I see the mailman leave the porch. Junk, junk, bill, bill I say as I look through the mail. This last piece is weird it is simply addressed to Jude Jacob. I drop off the other mail and head to my room to open the mail.
I sit down on my bed and have a thought, what if it's bad? What if it's a prank? I put it in the very bottom of my secret drawer and head downstairs to start on my homework. I'm sitting in the dining room when Mom walks in. "Hi mom, how was your day?" I ask her. "Oh good. What are you working on?" she asks as she walks over towards me and gives me a kiss on my cheek. "Just a history assignment." I say. "What time is dinner?" I ask. "Soon bud, Mama is bringing pizza." "Cool" I say and go back to working on my assignment.
After dinner, I went back to my room, glad that Brandon was gone for the night, closed my door and decided to open the letter. I grab the letter, and look at the envelope, realizing that there is no address and that whoever brought this, must know where I live. I look at the writing on the letter to see if the writing looks similar and I can't place it. I take a deep breath and open it.
Dear Jude Jacob,
My name is Erin McManus and I am the lawyer for your father Donald Jacob. This letter is to advise you, that as Donalds only living next of kin, he has been arrested and is currently serving his sentence in Illinois.
His estate and all of his properties have been seized by the Federal Government. There were numerous boxes in his garage and they have all been reviewed. Among his possessions we found these pictures and since they are of no benefit to the case, I thought that you might want to have them.
As per criminal protection act, 123, I can not provide you with any additional information as to the whereabouts of Donald. If he wants to contact you, he will.
I hope these pictures provide you with some solace at this time.
Please feel free to contact me anytime,
Erin McManus
Porter, Stratus and Lee Attorneys
312-555-9410
I have no idea why I got this or what it all means. I suppose I should take it to Callie. "Hey Mariana, where is Callie?" I ask as I stand at their door. "She's sleeping over at Roberts" Mariana says. "Thanks" I leave and decide that I am going to have to show this to moms. I stand there and knock at their door. "Come in Jude." Mom says. "So when I was getting the mail today, there was a letter addressed to me. Well not so much as addressed but all it had was my name on it. So I opened it and I'm not really sure how they know where I lived and how they got the photos that are sent in it." I said and pass it to mom. "Leave it with us, and we will figure it out bud. Goodnight, dont worry, love you." Mom said. "Night, love you too." I say.
Getting up in the morning, I pack the photos into my bag, I want to show them to Callie and see if she remembers the times in there. I sure don't. I head to school.
"Callie, wait up" I say as I try and steal a moment with her between classes. "Hey bud, whats up?" She asks. "So I got sent some pictures the other day and I know that mom is in some of them, but dad and I are in all of them. I have no idea what times they are from. Look at them, maybe you might know." I say as the bell rings. "Take them with you, I will get them back from you at home." I say as I run off.
I see Callie as we are heading to the car to head home. Mama is driving us today. "Hey Cal, did you get a chance to look at those photos?" I ask hopeful. "Yes. Why don't we walk home and we can talk." Callie says. "Mama, it's a nice day, Callie and I are going to walk home and enjoy the weather." I say as I turn around to start heading home. Once Mama is out of sight, Callie reaches into her bag and pulls out the photos. "I don't really think I've seen these pics before. But I do know where they were taken. She shows the first one, where I am very little, our mom is sitting on a couch and my dad has his back turned. If I remember this was your first birthday party before they gave you cake and you threw up all over mom. Everyone laughed except for dad. He was kind of grossed out." She says as we walk. I really want to really want to sit down and study the pictures, so I lead us towards Grant park and the bench under the willow tree that has always been my favourite. As we sit we look at the next few pictures, Callie telling me all about the time in question. We get to the last one and she is stumped. "So this one I don't know. I know that's you, mom and grandma a few weeks before she died, but I don't know who the other people are. This woman looks like Mom, but if she ever had a sister, she never told me." Callie said. "I think we should see if we can trace our family tree and go from there. Maybe she does have a sister, maybe the sister doesn't know that mom is dead. Maybe she doesn't and the lady is just a friend or co-worker that looks like mom." She said. "Thanks for this Callie. Are you okay if I keep these pics unless there is one that you want." I say. "Keep them all." She says. I take a few minutes look around and get up and Callie follows suit and we walk home in silence.
When we get home, Mom is home with the pizza and Mama is just finishing the salad. I run upstairs to my room, close the door and head to my secret hiding place and put the letter and the pictures in there and head down to dinner. After dinner, Callie and I are on dishes. "Hey so I was thinking, this summer we should see if we can make a family tree and see if the lady in that picture is related or just a coincidence." I say. "That sounds like a plan" she says. We finish the dishes, get ready for bed and I fall asleep somehow feeling more complete than I did earlier. It's amazing what you can miss without knowing it.
