The Good Deed ~COMPLETE~

Chapter 24: Reality Check

I probably broke most, if not all of the traffic laws in my frantic race toward my parents house. As I sped along the route, my heart was hammering inside my chest. I couldn't drive fast enough to keep up with my pulse. With the knowledge that the blueprint found in the trunk was an original, and knowing that my father would never voluntarily give away one of his precious creations, I immediately called my parents house. After endless ringing, I made the assumption that something terrible had happened. Both of my parents should be home...it was Saturday. Neither of them work and they rarely ever leave the house. I just knew something was wrong...I could feel it in my bones.

According to state law, the maximum safe speed through a residential neighborhood is 25 mile per hour. I usually try my best to stay close to the posted speed limit, but sometimes, when you're in a hurry, 25 miles per hour just isn't fast enough. Zooming through the narrow streets at 40 mile per hour above the posted speed limit, I hoped no pedestrians would suddenly walk out from behind a parked car. Luckily, none did, and I made it to my parents subdivision without incident. Now for my next problem; the guard station. There are only two ways into the neighborhood; as a visitor, or a resident. As a visitor, the security guards need to have verbal approval from the home owner before they will raise the gate. As a resident, your vehicle must have a special decal in the window where the guards can easily identify it. At that moment, I had neither. I hadn't been able to get a hold of my parents, and Sues car doesn't have the decal. My only option was to drive through the lane designated for the residents and hope the guards didn't try to stop me.

I pulled toward the guard station, my nerves were out of control. I kept my sights on the road and tried to avoid eye contact with the security guards. I figured most residents just drove straight through, paying no attention to the guards. So, that's exactly what I did. I made sure not to speed. I knew the rules within the gates of this community were more strict than the average neighborhood. I continued along the long curvy road, occasionally glancing in my rear view mirror expecting to see a security vehicle following me with their lights flashing. Thus far, it appeared, I had gone undetected. As the guard tower disappeared behind me, I slowly increased my speed. I couldn't get to my parents house fast enough.

Pulling to the stop sign at an intersection, I suddenly noticed I had been holding my breath. Momentarily I had just forgotten to breath. I couldn't for the life of me remember the last time I had actually inhaled. I gasped for air and quickly filled my deprived lungs of fresh oxygen.

As I pulled on to my parents street, my panic suddenly sky rocketed and my heart skipped a beat. A security vehicle drove right past me. The driver looked in my direction and I immediately felt the urge to floor the accelerator. I managed to resist the temptation. I continued to drive slow and tried to watch him in the mirrors without making it seem too obvious. He was just sitting still, stopped at the intersection...Why wouldn't he just turn the corner already? I just knew he was going to turn around and come after me. I had reached my parents driveway and thankfully the security vehicle finally disappeared around the corner.

I quickly jumped from the car, and started towards the front door. The garage door was shut, and there were no signs that anything out of the ordinary had occurred at the house. At the front door, I paused and put my ear to the cold steel and listened for a moment. All was quiet, which was not in the least bit comforting to me. My nerves couldn't have been more on edge. All I kept thinking was, 'God, please don't let my parents be dead.' I took a step back, and a deep breath attempting to calm myself...prepare myself, for whatever might be behind that door waiting to be discovered. Balling my shaky hand into a fist, I rapidly knocked my knuckles against the hollow metal door.

When you are anxious, waiting for an unknown answer is probably one of the most stressful feelings you can have. I quickly knocked again, praying to the good Lord for them to answer. Praying this paranoia I was experiencing was all just a case of an overactive imagination running wild. As He always does, the Lord did answer my prayers and my father opened the door.

Now, sometimes when dealing with God, the answer to your prayer isn't always what you have in mind. For example; Had my prayer been answered the way I was hoping, my mother and father would have opened the door smiling, thrilled to see their oldest son. They'd invite me in and we would have a fascinating conversation about how proud they are of me and how much they just adore my girl Sue.......But, unfortunately that isn't how God works...My father flung the door open quickly, and pointed his shotgun dead at me. My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates, “Whoa, dad...W-w-what are you doin?” My father had wild, crazed look in his eyes.

“Joe? Who's with you?” He kept his gun aimed at me and glanced cautiously out the door, looking up and down the street.

“Nobody, Jesus...What the hell is going on?” In all my years, I had never been literally scared of my father. Sure, there were times he scolded me or yelled at me, but this was a different kind of fear. This was a mortal fear. At that moment, I truly feared for my life.

He lowered the weapon and waved his hand quickly, “Come in, come in, hurry.”

My father paced the living room, clutching his shotgun tightly with both hands as if a war was going to break out any minute. Thankfully, he wasn't pointing it towards me any longer. I sat watching him walk back and forth, mumbling in a whispered voice. He was seriously losing it, or perhaps, he had already lost it completely. I had never questioned my fathers sanity up until that point. “Dad?” I snapped him from his thoughts. He looked at me with true fear in his green eyes. Had I not known any better, I would have sworn tears were about to fall from them. “Would you please just tell me what is happening?”

He looked at me and started to shake his head, stuttering to get a sentence out, “I...I don't k-know...they,...they broke in...”

“Who dad...Who broke in?” My thoughts immediately jumped to an answer to my own question, 'The Operation.'

My fathers eyes wandered the room, searching for the words, “Two men,...big men...they...they...”

The anticipation of his thoughts had me itching for the answer. “They what dad? What did they do?”

My father turned his back to me, unable to stare me in the eyes. His head bowed and he sounded to be sobbing. I couldn't believe my ears...my father doesn't cry. I remained silent and waited, as hard as that was. After a few moments he spun back to me and looked at me. His cheeks wet from his salty tears. I continued to wait, the tension was killing me. Just as he began to speak, I realized something. Something so obvious, but I had missed it because of the whole sickening situation. Sue taken from me, my new assignment, my father at his breaking point...all these distractions blocked my mind from seeing the big picture.

My fathers words pierced the air and stabbed into my mind, bringing with it the dreaded reality that was now my life, “Joe, they took your mother.”