The Mystery Begins
David glanced quickly around the room, very glad that none of the secretaries were in the office. "Good," he thought, "maybe I'll get in and out without anyone seeing me." He scanned the row of mailboxes for his mother's name. Cathy Setter. There. It was in there. Now if anything happened to him, at least there would be some sort of evidence left behind to...
He gulped. It seemed so strange, so scary. It struck him that he was dealing with people, creatures, who could actually kill him.
He brushed it out of his mind. Quickly he left the office and went out the side door. As he walked across the perfectly-groomed lawn, memories of his childhood flowed through his head. He remembered countless soccer games, played on a field with grass just like this grass. He thought of picnics at the park, sitting on a similar lawn with his mother and sisters each Friday after the girls' ballet class. He remembered mowing lawns just like this one, sweating and panting to earn $20... and he smiled to remember that he only really got $8 spending money out of it, once he had put half into savings and given 10% to the Lord.
He smiled at the memories, yet they struck him somehow as terribly sad. Life had been so simple then.
He had thought that graduation would never come quickly enough. He had enjoyed his schooling, at home with his mother and sisters, and yet he had grown tired of it all by the end. He had come to view school as boring and dull, and he had thought himself ready to be out on his own. If only he had known. Now he would give anything to be sheltered back in the safety of high school again.
A sudden chill ran through his body, and he realized absent-mindedly that it had gotten quite cold. As he pulled his faded sweater more tightly around his shoulders, he shoved his hands into his pockets.
He tried to think of some way to stall the inevitable, yet he knew that he had waited long enough. With a deep breath, he plunged down the road toward Culver Library.
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"Why is it that I can never get out of here on the days that I really need to?" Cathy wondered to herself as she reached into her mailbox for the assortment of papers stored there. She pulled them out carefully, making sure that none of them fell to the ground, then sloppily shoved them into the side pocket of her bag. She was in a hurry, and she would look at this stuff at home. "I hope Steve hasn't beat me home," she worried. "What am I going to do about dinner?"
She hadn't even noticed the letter from her son.
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David slipped into Culver Library unnoticed. It was cold there, too. It seemed that wherever he went today, he was cold. He pulled his sweater even tighter around himself as he started down the stairs.
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"Why isn't he back yet?" Richard wondered aloud. He didn't bother to hide his frustration, and wasn't really concerned about who heard him. This was the first time David had ever been two hours late, and he was a little worried. But more than that, he was pretty annoyed. They were supposed to leave for dinner an hour ago, and he had not even bothered to call or anything. The cafeteria was going to close in fifteen minutes. "Well, I'll have to leave without him."
"Hey, Mark, if Dave comes home looking for me, tell him I went ahead without him."
"No problem, man," Mark said, as Richard stormed from the room.
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The lights in the library basement were dimmed, as usual, and he pressed his hand tightly against the cold of the banister to guide his way as he slowly crept down the stairs. He was dully aware of the hollow thump of his heart inside his chest, which seemed terribly loud and fast to him. He was sweating. He licked his parched lips as he tried to find his voice. "Anybody there?" he called softly.
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Cathy arrived home, and found Steve in the den reading the newspaper. "I'm sorry I'm late again, hon," she called as she ran up the stairs. "Just let me throw on some other clothes."
Steve smiled to himself as he heard the THUMP THUMP THUMP up the stairs. It sounded like a herd of elephants bounding up the stairs, when in actuality Cathy was as slender today as when they had first married. "What can I do to help?" he heard himself calling up the stairs.
"It would be great if you could start the hamburger cooking," she called back. "The skillet is on the stove. I'll be down in a second."
Again she found herself in a situation where life was just too busy for her. She longed for a moment of rest, yet dinner was waiting. She rushed back down the stairs.
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"We're in here, David," he heard a voice reply. "Which one is that?" he wondered to himself, as if it made any difference.
"Okay, I'm coming," he called back, as he reached inside his pocket. It was still there. "What am I doing?!" he thought wildly as he plunged into the blackness of the hallway.
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"Some nerve," thought Richard as he handed the woman his money. He scanned the room for someone he knew, and of course found no one at this late hour. He tried to be more annoyed than worried, but the truth was that he was becoming deeply concerned. This was just not like David.
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"We wondered if you would be coming today. We were afraid that your discovery might deter you." David stood there, blinking in the direction of the voice, trying to look casual.
"Naw," he heard himself say. He was trying to sound convincing, and he prayed that his fear didn't show. "It was tough to get used to the idea at first, but, well, you know..." He gulped hard, and prayed. "Dear God, please help me. I need help from somewhere. Just please let them believe me. I am so scared."
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Her favorite part of their dinners together since David had left for school had been when they washed up the dishes together. Tonight she was feeling particularly playful, and she aimed a spoonful of suds at her unsuspecting husband's back. "Yoo hoo," she called, and waited for him to turn around.
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David was aware that his hand was shaking, and his eyes were having a hard time adjusting to the brightness of the room. He couldn't tell if it was all that bright, or if it just seemed so because the hallway had been so dark. "So, when are you planning to do it?" he mused aloud. He was trying to sound casual. He almost wanted to laugh, for he was sure there was no way that they were going to believe him. No matter, as long as he could keep them there long enough for his plan to work.
"If they suspect," he thought, "I'm in trouble. If I'm not fast enough, I'm in trouble. If any one part of this plan doesn't work, I'm in trouble." Even as he thought this, he fumbled with the thing in his pocket.
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As he picked his way through the bushes outside of the dorm, he hoped that he would return to find David waiting for him in their room. He might even forget to yell at him if he could just see his goofy face sitting there smiling back from his desk. "He'll have some explanation," he tried to convince himself, running up the stairs to room 228.
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"Finally!" thought Cathy as she settled on the couch to read through her mail from work. She rummaged past the memos and charts and graphs. "What's this?" she wondered as she spotted the envelope.
To be continued...