The Surprise Visit

“Dearest Charlie,

this letter may come as a surprise to you, given that you probably don’t know me. I first met you when you were just a little boy, but I met your parents much earlier. When I heard of your parents’ passing recently, I immediately needed to contact you because we have important business to discuss. It is urgent that we meet – the sooner the better. I cannot overstate the urgency with which we must meet. Please pack your bags immediately and come meet me at my home. The address is 3428 North Lumens Lane, New Berlin, WA 98107. I’ve included enough money to get you here. The sooner you get here, the better it is.

Love, Aunt Jamie”

I dropped the letter, in disbelief. “Dad!......DAD!!!!!” I yelled – as far as I knew, my dad was alive and upstairs, so what was this “Aunt Jamie” even talking about?

I heard shuffling down the stairs, though it seemed as though he was struggling. As he got closer to the bottom of the stairs, I heard gasps for air. I rushed out to the bottom of the stairs to see my dad struggling to breathe, holding his throat….and then he collapsed. I put his head in my lap trying to wake him, in shock about what I just witnessed, but he would not come to. I pulled out my cell phone to call 9-1-1. After giving the dispatcher my address and letting them know what happened, began giving CPR, crying through the whole process. I was determined to bring my dad back to life, by all means necessary. I continued to give CPR until I heard the sirens come down the driveway and the lights illuminating the windows, I got up to open the door. I hadn’t even noticed how hard I’d been crying until the cool evening breeze swept across my tear-stained cheeks. I directed the EMTs to the bottom of the stairs before a rather tired-looking police officer directed me to the couch to sit down and take my statement. “Son…. I’m Officer Jenkins with the Johnson County Sherriff’s Department, can you tell me what happened here tonight?”

I wanted to know if my dad was going to be ok. I repeatedly asked Officer Jenkins whether my dad was going to be fine and if he could tell me what happened to my dad…. I was in shock. I don’t remember much of my interview with Officer Jenkins, except that I kept asking about my dad and that eventually he had told me that my dad passed away. I remembered crying harder and Officer Jenkins eventually giving up trying to get information out of me, “we will try another time” he had said before quietly leaving.

I did not sleep that night. Despite my sleep and anti-anxiety medication, I tossed and turned for most of the night and maybe had 45 minutes of sleep if that. Constant thoughts of my dad dying at the bottom of the stairs and wanting to know who this Aunt Jamie was and how she knew that my dad passed before he did and…how she knew that my mother had passed a few months before…it just all didn’t make any sense. Unless, of course, she bore some responsibility for their passing. All I knew is I had to find out who she was, what she knew, and why on earth she wanted to talk to me so badly. Was this a setup? Was she trying to kill me, too? What was her motive for sending me this letter? Why on earth would it be sent on such old paper? An endless number of questions raced through my head, all of which got me more and more curious about my encounter with Aunt Jamie. As I went through this insane number of questions going through my head, I was jolted out of my thought process by a sound all too familiar – the alarm clock telling me it was time to get up and decide whether I wanted to go to school today or not.