Sara and Sydney sat in the rocking chairs that were on the front porch and watched as a few cars drove by and a few pedestrians strolled by. Sydney was not use to the peaceful tranquility of this type of neighborhood. After sitting quietly for a few minutes she was ready to hear more. "Tell me about my father. What he was like when he lived here?"
Sara rocked her chair as she thought of the best way to describe her nephew. "Johnny was a good kid. Very smart. He kept to himself most of the time. In spite of how his mother was, he was very protective of her."
"Protective? How?" Sydney asked.
"He never allowed any of the neighborhood kids to say anything bad about her. Whenever she went anywhere, he would go with her, to make sure she kept out of trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Sydney asked
"Sometimes when she went shopping, she would get into an argument with the clerks or with other customers. He would pull her away, before things got out of hand." Sara paused and then added, "She also had a tendency to forget to pay for things. Johnny would be there to remind her."
What Sara didn't know, about those shopping trips, was that when Rebecca and Jack returned home she would accuse him of having been the one to place the unpaid for items in her bag. She would say that he did it so that she would be arrested and would be locked up. "You want them to lock me up, don't you? DON'T YOU?" she would scream at him. "We'll see who gets locked up," she would say as she locked him in his room for the night. The lockup usually came before dinner. He was sent to school the next day without breakfast. When Sean was around, he always made sure he had a lunch and something to eat on the way to school.
"Why didn't anybody do something to get her help?" Sydney wanted to know.
"Things were different back then," Sara tried to explain. "We didn't understand mental illness. As far as we knew, she was that way just because of her temperament. I don't mean this as an excuse, but we didn't fully understand all that was going on over there."
Sara always wondered if things would have been different if Don had spent more time at home. She continued with her explanation of why no one noticed how Rebecca was deteriorating. "Don, well he worked nights. 50-60 hours a week. He spent a lot his free time down at Parker's Bar, or at the VFW. Rebecca was usually under control when Sean was around. It was only when she was alone with Johnny that things were bad."
Sydney was getting angry with this woman who she never knew. "But why? What did he do to her?"
"Nothing, Sydney," Sara said as she shook her head. "It was just her illness. I think there were signs of trouble starting before she got pregnant, but they got worse after the pregnancy. So she focused all her frustrations on Johnny."
In Rebecca's defense, Sara told her, "She knew what she was doing was wrong. She would tell me that she didn't understand why she lost control. She loved Johnny, but when the feeling hit her, she couldn't control herself. She told me that there were times when she felt like she was standing outside her own body, watching as a madwoman attacked her baby, and there was nothing she could do to stop it."
Sara's heart broke whenever she thought about the pain her sister-in-law and nephew went through. "She really did try and make things right. She would call me sometimes in the middle of the night, crying. She asked me to come over and get him or she would send him over with Sean and he would spend a few days with us."
Sara dabbed her eyes with a tissue that she dug out of her pocket. "Johnny never complained. When I asked him what happened, he would just say that he made her mad."
Sydney didn't need to hear anymore details. She had a pretty clear picture of how things were. The fact that her father never complained, came as no surprise.
"Things couldn't have been all bad," Sydney thought. She asked her aunt, "What did he do to have fun?"
"What did he do to have fun?" Sara repeated as she forced her memory back to a time long ago. How sad, that she could so easily recall what went wrong, but she struggled to recall the pleasant times in her nephew's life.
"He tagged along with Sean, whenever he could. But you have to remember that Sean was almost eleven years older so he couldn't always go with him." Sara also recalled that Sean always set time aside to spend with his young brother. One of their favorite things to do was to go fishing down at the creek, that is a few blocks away. Sara suspected that the creek was probably one of the places that Jack went to on his walk today.
"I use to make my boys take him to play ball, but he had no real interest in sports. He was more of an intellect. While other kids were buying comic books, he would buy puzzle magazines. You know the kind; the ones with logic quizzes, cryptic codes, anagrams. Anything that made you think, to find the answer."
Then Sara smiled as she remembered one of young Jack's passions. "The only time we didn't have to force him to do something, was on Saturday afternoons. That's when the kids all went to the movies."
Sydney also smiled at the thought of her father spending Saturday afternoons watching movies.
"But he only went to science fiction movies," Sara clarified. "He went to anything that involved outer space. That was his dream, you know, to be a space explorer."
"No, I didn't know that." Sydney told her.
"Oh yes, when the space program got started, it just consumed him." She laughed as she remembered Jack sitting at her kitchen table drawing a diagram of a rocket, for her. She pulled an envelope out from the photo album. Inside was a drawing of a Saturn V that Jack had made, so many years before. "He drew this for me one afternoon. He was trying to explain to me how a rocket worked. He tried so hard to get me to understand, but that was just too much for me to comprehend."
Sydney took the picture and studied it. It was clear that it was drawn by a young teen. But it was the details of the drawing that amazed her. The rocket was open and he labeled the fuel lines, the pumps, the gauges, and the sensors.
Sara became quiet as Sydney continued to examine the drawing. She quickly noticed the mood change that came over Sara. "What are you thinking about?" she asked with concern.
"You know your father was accepted into West Point," Sara stated.
"No, I didn't know that, either." Sydney replied.
Looking at nothing and in deep thought, Sara continued, "His plan was to use West Point as his stepping stone into the space program. He worked so hard for that appointment. Then a few weeks after he was accepted, he announced that he was turning it down. He never told us why he turned down the appointment."
Now it was Sydney's turn to become quiet. She had seen her father's CIA profile. She knew that he was recruited when he was only seventeen. She also knew that the CIA monitored the applicants to the major military academies. By the sheer action of applying to a military academy, these boys were announcing their intent to service their country.
If an applicant scored high in certain fields, the CIA would approach them with an offer to service their country, in a very unique and extraordinary way. Sydney was sure her father scored high in the fields that the CIA would be interested in, that being logic thinking, cryptology and linguistics.
That was exactly what happened to Jonathan Donahue Bristow in the summer of 1967. He was a year ahead in school so he graduated from high school in the summer of '67. He was to begin his military career that fall, but that never happened.
Unbeknowst to him, Jack was accepting an offer that would change the course of his life in a way that he never imagined. After accepting the appointment to West Point he was approached by the CIA. They told him that by accepting a position with them, he would service his country in a way that few men were asked to. They also enticed the seventeen-year-old with stories of world travel and high adventure. What seventeen-year-old could turndown a James Bond lifestyle?
The moment he accepted their offer, his life changed forever. His first assignment was to turn down the West Point appointment without telling anyone why he was it turning down. He was instructed to enroll in the University of Maryland. He was to tell everyone that he had received a scholarship to pay for his tuition. They told him what classes to take.
"He really hurt Don, when he turned the appointment down and offered no explanation on why he did it," Sara told Sydney.
Sydney could tell that Sara knew there was more to the story then what she was aware of. Sara had shared so much with her that she felt guilty that she could not tell her that her father had an honorable reason for turning the appointment down.
"So you have no idea why he did that?" Sydney asked. She was curious to know what Sara had come to believe.
"No. Except, I guess he got caught up in the turmoil of the times. So much was going on back then. You had the civil rights movement, the war, hippies, drugs, sex. People were burning everything that the prior generation held sacred; flags, draft cards, bras. You name it and it was being burned or protested." Sara turned and looked at Sydney. She told her, "That's what was so odd about the whole thing, your father was never really a part of all that. Or so we thought, until the day he was arrested."
"Arrested?" Sydney asked. "Arrested for what?"
Sara reached back into the envelope that she had gotten the rocket drawing out of. This time she pulled out a newspaper article. The headline read: Dead War Hero's Brother Arrested for War Protest.
Sara rocked her chair as she thought of the best way to describe her nephew. "Johnny was a good kid. Very smart. He kept to himself most of the time. In spite of how his mother was, he was very protective of her."
"Protective? How?" Sydney asked.
"He never allowed any of the neighborhood kids to say anything bad about her. Whenever she went anywhere, he would go with her, to make sure she kept out of trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Sydney asked
"Sometimes when she went shopping, she would get into an argument with the clerks or with other customers. He would pull her away, before things got out of hand." Sara paused and then added, "She also had a tendency to forget to pay for things. Johnny would be there to remind her."
What Sara didn't know, about those shopping trips, was that when Rebecca and Jack returned home she would accuse him of having been the one to place the unpaid for items in her bag. She would say that he did it so that she would be arrested and would be locked up. "You want them to lock me up, don't you? DON'T YOU?" she would scream at him. "We'll see who gets locked up," she would say as she locked him in his room for the night. The lockup usually came before dinner. He was sent to school the next day without breakfast. When Sean was around, he always made sure he had a lunch and something to eat on the way to school.
"Why didn't anybody do something to get her help?" Sydney wanted to know.
"Things were different back then," Sara tried to explain. "We didn't understand mental illness. As far as we knew, she was that way just because of her temperament. I don't mean this as an excuse, but we didn't fully understand all that was going on over there."
Sara always wondered if things would have been different if Don had spent more time at home. She continued with her explanation of why no one noticed how Rebecca was deteriorating. "Don, well he worked nights. 50-60 hours a week. He spent a lot his free time down at Parker's Bar, or at the VFW. Rebecca was usually under control when Sean was around. It was only when she was alone with Johnny that things were bad."
Sydney was getting angry with this woman who she never knew. "But why? What did he do to her?"
"Nothing, Sydney," Sara said as she shook her head. "It was just her illness. I think there were signs of trouble starting before she got pregnant, but they got worse after the pregnancy. So she focused all her frustrations on Johnny."
In Rebecca's defense, Sara told her, "She knew what she was doing was wrong. She would tell me that she didn't understand why she lost control. She loved Johnny, but when the feeling hit her, she couldn't control herself. She told me that there were times when she felt like she was standing outside her own body, watching as a madwoman attacked her baby, and there was nothing she could do to stop it."
Sara's heart broke whenever she thought about the pain her sister-in-law and nephew went through. "She really did try and make things right. She would call me sometimes in the middle of the night, crying. She asked me to come over and get him or she would send him over with Sean and he would spend a few days with us."
Sara dabbed her eyes with a tissue that she dug out of her pocket. "Johnny never complained. When I asked him what happened, he would just say that he made her mad."
Sydney didn't need to hear anymore details. She had a pretty clear picture of how things were. The fact that her father never complained, came as no surprise.
"Things couldn't have been all bad," Sydney thought. She asked her aunt, "What did he do to have fun?"
"What did he do to have fun?" Sara repeated as she forced her memory back to a time long ago. How sad, that she could so easily recall what went wrong, but she struggled to recall the pleasant times in her nephew's life.
"He tagged along with Sean, whenever he could. But you have to remember that Sean was almost eleven years older so he couldn't always go with him." Sara also recalled that Sean always set time aside to spend with his young brother. One of their favorite things to do was to go fishing down at the creek, that is a few blocks away. Sara suspected that the creek was probably one of the places that Jack went to on his walk today.
"I use to make my boys take him to play ball, but he had no real interest in sports. He was more of an intellect. While other kids were buying comic books, he would buy puzzle magazines. You know the kind; the ones with logic quizzes, cryptic codes, anagrams. Anything that made you think, to find the answer."
Then Sara smiled as she remembered one of young Jack's passions. "The only time we didn't have to force him to do something, was on Saturday afternoons. That's when the kids all went to the movies."
Sydney also smiled at the thought of her father spending Saturday afternoons watching movies.
"But he only went to science fiction movies," Sara clarified. "He went to anything that involved outer space. That was his dream, you know, to be a space explorer."
"No, I didn't know that." Sydney told her.
"Oh yes, when the space program got started, it just consumed him." She laughed as she remembered Jack sitting at her kitchen table drawing a diagram of a rocket, for her. She pulled an envelope out from the photo album. Inside was a drawing of a Saturn V that Jack had made, so many years before. "He drew this for me one afternoon. He was trying to explain to me how a rocket worked. He tried so hard to get me to understand, but that was just too much for me to comprehend."
Sydney took the picture and studied it. It was clear that it was drawn by a young teen. But it was the details of the drawing that amazed her. The rocket was open and he labeled the fuel lines, the pumps, the gauges, and the sensors.
Sara became quiet as Sydney continued to examine the drawing. She quickly noticed the mood change that came over Sara. "What are you thinking about?" she asked with concern.
"You know your father was accepted into West Point," Sara stated.
"No, I didn't know that, either." Sydney replied.
Looking at nothing and in deep thought, Sara continued, "His plan was to use West Point as his stepping stone into the space program. He worked so hard for that appointment. Then a few weeks after he was accepted, he announced that he was turning it down. He never told us why he turned down the appointment."
Now it was Sydney's turn to become quiet. She had seen her father's CIA profile. She knew that he was recruited when he was only seventeen. She also knew that the CIA monitored the applicants to the major military academies. By the sheer action of applying to a military academy, these boys were announcing their intent to service their country.
If an applicant scored high in certain fields, the CIA would approach them with an offer to service their country, in a very unique and extraordinary way. Sydney was sure her father scored high in the fields that the CIA would be interested in, that being logic thinking, cryptology and linguistics.
That was exactly what happened to Jonathan Donahue Bristow in the summer of 1967. He was a year ahead in school so he graduated from high school in the summer of '67. He was to begin his military career that fall, but that never happened.
Unbeknowst to him, Jack was accepting an offer that would change the course of his life in a way that he never imagined. After accepting the appointment to West Point he was approached by the CIA. They told him that by accepting a position with them, he would service his country in a way that few men were asked to. They also enticed the seventeen-year-old with stories of world travel and high adventure. What seventeen-year-old could turndown a James Bond lifestyle?
The moment he accepted their offer, his life changed forever. His first assignment was to turn down the West Point appointment without telling anyone why he was it turning down. He was instructed to enroll in the University of Maryland. He was to tell everyone that he had received a scholarship to pay for his tuition. They told him what classes to take.
"He really hurt Don, when he turned the appointment down and offered no explanation on why he did it," Sara told Sydney.
Sydney could tell that Sara knew there was more to the story then what she was aware of. Sara had shared so much with her that she felt guilty that she could not tell her that her father had an honorable reason for turning the appointment down.
"So you have no idea why he did that?" Sydney asked. She was curious to know what Sara had come to believe.
"No. Except, I guess he got caught up in the turmoil of the times. So much was going on back then. You had the civil rights movement, the war, hippies, drugs, sex. People were burning everything that the prior generation held sacred; flags, draft cards, bras. You name it and it was being burned or protested." Sara turned and looked at Sydney. She told her, "That's what was so odd about the whole thing, your father was never really a part of all that. Or so we thought, until the day he was arrested."
"Arrested?" Sydney asked. "Arrested for what?"
Sara reached back into the envelope that she had gotten the rocket drawing out of. This time she pulled out a newspaper article. The headline read: Dead War Hero's Brother Arrested for War Protest.