Chapter 1: The Envelope
The smell of fresh morning coffee fought its way through Piper's wooden Victorian door, joined the warm summer breeze in a dance towards Piper's bed, and landed neatly inside Piper's nostrils. Piper knew right as she struggled to open her eyelids that Prue was up and ready to start her day. Ever since they were kids, Prue was always the first one up, and the last one down. Yet, Piper felt that this morning was peculiarly different than any other. She didn't even need to check her alarm clock, which read 6: 13 a.m. to know that Prue strangely woke up earlier than usual. 'Ah, what now?' Piper though to herself, as she dangled her legs down her bed's left side, and carefully searched for her slippers.
At the kitchen window stood a distracted Prue, squeezing a cup of coffee in her right hand, and her left side waist in the other. She seemed to gaze far out the window, at the newspaper boy aiming his paper at the neighbor's lawn, the two desperate housewives gossiping their way to their cars, and finally at neighbor Noah, dragging his feet up his front porch stairs after spending a long night at the hospital. Unlike her eyes, her mind was drifting away from the quiet Prescott Street inhabitants, and off to another darker place. "Hey, you startled me." Prue screamed, as she turned to face Piper. "What are you doing walking around the manor this early in the morning?"
"I don't know, you tell me." Replied Piper sarcastically as she headed to the coffee pot and poured some in a cup. "It's not even 8:00 yet, and you're already dressed up and ready to go. What's wrong now?"
Prue took her left hand out of her pocket and raised her arm in an attempt to look at her wrist watch. She was well aware of the time she left her bed, but she just wanted to check how long she had been standing at that window. "I never went to bed actually." Said Prue in a staggering tone, then turned back to look out the window.
"What do you mean you never went to bed? Phoebe and I walked you to your room last night." Piper said confused. What Piper didn't know was that Prue had sneaked out of her bed right after Piper and Phoebe slammed their bedroom doors shut. "Prue, were you up all night?"
Prue was looking to dodge that question, in an attempt to avoid bringing up the subject that was really bothering her last night. She slowly walked away from the window and headed to the living room, as Piper followed anxiously. "I just couldn't sleep Piper." Whispered Prue as she sat down on the leather sofa, and placed her cup of coffee on the table. "Look I wasn't completely honest with you and Phoebe last night. I didn't really have a headache…well I did but not because I was tired." Prue clenched her teeth, as she tried to wipe the guilty look off her face, and stop her lips from spilling out any more words.
Piper, now really worried and confused, sat next to Prue, and with a nervous hand lifted Prue's chin out of her coffee cup. "You're not gonna fit in that small cup you know. If you think you can get away with what you just said, then you're wrong. I deserve to know what's making my sister stay up all night." Explained Piper in a monotonous tone.
"Actually, both you and Phoebe deserve to know about this. Why don't you wake her up and I'll be waiting for you in the kitchen. This is serious Piper." Prue ordered as she almost jogged to the kitchen.
Phoebe's room was always the smallest and the most distinctive one in the house. The room screamed 'Phoebe'. The walls gasped for air, as they tried to fight the large boy-band posters away. The pile of psychology books covered the right side corner of the room, and the other pile, now of clothes, covered the armchair that sat next to the door. Phoebe, though ambitious and smart, was more of a free spirit. Unique clothes, strange taste in movies, and particularly outlandish taste in men. But she was the baby, and her sisters both adored her.
"Come on, get up. Prue has something important to say to us, and I'm not about to wait another minute to find out what it is." Announced Piper, while marching into Phoebe's room and opening the window curtains.
"Hey, can't this wait? I was up all night studying and I just went to bed two hours ago. I need my beauty sleep you know." Shouted Phoebe from under her bed sheets. Phoebe was always the last to wake up, but she wasn't aware of the emergency that Piper's tone was implying. If she had known the weight of the situation, she would have never ignored it and chose sleep over a family meeting.
"Didn't you hear what I just said? I told you Prue's not feeling well and she really needs to talk." Piper's temper was starting to get the better of her, and she refused to wait for Phoebe to take a decision. She invaded Phoebe's bed, and with one quick move pulled her out of bed. "Follow me to the kitchen…NOW."
Phoebe, now aware of the urgent situation that Piper has created, put on her slippers and dragged herself down the stairs. She expected to find her two sisters fighting in the kitchen over who's hogging all the coffee, or whose turn it was to take out the trash, but all she heard was the sound of Prue's feet stomping repeatedly on the kitchen floor. Phoebe took a deep breath as she passed the living room and swung the kitchen door open. "Okay, I'm here, what's the big emergency?" Whined Phoebe in annoyance.
"Pheebs, I think you better sit down." Pleaded Prue, while facing her two sisters. "Look I didn't know how to tell you this last night, but I just needed time to comprehend it myself…"
"Cut to the chase, Prue. We can't handle any opening lines right now." Piper interrupted. Piper's palms were getting sweatier as Prue's jaw moved up and down. She was never good at handling bad news when she was a teenager, and being an adult didn't change that.
"Will you just spill the beans already?" Demanded Phoebe, now very serious and worried.
"Okay, okay. Last night, I had this envelope delivered to my office." Started Prue, as she handed the envelope to Piper. It wasn't long until Phoebe's head stuck next to Piper's, squinting to read the words between the alarming lines of the letter. "What does it say, Piper?" Demanded Phoebe, as she snatched the letter from Piper's hand, and moved it closer to her eyes so she could read it carefully.
Piper's hands were still in the air, holding the now empty space that the letter once occupied. Her jaw dropped, worry wrinkles grew on her forehead, and piercing shocked eyes stared at Prue in horror. It wasn't long until Phoebe joined the scenario. "Oh my God!" Phoebe blurted out while sitting back down on her chair.
"How could this happen? I thought he was sentenced to 15 to 25 years. How can they be letting him out now?" Declared Piper in astonishment.
"Well, it's been 20 years. Maybe they let him out based on good behavior." Phoebe suggested, with mixed feelings and butterflies plaguing her stomach. As stunned and terrified as she was to read the bad news, a part of her wanted to look on the bright side.
"What good behavior? The man is a monster, Phoebe. He's a murderer and he deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life. Being hanged or even electrocuted wouldn't even begin to cut it…" Shouted Prue, while waving her hands uncontrollably at Phoebe.
Flames were about to come out of Prue's head, as she openly expressed her hatred and loathing towards this certain inmate. Luckily, Piper interrupted her just in time. "Look, just calm down Prue. Phoebe and I both agree with you, but we have to stay calm if we're going to figure out what to do with all this." Piper's effort to calm Prue down was just as hard as her attempt to calm herself down.
"So, what are we going to do? The letter says we're his only family." Phoebe began to say as Prue's cold and horrifying look aimed at her.
"What are you suggesting exactly, Phoebe?" Piper asked, afraid to hear the answer.
"Well, the letter suggests that we…" Phoebe's face turned almost green, as she blurted out her forbidden words. Her own ears couldn't believe what her lips were saying, but somehow her sympathy got the best of her. She wanted to continue her sentence, but Prue's eyes terrified her. She'd never saw her big sister this angry since their mother died. Phoebe knew how hard it was on Prue to get over their mother's death, but something was screaming inside her head, begging her to continue her sentence. But she never did. Prue did that for her.
"…take him into our home. Is that what you wanted to say, Phoebe?" Prue hasn't felt this angry since her mother died. She felt every drop of blood that was pumped by her heart reach her forehead. "You better be dreaming, Phoebe. The day that man sets foot on our door step, will be the day you lose your big sister. That goes out to both of you." Those were the last words Prue spoke to Phoebe and Piper before pushing the chair against the fridge on her way out of the kitchen.
Silence took over the room for a while. Though Piper and Phoebe were sitting opposite each other, none of them could look the other one in the face. Piper reached for the half torn letter sitting at the far end of the table. She wanted to read it again, to make sure this was for real. "What are we going to do, Pheebs?"
"I don't know, Piper." Phoebe sighs. "All I know is that he has nowhere else to go."
Piper gave Phoebe a guilty look, and then nodded her head in disagreement. "I don't care. He can sleep on the pavement for all I care, but he's not staying with us. It's two against one, Phoebe, deal with it."
"I can understand where Prue is coming from, but what's with your cruel attitude? The man spent 20 years in prison; he paid his debt to society. Don't you think he deserves a second chance?"
Piper broke down in tears as she wove her hands at Phoebe. She then gave her a stair with swollen eyes. "He may have paid his debt to society, but he'll never even come close to gaining my forgiveness. He's the reason our family is so screwed up. He's the reason Prue woke up screaming every night when we were in middle school. He destroyed our family, Phoebe, and I'll never ever forgive him for that."
Phoebe walked over to Piper, dried the tears that were running down her cheeks, and took Piper in her arms in one comforting hug. "I know that, sweetie. I know how hard it was on all of us, especially you and Prue. But you have to understand that I've always wanted to believe that he's changed, that he's not the man he used to be. This is the closest we have to a normal family Piper, and I never wanted to give up hope that he'd actually be sorry for what he did once he got out. If we don't at least see him and talk to him then we'll never know, will we?"
Piper moved backwards, while taking the Kleenex from Phoebe's hand and drying her tears with it. She was so worried about how this situation affected her and Prue that she forgot to consider what Phoebe was going through because of this. It never occurred to her that maybe Phoebe was the biggest victim of what had happened to their family. "How can I, Phoebe? How can I look him in the eye after what he's done? He killed mom. He's a killer."
Phoebe felt a sharp pain in her heart upon listening to Piper's words. The word 'killer' has haunted her ever since she stopped wearing diapers. In her heart she knew she couldn't forgive him for what he's done to her mother, but somehow she wanted to. She wanted to believe that there's still good in people, and no matter how bad they seem to be, their good nature shall win the fight. Piper snapped her fingers in Phoebe's face as a way to get her attention. "Phoebe, are you listening to me? He's a killer…"
Phoebe suddenly noticed Piper's struggle to steal her attention away from her guilty thoughts. She finally looked up at Piper and bluntly threw her words in Piper's face while walking her miserable thoughts to the living room. "I heard you the first time. He's a killer…but he's still our father!"
