told her during the long car ride,
she cautiously took a few steps to get a better look into one of the other
rooms.
“Carmen, dear!” Mrs. Wellington
glided into the room with perfect poise. “Well, this is a surprise. How’s your dear father?” Dear? How could anyone call my father ‘dear?’
“He passed away a few weeks ago.”
Carmen’s voice held no remorse.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. He was such a kind man and very generous,
too.” Mrs. Wellington mussed.
“Why do you call him generous?”
Carmen was shocked at Mrs. Wellington’s words.
“Oh, for Mr. Wellington and I’s
twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, which we just celebrated, he gave us the
Qianlong Vase, a pretty expensive piece. Did you know it was auctioned off for
approximately sixty-six million dollars just last year?” Then how did my father manage to get it, I wonder… He never bought
anything.
Recognizing this was the vase she
needed, Carmen asked, “Would you be so kind as to show it to me?”
“I would love to. It’s this way.”
Mrs. Wellington led Carmen to it. Carmen stared at the vase, wondering how she
would get it out of the house unnoticed.
Recalling her time constraint,
Carmen looked down only to realize she had just twenty-five minutes left. Panic rose within her. She needed
this vase but didn’t have a plan to get it out of this well-protected fortress.
Luckily, Carmen observed, there didn’t appear to be any sensors around it to
sound the alarm if it was moved.
“Isn’t it such a beautiful piece?”
Mrs. Wellington’s voice broke through Carmen’s thoughts.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, it is.” Carmen
distractedly answered.
Jake quickly scooped her up in his arms. She clung to him while being grateful for his
presence and silence. They just sat
together as Jessica cried in Jake’s arms.
Finally, when Jessica had spent all
her tears, she leaned toward Jake’s ear to whisper, “I’m pregnant.”
Jessica felt Jake tense, silently
regretted her words. Because of her
exhaustion, she didn’t have the strength to keep quiet any longer.
Jake slowly took in Jessica’s news,
finally understanding her strange behavior.
Numb from the shock, Jake sat still until he felt Jessica shift in his
arms.
Jessica looked at him with her clear
glimmering eyes and said, “I know you don’t want kids and I’m sorry.” Another
sob shook through her.
Jessica’s words made Jake realize
how callous he had been by making her believe he absolutely didn’t want
kids. “Oh, Honey. Are you so upset about this because of our
conversation a few nights ago? Well, I
didn’t want kids then. Now, once the
shock wears off, I’m excited. I’m going
to be a father and I didn’t know, until now, how appealing that idea was.”
Jessica looked at Jake as is he’d
gone insane. “You want kids now? But… I thought…”
“I know what I had said, but I don’t
mean it now. When you asked me before, I
was terrified. I had no idea how I could
be a good dad or how to raise kids.” Jake’s confession surprised Jessica. She had never would’ve guessed that was the
reason he didn’t want kids.
Then, his earlier news hit her
again, Jake didn’t have a job. It didn’t
matter if they wanted kids now or not, they couldn’t afford them. “Jake, what
about your job? We couldn’t afford kids
with your old job, now what are we going to do?” Jessica looked like she was
going to cry again, but she held the tears back.
“Oh, about that… When I went out not
long ago, I talked to Luke about finding me a job. And, he did.
The job actually pays better than my old one and it is something I will
really enjoy.” A smile crept along Jake’s
face, showing his joy for the coming baby and his new job.
Jessica was shocked once again. All of her worries had just evaporated and
she began to wonder why she had even fretted at all. Jessica relaxed in Jake’s arms while they
both let their news sink in. Their day
looked like it would have a happy ending, after all.
One year later, Jessica thought back
to that day and was amazed at how she’d overacted to some simply careless
words. Overjoyed everything had worked
out, she glanced down at her beautiful baby girl and felt a surge of love
overpower her. Silently, Jake wrapped
his arms around her. They quietly
watched their daughter peacefully sleep, while they contemplated that far off
day. Ever since then, their lives had
been irrevocably changed for the better.
Minutes ticked by while Carmen just
sat contemplating what she should do. I
can’t believe this whole thing is happening because of my thieving father! Can
I never get out from under his shadow?
Now, he is putting innocent lives in danger if I don’t do the bidding of
some psycho and he isn’t even alive anymore!
Grumbling to herself, Carmen climbed
to her feet to begin the task set before her. Looking around, she wondered how
she would make it to the Wellington Estate from wherever she was now.
Glancing at the count-down on her
wrist, Carmen jolted, realizing she had already lost twenty minutes of her
precious little time. She hurried out what she believed to be the door of the
building, but she couldn’t be sure with the disrepair of the empty warehouse.
As Carmen passed out of the
building, her phone chirped to life. Reluctant to answer, she considered
tossing it across the street and leaving it.
Knowing she had to answer, she took a deep soothing breath. “What do you
want now?”
“Oh, don’t sound so upset. I am
giving you a little adventure. You should be excited.”
“Being forced to do your bidding,
whoever you are, is not exciting.”
Carmen’s anger over the whole situation resurfaced. “What are you calling me
for this time? You want me to go get
your coffee too?” Carmen spit out.
“Oh, no, that won’t be necessary. I am calling to tell you that I am generously
providing you with a car and driver.”
The voice seemed pleased with his ‘generosity’ and continued, “Don’t try
anything. The driver is armed and if you
disobey my instructions, he won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your pretty
little head.”
“Oh, why thank you,” Carmen’s
frustrated sarcasm dripped from her words.
“You’re welcome. Now get to it, you
only have an hour and a half left.”
Unable to restrain her temper,
Carmen ended the call and threw her phone to the ground, smashing it to pieces.
Breathing hard, she glanced around to find the car waiting for her. Spotting
it, she took a deep breath to calm herself and made her way to the black
Mercedes-Benz.
Carmen slid into the leather
upholstered seats of the car and curiously stared at her chauffeur. Clothed in a black suit and hat, the driver
wore a rigid expression and tossed something back to her while grumbling,
“Don’t break this one.” Taking a closer inspection at the object, Carmen
realized it was another cell phone.
Moments later, the car lurched to
life. Carmen gloomily peered out the window to the blurred landscape they were
passing at an alarming speed.
Jessica slowly walked to the house, not watching her
surroundings, when she bumped into her husband, Jake. His arms shot out to steady her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw a
spark of urgency.
“Honey, I have to tell you
something.” Jake blurted.
Jessica didn’t hear him and noticed
he was home instead of work. “Why aren’t
you at work right now?” A slight flash of fear glazed over Jessica’s eyes for a
brief moment, before she hid it.
“That is what I need to tell you
about. I… umm…” Again, Jake started to
consider how he could tell Jessica his news.
“Well…” Jessica paused to let him
continue and when he didn’t, she said, “Just say it.”
“I… kinda… let’s just say… I…” Jake
stumbled over his words. He averted his
gaze from Jessica, fearing what she was going to think.
“Come on, honey. Just say it.” She urged.
“Okay… I… I lost my job.” Jake
looked almost relieved to finally not carry the burden of his news.
“What?! This can’t be
happening! What about…? What are we…?”
Now, Jessica couldn’t look at Jake. She
wrung her hands and shifted her weight between her feet to hide the fact she
was shaking from head to toe.
“Honey, I know this is going to be
hard for awhile, but we can still make it through. I’ll get another job soon, don’t worry.” Jake
noticed her agitation, and he had no idea his news would’ve affected her like
this.
“But… What about-” She quickly shut her mouth
before it slipped.
Jake wasn’t so sure if his news made
her so upset or something else. “Are you okay?
Is there something you want to tell me?”
“No, I’m fine. Perfect!” Jessica exclaimed with a false passion, which
made Jake know something was defiantly wrong.
“You don’t sound or look
perfect. What is it?” Jake reached out
to comfort Jessica.
The moment he touched her icy arm,
she jerked away as if his hand was an inferno, and snapped, “Nothing! It’s
nothing!” Jessica frantically looked around to see if anyone besides her
husband had heard her outburst.
“Whoa. It is something. You know you can tell me anything. If it is about my job, Luke said he could
pull some strings and get me a job.
Baby, don’t worry.”
“How can I not worry?! How can any
of this work out?” Jessica’s eyes filled
with tears. She futilely tried to force them back but a single tear slipped
down her cheek.
“Well, if you just tell me what’s on
your mind, maybe I can help.” Jake wanted to reach out to her again, but he
feared she would shy away. He just
wanted to know what bothered her, so he could fix it.
Jessica got more agitated by the
minute. Jake’s calmness unnerved her,
and she said, “No, you can’t help. You
can’t fix this! Not this time.” For the
first time, Jessica noticed the cold.
She quickly retreated to the house and left Jake standing defeated on
the sidewalk. She escaped to the bathroom,
just in time to lose her breakfast.
She slowly sank to the ground with her tears
freely flowing. In the distance, she
faintly heard Jake enter the house. Jessica
knew she should tell Jake what she had found out at the doctor, but then she
remembered their conversation from a few nights ago…
“Jake, do you want kids?” The look
on his face gave away his answer, but Jessica continued, “I mean… Don’t you
want to be a father?”
“Jessica, I would like kids, it’s
just, not now.” Jake finished getting ready for bed and joined Jessica, who
looked surprised by his answer.
“Why? Why not now, what’s wrong with now?”
“We don’t have much money for us,
let alone kids. And besides, we are just
settling into this house and my job, we don’t need to throw kids into the mix
to make life more crazy.” Jake turned
off his lamp on his nightstand, showing he didn’t want to discuss it anymore.
Jessica immediately got flustered at
his blatant dismissal and said, “If we had kids, we would manage. Sure, we won’t be able to spend our money so
freely, but I think it would be worth it.”
Jake deliberately ignored her, “Go
to sleep, I have to go to work early tomorrow.”
“Fine, but this isn’t the end of
this discussion.” Jessica shut off her lamp and jerked the covers over her.
Jessica and Jake hadn’t talked about
it since that night, and now, Jessica regretted not being able to convince him.
Jessica sat on the bathroom floor a
few minutes more. Realizing she couldn’t
stay there any longer, she slowly got up.
She opened the door just in time to see Jake get his jacket to sneak
from the house. He glanced her way with
a look of defeat. Turning away, he opened the door and walked out.
Wanting to go after him, Jessica
stopped herself because she didn’t want to reveal her news just yet.
Jessica tried to snap out of her
current mood but couldn’t while she sat idle.
In a crazed state, she quickly cleansed every inch of her house until
nothing was left to do.
When the last of her energy was
spent, she went to her spotless room, and she crawled into her bed. An hour
later, Jake found her curled into a ball, shivering on top of the covers. Tears
were streaming down her face.
Carmen’s eyes shot open and she
braced her head to stop its constant spinning.
When her vision cleared, she looked around to find she was lying in an
abandoned building.
The room was shrouded in a dark hue
and provided little protection from the pattering of the downpour outside. Rain
drops rhythmically dripped through the patchy roof, uniting with the puddles
below.
As Carmen sat regaining her balance,
she started to wonder why she was in this strange place. She tried to remember what had happened but
the harder she tried, the more apparent the black void in her memory became.
Suddenly, Carmen’s phone chirped to
life, startling her out of her contemplation. Tentatively reaching out her
shaking hand, she managed to answer the call, “H-hello”
“Ah, good. You are awake.” She heard
the voice on the other end sneer.
“Who are you? Where am I?” Carmen
frantically asked.
“It’s no matter. What does matter is
the explosives strapped to your wrist, which I will gladly detonate if you
don’t follow my instructions.”
For the first time, Carmen peered
down to her right wrist to see an odd contraption with a timer strapped there.
Turning her wrist around, to get a better look at the device, she noticed, with
a sinking heart, there was no way to easily detach it.
The digital screen suddenly lit up
and the clock started ticking down. Realizing she wasn’t listening to the
demanding voice droning on through her phone, she started paying closer
attention.
“As you can see, I have given you an
hour and forty-five minutes to retrieve this vase your father stole. You will
now find it at the Wellington’s
estate, I am sure you are familiar with them… Your first task is to steal this
vase before your time runs out.” There was a brief pause before the voice
continued. “Oh, and one more thing, if you try anything to double-cross me, I
will not only blow you up, but also part of the National Independence Day
Parade, today, on Constitution Avenue.
It would be too bad if so many innocent lives were lost.” Carmen jolted
as she realized the ruthlessness of the voice.
When she tried to protest, the call
cut off. In shock, Carmen blankly stared
at the ground around her.
At twenty-five, Carmen has long dark brown hair
and pale green eyes. She is the daughter of a legendary thief and conman, who
taught her all he knew. Ashamed of her father’s criminal activities, she hasn’t
spoken to him in years. When she heard
of her father’s death, she felt no remorse, but she still grieves for her
mother, who died when Carmen was sixteen. As a child, she grew up surrounded by
the wealth her father had gained, but she hates to remember that time because
of her blind love of her father and her naivety.
Elizabeth sat impatiently waiting as the
minutes slowly ticked by. She peered at her watch once again, wondering why
time wouldn’t move faster.
Finding nothing else to occupy her
and give her itching bones something to do, Elizabeth jumped to her feet to begin
rhythmically pacing.
In the midst of her stride, Elizabeth didn’t realize
someone approached her from behind. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and
begrudgingly turned around.
Focusing on the face that
interrupted her, Elizabeth
slowly realized, with overwhelming joy, she started into the eyes of who she
had been waiting for. Nathan, her older brother, smiled back at Elizabeth as she flung
herself into his open arms.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you, big
brother! How long are you back for this
time?” Elizabeth
held her brother at arms length to have a good look at him.
“Just a week. Then, I have to ship
out again.” Elizabeth and her brother turned and moseyed arm-in-arm to the
baggage claim.
“Well, I’ve really missed you this
past year.” A twinge of sadness crept into Elizabeth’s voice.
“I’ve missed you too, sis.” Nathan
glanced at his younger sister and regretted not being able to spend as much
time together as they used to. “Don’t worry, at the end of this year, I’ll be
done with my tour in Afghanistan.”
Nathan reassured his sister.
“Yeah, but that seems like forever
away,” Elizabeth
sighed.
“I know, sis.” Nathan felt his
weariness set in.
Forcing herself to stop dwelling on
the negative, Elizabeth
quickened her pace and happily declared, “Let’s just enjoy your time home. What
do you want to do first…”
Walking together, Nathan and
Elizabeth continued to chat, catching up on al they had missed during their
separation.
Tears gushed from Annie’s eyes as
anguish filtered through her bloodstream. She stared at the departing form growing
smaller with each passing second and felt fresh tears fill her eyes.
The full moon cast its pure light onto
the heartbreaking scene as the stars glittered brilliantly in the midnight sky,
mocking Annie with their twinkling pleasure. Annie’s golden hair flew with
abandonment around her head, dancing in harmony with the vicious wind.
Annie glanced one last time at the
back of the shadowy figure before he was engulfed in darkness and she reflected
on what had transpired only moments ago…
John lightly tugged Annie along to
their favorite spot in the park, overlooking the shimmering water. It was at their favorite time: when the sun
had set to reveal the moon’s splendor. Hand in hand, they strolled along the
concreted path, enjoying the cool evening air.
Despite the blissful beauty of the
night, Annie could sense something was consuming John’s thoughts, making him
withdrawn and cold. Annie lightly
squeezed John’s hand to drag his attention from his musings.
When John looked up from his
distracted daze, Annie inquired as to what was bothering him, “John, you’re
very distant tonight. What’s been on your mind?”
After a long pause where John just
blankly stared at Annie with an unidentifiable emotion flaring behind his eyes,
John suddenly blurted, “We need to go our separate ways.”
“What?!” Shock rose within Annie and
rapid thoughts were running through her head. What did I do wrong? ... Was it me? ... What brought this about? ... I
thought our relationship was going so well! …What happened?
“I said, we should break up.” John’s
words grew with intensity as if he were gaining more courage to say each one as
the drama unfolded.
A quietly whispered, “why?” was all
Annie could manage to choke through her growing numbness.
“Annie, this has been fun but we
need to face reality. We just aren’t meant to be together.” John’s words burned
in Annie’s ears. She wanted to protest further but John slowly turned away and
callously ended their relationship with, “Goodbye, Annie.” Then, he slowly
walked out of her life.
Tears flooded Annie’s glistening
blue eyes once again. Her knees finally
gave out and she crumpled to the ground.
Minutes passed where Annie couldn’t
gather enough strength to end her constant flow of tears and her regret
overwhelmed her mind. I never should have
let him get so close. I shouldn’t have given him that power to wound me and,
looking back, I can’t believe how stupid I have been to not see this inevitable
end coming!
Anger, at allowing herself to be so
vulnerable, filled Annie and brought about another round of tears. Her carefree hair clung to the wet
tear-stains on her face until Annie reluctantly decided to dry her face.
When Annie realized her tears were
finally spent and the emotionless numbness was setting in, she started the
tedious task of rebuilding the walls of protection around her heart.
As an empty, hollow shell, Annie
gathered what strength she could muster and started her long, lonely trek to
seclusion.
Bubbling
nervousness stewed in Amber’s stomach.
Bowing her head, she stared at her shaking hands and futilely tried to
still them.
In the background, Amber heard
the shouts and cheers of the crowd. She
tried to block their presence out of her mind but with each passing noise her
nausea grew.
I can’t do this! Why did I ever think I could do this?!
Amber’s panic attack was
interrupted when Caleb, the announcer, walked up. “You have five minutes till
you go on.”
Too late, Amber thought. Now
I can’t get out of this insanity.
Noticing Amber’s distress, Caleb
drifted closer and crouched in front of her.
Stealing her attention, he tried to calm her by saying, “Amber, you are
going to do great. Stop worrying.”
“Easy for you to say, you aren’t
stage-fright!” Amber’s queasiness raged like acid within her. “I think I’m
going to be sick!”
“Just calm down,” Caleb soothed.
“Take a deep breath and all this will be over before you know it.”
Trying to concentrate on Caleb’s
words rather than her panic, Amber took a deep, calming breath that helped
douse some of the burning nervousness inside her. Closing her eyes, she pushed her worries
aside and prepared herself to go on stage.
Caleb lightly squeezed her hand,
signaling to Amber her time was up. Without another moment’s hesitation, Amber
stood up and started on her walk to the inevitable.
Conversation
swirled around Annabelle but she didn’t listen to a word. Her thoughts were overtaken by her
never-ending to-do-list.
Annabelle sat aimlessly
fidgeting in her seat. I don’t have time
to sit and listen to this idle chatter. I have an infinite list of things to
complete.
Suddenly, Annabelle felt a small
tingle in the base of her head. Looking
up, she realized the whole room peered at her with expectant looks of
curiosity.
“Huh, what?” Annabelle managed
to choke through her embarrassment.
“Oh, Annabelle, we were just
inquiring on how your latest project is going.
We are all so curious as to
what you have been up to since, well… Since you got displaced from your
job.” Annabelle’s audience waited with
pleasant smiles on their faces which didn’t hide the rude nature of their
question.
Disgust rose within
Annabelle. She desired nothing more than
to storm out of the room but she wouldn’t give her audience that satisfaction.
“I
have just been dabbling in a few things… Oh, and that reminds me, I must be
getting back to my work.” Annabelle quickly gathered her purse and
prepared to leave.
On
her way out, she heard the insincere, “It’s a tragedy to see you go…”
Fighting
the urge to barge back in, Annabelle managed to make her way to her car in order
to finally leave this hell she only visited for her mother’s sake. If not for her mother’s singular devotion to
keeping appearances up, Annabelle wouldn’t put herself through the misery of
spending even a second at this self-centered high society country club.
Sighting
to alleviate some of her overbearing frustration, Annabelle continued her drive
home to her impatiently awaiting to-do-list.
