Raining on Good Friday

It's raining now and it's supposed to be like this all day and into tomorrow. This is one of the few rainy days that encourage me. Usually, they are a downer and I just want to be outside to walk in the sunshine.

But it always feels right to me when the weather is gloomy on this Friday, the one before Easter. It reminds me that Jesus suffered beatings, mocking, and horrible death. The only way you can call this Good Friday is to look beyond it to the resurrection. And I do.

But on that day when he was murdered in a cruel way it sure didn't look good. Three men on a cross and the man in the middle didn't deserve it. It was a sad day. This is a sad day to think of how he died for sins he did not commit. I'm grateful that he died for my sins and the sins of others, but I'm still sad. Because I don't deserve his forgiveness.

But that of course is the point. None of us deserve it but He gave us forgiveness willingly. Because He loves us.

Yes, Jesus loves me. Oh, how he loves you and me.

A Rich Life: What's the first major news story you can remember living through as a child?

I was in my classroom at school on November 22, 1963. We had just come back to the room after lunch. The teacher got our attention. I don’t remember how she did it any differently than any other time. But the words she said were different than any I had ever heard or felt in my life. She said President Kennedy has been killed. I’m not sure if she said anything right there about his having been shot or if she used the word assassinated, but she made it clear that our President was dead. He had been killed. 

It was shocking to hear. I remember that one boy in our class cheered. Looking back he probably didn’t think it was real or he, and his family, perhaps didn’t like Kennedy. Or he was just being funny or trying to be.  But I still remember that he cheered. But there was no more of that. Not from him or anyone else.

I don’t remember the rest of the day at school. Since he was shot on a Friday shortly after noon, we had the weekend at home to find out more. We watched on TV and read what came out in the newspaper. Big bold letters of headlines saying President Kennedy Assassinated and pictures and descriptions. 

We were numb. How could this happen to our President? I was only 13 and our family was Republican but he was our President, still, even though he was a Democrat. That’s the way that it was in those days. He was our President. And he was dead. By an assassin’s bullet.

It was a crazy weekend. A new President was sworn in, Lyndon Johnson, and leadership of the country continued. But we had lost our President. He was so young and so positive. People had called his time in the White House the days of Camelot. Only later would I see some of the tragedies of Camelot itself, but for now while he was alive it was a new day. A hopeful time. Working to put a man on the moon and take care of the needy in our country and help in the world. Such ideals and such hope. 

Then he was shot down. Murdered. Assassinated. 

Two days later, Sunday, November 24, Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed Kennedy, was being moved from one place to another and out of the crowd Jack Ruby pulled a gun and killed Oswald. It was unreal. We were still learning about Oswald, it had only been a few days, and he was murdered. 

One more shocking detail added to it all. Later there were investigations of all of it but for that weekend it was just simple details. Our President had been assassinated and then the assassin had been killed.

It was all so big and so horrible. Our President had been killed. The blood-stained dress of his wife, Jackie. The way she stood by the new President, Lyndon Johnson, as he was sworn in as President. The mourning and the grief and the funeral and the processions. 

Sometime later in my teens, our family visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw the Eternal Flame that was at President Kennedy’s grave. The flame was a sign of hope. Yes, he was shot down and died way too young. But his vision of hope would continue. We could be better than all of this. America could be a place of hope for the world.

I still remember. I still hope. And the first song at our wedding that we danced to was from Camelot. 

Everything Changes Instantly

This morning I was taking a walk like I always do. The air was just a little chilly even though it’s summer so I wore a long sleeve shirt with my shorts. It’s always a good choice to wear long sleeves when you know the weather will change because you can roll up the sleeves and just keep walking, not having to deal with taking off a jacket and tying it around yourself. Not that that is a big deal but hey, long sleeves are very practical, and besides I have some long sleeve shirts that I like to wear when I can, even in the summer. 

So I was walking along on the edge of the road, waving at the people in the cars driving by, and the cars would take a long berth around me so I didn’t have to get off into the grass that was wet from an early morning rainfall. That works well as long as you are willing to sometimes have a vehicle go by close to you if a car from behind you buzzes by at the same time and there isn’t much room between the cars. 

Today I was on the edge of the road, waving at people and not needing to pay much attention as I listened to a book in my earbuds. It was a good book and it drew my concentration in so much that as the car approached I didn’t realize how close the car was to me and I jumped in surprise when I saw it and slipped on the wet pavement, right into its path.

I kind of remember a bump from the first car and a screech and then two cars crashing as I flew in the air and landed on the hood of the second car and bounced off it onto the road. Horns seemed to be stuck on and people moaning and I realized that one of those persons was me. I looked over at the drivers both laying on the road. They must have come out through their windshields. It was horrible to see and for a moment I knew that they were lying bleeding on the road because of me because I hadn’t been paying attention and hadn’t stepped into the grass by the road. It was my fault. I knew that for a horrible moment. Then it was over. Instantly.

Slowly I woke up if you can call it waking up because it was unlike any other wake-up call I had ever received, and saw a young woman sitting at a table by herself. She seemed vaguely familiar but not really. She called me over to the table and stood up and hugged me. The hug felt good and I wasn’t sure where I was but the hug felt reassuring like I belonged there with her like we were somehow connected.

Still, in a bit of a fog, I thought she said that her name was Carolyn. I told her that I wasn’t sure who I was but she said not to worry about it. She seemed to know me already somehow and smiled and asked how I was feeling. I told her that I felt pretty good but couldn’t quite figure out not only who I was but where this place was. She said that she had felt that way too when she first got there. Just relax and breathe in the excellent air all around was her advice.

So I did. I breathed in the air first and that helped me to relax. I had never breathed in anything like that before. It was so refreshing and seemed to give me more life than I had ever known. My neck that had been a little stiff earlier when I was out walking on the road felt great now. If it could be possible I felt better than I ever had even though I knew that I was getting older and more aches and pains were coming my way. But the thing is, they weren’t. I had no aches and pains at all. 

She invited me to go with her over to the big buffet that was out and we loaded our plates with a variety of food. I got biscuits, bacon, pancakes, sausage, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried apples, and peanut butter pie. I had a lot of plates full and so did she with different foods. It all looked so good and though I couldn’t imagine that I could eat it all I got it anyway and took it to the table.

Bite after delicious bite I ate and enjoyed the food. It was so good. It reminded me of what Grandma, my Mom’s mother, used to cook when I was a boy and I thought of her. If I didn’t know better I might have thought that she had cooked all of this. It was so good and thinking of her brought back lots of good memories of those days, of being a boy.

Funny that childhood memories flooded back because usually I couldn’t remember much at all of those days, of those years. It had been like they had been wiped from my memory somehow but now they were all back. Details that I could see in my mind and the tastes of food that my senses told me were what I had eaten way back in my early years.

I was so distracted enjoying the food and the memories that I almost missed my companion telling me that I was welcome to go back for more food. I laughed and said did you see how much food I ate already but then realized that I wasn’t full. Not full at all. She nodded and laughed with me and we both went back for more food. This time I piled on fried potatoes and pumpkin pie and hamburgers and hot dogs and roast beef and strawberry cheesecake. I got a strawberry shake to go with the cheesecake and a giant glass of ice-cold root beer in a mug. Wow, did that bring back memories! 

I remembered growing up and I would be with my family and we would go out on Sunday evenings for cold root beer and the best ice cream around. I could taste it and also see my Mom’s face as she saw how much I enjoyed it. I stopped eating a moment and just looked and saw my Mom’s face in my memory and she seemed more real than I had ever known her. She was young and beautiful and laughing and taking me into her arms to hug me and tell me she loved me and always would.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I thought of my Mom and how good it was to remember her. I knew that I hadn’t seen her this way in a very long time since she had died so very young. I thought about how that happening might have been why I had not been able to remember much of my childhood, that the sadness of losing my Mom made me feel sad to remember the earlier years and so I had pushed them back into my mind and not let them out.

But now that I felt safe in this place, wherever it was, I could let the memories back into my mind and into my life. It felt good.

As I looked at Carolyn next to me I had the strangest feeling that she reminded me of my Mom. I thought to myself that it must have been that I was just thinking of my Mom and so I saw a faint resemblance of her in this new acquaintance. But then she put her hand on mine and it was the warmest feeling I had had since arriving in this place. It wasn’t romantic it was…family.

Now I was really confused as I wanted to pull my hand back from her in one moment and wanted to hug her the next. Confused thinking of Carolyn and then realizing I had not heard her correctly at first and that she had known that I hadn’t. She patiently waited for me to comprehend. Her name wasn’t Carolyn. It was Madilynn. This woman. This companion in this place. This was Madilynn, my sister.

I grabbed her and held her close. I had thought all of the tears in my body had already gone with the thoughts of Mom but I was wrong. So many tears ran down my cheeks and onto hers as I remembered. We jumped around, it was like dancing, as memories flooded back of her teaching me to dance when I was young and had no clue how to do it.  Being so patient with me and dancing with me to the music from her radio.

Now another memory ran through my mind of her chasing me with a dish towel because I had done something that got her upset with me. The two of us running through our backyard. So many thoughts of growing up together that I hadn’t remembered in such a long time. 

Then thoughts of her at my house just ahead of my wedding day encouraging me and being there for me. Times hadn’t always been easy for her but there she was with hope for me.

It was only a couple of years after that when she died. In a car crash. Instantly. 

And now here I was. With her. Having died. In a car crash. Instantly. Too. 

A Rich Life: So much loss in life. But now...I'm kind of OK

I was just a kid when my Grandpa died. I knew I would miss him but what I “missed” in all of it was that he was my mom’s dad. She would miss him greatly. I missed all of that, but I was just a kid. But still, how did I not see that my Mom was without her Daddy? I missed so many things when I was a child. Most of them aren’t even a part of my memories. I don’t recall much from those years.

Just thinking more about Grandpa though, I guess part of the process for people was that he had cancer and had really suffered. I didn’t know much about that at the time of course. I hadn’t seen him at his worst. I really was pretty pathetic, wasn’t I? I missed even the simple thing of seeing someone I loved in pain. But I did love him. He was a good man, a good Grandpa. And then he was gone.

Then here is the craziest thing of all, well maybe not the craziest because that surely came later, but about a decade after Grandpa died my mom got sick and I saw her in the hospital. She was supposed to get better so I left and drove home for a job interview. I took the drive, went for the interview, for a job I didn’t get by the way, and then got a phone call. My Mom had died.

She wasn’t supposed to. She wasn’t that sick. She was supposed to get better. She was. They told me that. I wouldn’t have left her otherwise. I would have stayed at the hospital to be with her every moment that I could, to hold her hand and tell her that I loved her. I love you, Mommy.

Then the whirlwind of viewings and funerals and all those people who wanted to tell me how sorry they were. But then they went home to their complete families and happy lives and I was on my own, Mom was gone.

My life changed when she died. My family changed. The hurt and pain and loss inside stayed with me as I knew that this could happen again. I wasn’t going to let it, not again. I wasn’t going to let anyone else in that might leave me. She wasn’t supposed to do that, to leave me. She was supposed to always be with me. That’s what Moms are supposed to do, at least not for a long long time until she got very old. But she was gone.

I went on with my life doing the best I could. Actually, I had a pretty good life finally. I still missed her like crazy but little by little I thought I was over it, the pain, not her. But inside I knew that was a lie. I wasn’t over her death.

It was about a decade and a half after Mom’s death that I got a call that my sister had died in a car accident. Instant death on an icy road. She was way too young to be dead, even younger than my Mom had been. I was so mad. So very mad. I couldn’t believe it. How could this have happened to her? You would think that I would have learned but again it seemed like it was all about me. I was so upset but she had children and it must have been so much worse for them. 

I think when something like this happens there is no need to compare your pain with someone else. We all had pain. We all had losses. But they lost their Mom. I knew what that was like.

But here’s the crazy thing. Somewhere in the grieving for my sister, I realized that the grief for my Mom was less than it had been. Crazy, right? How could that be? I would have thought that the grief that I was still bearing for the loss of my Mom combined with what I experienced in my sister’s death would have doubled what I felt. But it didn’t.

I don’t know why. I have no idea. But when my sister died, and in the middle of my grief for her, I accepted my Mom’s death. Life was just going to be like that I guess. One pain doesn’t wipe out another but sometimes it exposes what has already diminished and you just didn’t realize it.

It wasn’t a good thing that my sister died. I’ll never figure that one out. I guess it’s not my business to figure it out. But I am so grateful to have known her for so many years.

And my Mom? Who could have guessed that the only way to ease her leaving me was to have another one I loved to leave me. To see it wasn’t all about me perhaps.

Now Mom’s with Grandpa and my sister is with them both. I’m still here and still missing them and you know what? I’m Ok. 

Well, kind of OK.

The Mystery of the Congressman and the Jazz Club. Part 2: The Culprit

The rock bounced off Ethan’s head as he was driving home on the dark road. Then he noticed that there was a hole in the windshield. That was the order of perception. First, the feeling of something bouncing off his head and then seeing that strangely, he was looking through a hole in his windshield. 

He wasn’t hurt by the rock through the windshield. It kind of glanced off of the steering wheel and grazed his head lightly and ended up on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat. Or maybe it hadn’t hit him. Maybe it was the opening up of a hole in the windshield that made him think when he saw the rock that it had hit him. But he wasn’t hurt. That was it. It must not have struck him. 

Just down the road he pulled off to the side of the four-lane highway and assessed the damages and thought about what had happened. He realized that he had gone under an overpass and someone must have thrown the rock down at his car. Randomly most likely. He couldn’t imagine at that moment that anyone was targeting him. All he knew was that he had to drive on. He had to get away from the culprit who had done this to him. 

Culprit. What a word and it sped into and out of his mind as quickly as the hole in the windshield had appeared. Some culprit had thrown a rock and now he had a damaged windshield and he had to get back on the road and away from this place. Maybe the culprit, he kept thinking that word over and over, would see him from the overpass, see that he had pulled over, and come down to finish the job. But why? Why would he have someone trying to kill him?

Then, slowly, he remembered why he had gotten out of town early on Saturday morning in the first place, why he had taken this spur-of-the-moment trip by himself. He had relaxed so much the last few days that on the drive home this dark night he was just listening to some jazz on the radio and feeling safe before the open windshield jolted him back to reality. The jazz continued to play and reminded him of his seeing his Congressman coming out of the jazz club a few weekends back, just before it was announced that his Congressman had died at home after being sick for a week. But he knew better.

And now as he realized why the rock might have been thrown through his windshield he realized that this was no random incident, not just someone drunk or letting off steam or showing off to his friends that he could hit a car with a rock. He was targeted. Ethan began to realize as he drove that if the rock would have come through the windshield and struck him directly in the face he might well have crashed the car and died. The news wouldn’t even have made much of a splash what with all the car accidents that happen from time to time.

The more he thought of what could have happened the shakier he felt as he drove. As quickly as he could he went to a friend’s house and knocked on the door even though it was late. She opened the door and said the kids were in bed and her husband wasn’t home yet from work but of course he could come inside. She could tell that something had happened to him as soon as she opened the door and took one look. 

Ethan closed the door behind him and locked it and looked out the front window. He walked around very nervously as he told her about the rock through his windshield. He didn’t tell her his speculations and what had happened about the Congressman but he told her about the accident itself and that he was worried that someone might be after him. She tried to calm him down and assure him that those kinds of things happened randomly from time to time and that it was all over now. He felt calmer hearing her say that but kept pacing and as he walked into the kitchen he noticed that the overhead light bulb was out. 

She knew where a bulb was so soon she was standing on a chair with a bulb and replacing the burned-out one when it slipped from her hand. It seemed to explode when it hit the floor and Ethan panicked. It was like a shot had been fired and any calmness that had come upon him was instantly gone and he felt under attack. He balled up on the couch in the living room and she pulled him into her arms and held him for a long time telling him that it was just a broken bulb and that he was OK. He was safe now she said over and over. 

Ethan rocked back and forth as he was held. He was like a child but also inside him he knew that he had reason to be afraid. Not from a light bulb or anyone in this home but from someone, some organization, that knew that he knew too much. A weekend away couldn’t make this all go away now. Two Congressmen were now dead and he might be the only one to know that there was a link between them and that the link was that if one more Congressman died and was replaced by a governor of the opposing party the majority in the House of Representatives would shift.

Would people really kill to take over power in Washington? It seemed as absurd to him now as it had when he had first thought of it. But now someone was after him too. Someone wanted to make his death look like an accident just like they made his Congressman’s death look like it was from some illness. If they would kill two Congressmen they would have no problem justifying killing him as well and eliminating any more questions. So many thoughts ran through his mind as she held him to calm him down. He started to relax in her arms.

Then he heard the garage door go up, a car driving in, and the garage door go back down. His friend let go of the hug as she slid to the other end of the couch. Just then Ethan’s phone rang. It was the voice of the man who had warned him before. He said to get out of the house. Now. 

Ethan told his friend he needed to take this call in private as he got up and went out the back door, waving at her husband as he walked in from the garage. His friend smiled and then his expression changed as he saw the look on Ethan’s face as he saw who walked in behind him. It was the man from the jazz club. The one who without a doubt in Ethan’s mind knew the real cause of death of the Congressman.

Ethan ran around the house to his car and jumped in. Then he raced away, looking out through the hole in the windshield. He didn’t know for sure but it definitely was a good possibility that the jazz club man was behind a lot of what was happening. But why was he there at his friend’s house that night? Was the long hug a set up to give her husband plenty of time to get home that night? Ethan didn’t think so. It didn’t feel staged to him. He felt comforted by a caring friend. Nothing out of the ordinary in that.

But regardless of why the jazz club man showed up right then, Ethan thought of one real possibility. That man might well be the one who threw the rock through his windshield and was looking to finish the job. He definitely could be the culprit.

The Mystery of the Congressman and the Jazz Club. Part 1: No Doubt About It

The ringing of the phone, yes an old school setting of a telephone ring on his phone, awakened Ethan from a sound sleep at 3:04 a.m. At 25 you would think he might have still been out with friends at that time, especially on a Friday night. But he had fallen asleep on the couch about midnight after a very long and stressful week. Each day this week the pressure had built more and more and he knew he was the only one who could do what had to be done. At least he felt that way.

The phone just kept ringing as he moved towards the coffee table where it lay while thinking of what the call could mean. Since finding out on Monday that his Congressman had died he had felt an ache in the bottom of his stomach. Just last weekend he had seen the man getting into a stretch limo outside of a jazz club that he himself was going into. He thought it was odd to see him because he had always heard that the Congressman fancied opera. Still, Ethan thought it was kind of cool that the Congressman would appreciate jazz as well. Good for you man he thought to himself as he turned from seeing the limo drive away to going into the club to the sounds of sax and trumpet and more soothing his aching heart. Jazz will do that, except when it penetrates a hurt in a different way that doesn’t soothe at all but brings out the pain.

He hadn’t thought about that anymore until hearing of the Congressman’s death. The report said that he had been sick in bed for a week and had finally succumbed to the illness. Most people just heard the news, said that was too bad, and turned to the next news item or favorite video to watch again. Ethan couldn’t get it out of his head. He knew the Congressman hadn’t been in bed for a week. He knew he had seen him last Friday night, just a week ago now, and he was climbing into a limo.

Ethan also knew that it was none of his business. Who cares whether the man was bedridden for a week or had gotten out for one night for some jazz? If he was dying who could blame him. But something just didn’t feel right about it. Why would anyone hide the fact that during his illness he decided to go out on a night that he felt a little better and enjoy some good music? Wouldn’t that make him more human, more of a regular guy? Surely no one would berate a dying man for wanting to be out among the living just one more time.

Ethan had shaken it off on Monday when he heard about it and gotten back to work. Then after work late that afternoon he drove by the jazz club on his way home and saw that it had a sign on it that it was closed. Closed for good. That definitely seemed strange since it had been around for a lot of years and when he was there it looked full and very prosperous.

He pulled in front of it and saw a guy coming out and locking the door. He rolled down his window and said that it was too bad the place was closing, that he really liked coming there. The guy just looked around like he was afraid that someone was watching and said he agreed that it was too bad. Ethan said that he had been there on Friday night and thought he had seen the Congressman getting into a limo outside. The guy stared at him and said he didn’t know anything about that and Ethan must have been mistaken. Then he hurried away as Ethan stared after him.

That night Ethan did some research on the Congressman online. It seems that, as he had always heard, the Congressman was one of the good guys. He tried to do what would help the people he represented while still caring about the country overall. He would be missed for sure. Ethan closed the cover of his laptop and went to bed, still wondering about having seen the guy getting in that limo.

The next day he saw a news report about how there would not be a viewing for the Congressman and not even a funeral or a burial. He was being cremated and his family would privately scatter his ashes somewhere. There was to be nothing public at all. He thought that was pretty strange for such a public figure but the report said that his family was asking everyone to respect their wishes for privacy in this loss. He could respect a family’s wishes for privacy but this seemed very odd to him that there wouldn’t be at least some kind of time and place for people to express their feelings about the Congressman. 

It was Wednesday as he was eating lunch at a Food Truck several blocks from his work that he glanced over his chilidog and saw the man from the jazz club talking to a man in a suit and nodding over at where he was. That guy wasn’t nodding at Ethan he was nodding towards him so that the man in the suit would see him. Ethan glanced away and took a bite of his lunch and then started walking back to work, still eating and carrying his drink. 

When he finished lunch he stopped to throw the trash in a garbage can along the street and noticed that the jazz club man and the suit guy were walking at a little distance behind him in the same direction as he was going. They looked away when they saw that Ethan had seen them. This whole thing was getting stranger.

Ethan walked into his office building and tried to shake it off as a coincidence as he worked that afternoon. That night he stopped at his church to just sit and pray awhile in a quiet atmosphere. It felt good to just be there and sort through his thoughts, hoping that God would give him peace to just let this all go. 

But that didn’t happen. Instead, he sensed that he should not just let it go but instead try to figure this out, or at least let someone know what he had seen. He could pass on his information to the police and then just let it all go and get back to his life.

On his way home he stopped at the Police Station and asked to speak with an officer. The officer heard what he told him about having seen the Congressman the previous Friday night outside the jazz club. He listened to Ethan and said he would pass it on to his Captain but that there was no ongoing investigation about the Congressman’s death so there was really no one to talk to about this. He thanked him for being a concerned citizen and assured him that what he had told him would be passed along.

Ethan left the Police Station feeling like he had done what he was supposed to do and that now it was time to just let it all go. Evidently, someone else agreed with him because when he got back to his apartment there was a note that had been slipped under his door. It said that if he was smart he would just let it all go. The note didn’t say what “it” was but there was no doubt in his mind what they were talking about. 

Ethan took a picture of the note, put it back into the envelope that it had been in, and went back to the police station to find the officer that he had just talked with and handed him the note. The officer read it and then disappeared for a few minutes before coming back to Ethan and asking him to come with him to the Captain’s office. Ethan followed him and then told the Captain everything that he had told the officer earlier and gave him the note that he had just found at his apartment.

The Captain looked very serious and told him not to talk to anyone else and that he would follow up on all of this. He told Ethan what a good thing he had done by reporting this. Very few would have he said. Very few get involved. He was grateful and even though he thought that it was probably nothing serious he would look again at the report that the officer had filed earlier and make sure it was updated and looked at again.

The next day when Ethan got to work his boss called him into his office. He told Ethan that a police officer had called him and asked about the kind of person that Ethan was, about his character and his trustworthiness. He didn’t tell his boss what this was about but his boss knew it must be serious. He asked Ethan what this was all about and Ethan told him that it was best if he didn’t tell him, that he had been asked by the police not to tell anyone.

Just then the phone of his boss rang and he answered it. He glanced at Ethan and nodded that he should leave his office and close his door on the way out. After Ethan was out he could hear his boss talking quietly to someone and heard his own name in the conversation. 

Though he hadn’t been at work long, Ethan decided to leave and get a cup of coffee to try and calm down. He knew something was up and now his boss knew something about it, whatever it was. He walked to a food truck that was selling coffee and danish a block away and got what he wanted and started walking. By the time his head cleared he realized that he had been out walking for an hour or so and decided he better get back to work. 

Upon arriving at the building and walking inside he was greeted by a security guard that he had never seen before. Normally Ethan would greet the regular guard and then talk a moment about a game the night before or about the weather. Today, however, Ethan was asked for his company ID. Quizzically, Ethan pulled it out and handed it to the new security guard who told him that it would not be returned and that Ethan had been terminated by the company and should leave immediately.

Stunned but being walked back out the door by the guard Ethan realized that something was very wrong. Just an hour or so ago he was talking with his boss and now he was fired, without his boss even having the decency to tell him about it himself. 

The guard stepped back inside the building and Ethan stood there for several minutes just looking at him and the building and not believing what was going on. Then he turned and went to the police station to talk to the officer that he had talked with just the day before. But the officer wasn’t there. Ethan was told that the officer had not reported for work this morning. The person at the desk laughed and said maybe he had decided to take a vacation that he had been talking about for a long time.

Ethan asked if he could talk with the Captain and after waiting for an hour was finally shown in to see him. When he walked into the Captain’s office a man greeted him and asked how he could help him. It wasn’t the man that he had talked with just the day before. Ethan asked about him and was told that the other man had been reassigned to another precinct.

Ethan thought that it was interesting that the policeman had not shown up today and the Captain was reassigned but he tried not to let on and just asked this Captain if he knew about his report from the day before. Ethan told him his name and the Captain said he didn’t know anything about it but he had just gotten there this morning from the other precinct and Ethan should tell him the details. Ethan told him what he had told the policeman and now the Captain asked Ethan to wait outside of his office while he checked on it.

While Ethan waited he saw several people go in and out of the Captain’s office. Then he was called back in and told that there was no record of him or any report on him. Ethan asked if he could have the note back that he had brought in the night before but the Captain said there was no record of any note either so he couldn’t help him out with that.

Just as Ethan was pulling out his phone to show the Captain a picture of the note that he had received he thought better of it and just said that he had gotten a text from his Dad and needed to check on him. The Captain told him not to worry about his report and that the Congressman had been at home for a week before he died and that Ethan must have been mistaken that he had seen him out. Ethan just smiled and said that he certainly could have been wrong and thanks for talking to him. 

As Ethan left the police station he felt like he was being watched. But every time he looked around there was no one. So he went home and got on the internet and looked for more information on the Congressman and his death. Not much was there about his death other than the fact that the Governor had already appointed someone to fill his congressional seat until the end of the term. The Governor had decided that since it was only eleven months until the end of the Congressman’s term that they wouldn’t have time for a special election before then. Ethan didn’t recognize the name of the person who the Governor had appointed. He had never heard of him. But he knew that the Governor was of a different party than the Congressman had been and so had most likely appointed someone of his own party. That’s how those things worked. 

The minority party had only been three persons away from reclaiming the majority in the House of Representatives. Now the margin was only two. Ethan thought to himself that it was too bad that his Congressman had died. He was a really good guy. 

It wasn’t until the next day, after spending the day searching for a new job, that he had time to look up more about the new Congressman. He recognized him when he saw him in a news interview that night. He was the man in the suit that he had seen with the jazz club man.

The phone ringing roused him from his thoughts of this week and he grabbed it. A voice on the other end told him that he might like to know that another Congressman had just gotten sick this week and died tonight. Then the phone line went dead. 

He brought up the picture of the note he had received just a couple of days ago. The one that said that if he was smart he would just let it all go. Right then he decided that he wasn’t smart. No doubt about...it.