Saturday

December 15th 1984

Union City, NJ 1:32PM

Kyle slept in late that Saturday morning. His room was no match for the frigid 32 degree wind just outside. He got up begrudgingly at 10:56am and that's only because the lousy hotel had a checkout time of 9:00am. For lack of a better description, the drive to New Jersey was a pain in Kyle's ass. As much as he loved his mom, Kyle downright hated Jersey. One thing of his bigger regrets was not being able to convince his mother to move out of there. Granted, Jeanie was by no means in a dangerous neighborhood. In fact it was very nice. She was just walking distance to a train stop that would get her to Manhattan in under 15 minutes.

It was a genuinely freezing day in Union City. The sky was blocked by pale overcast and snow was still on the ground from the night before, though it was skillfully divided by street sweepers earlier that morning. Kyle pulled up to the apartment complex. A small collection of well maintained pale orange buildings with brown shingles. On the second floor balcony of one of them was Jeanie Hyde smiling brightly, holding her navy blue robe tightly close with her left hand and gently waving with her right.

"My baby!" Jeanie met her son halfway down the stairs and pressed her hands on his face. Kyle blushed at this. He never see's her, so on the few occasions he actually does see her, he feels obligated to let his wall down. At least that's what he tells himself that he's doing. As if it had nothing to do with the fact that his mother makes him happy. He grinned widely.

"Hey mom. It's great to see you!"

"Well, come in, come in! I have coffee and it's freezing out here!"

They went inside and hung up their outerwear. Kyle sat on the couch while Jeanie made for the kitchen. The apartment smelled like coffee and cinnamon. In front of him, the fireplace was burning brightly and low christmas music filled the room. A christmas tree illuminated a corner from the left of the couch. On that same side, there was a small end table which held up his father's old ashtray and a photo of Kyle being raised by his dad at age 9. Both were wearing New York Yankees caps. A big day at the park. Kyle's never forgotten about it because it was one of the very very few occasions that his father not only had a day off but also used it to spend time with him. He picked up the frame and looked at it fondly before putting it back down quickly. There's no use in digging up good memories if they'll just eventually turn to the bad ones.

Jeanie entered the room with a small tray containing a couple of coffee mugs and a little bowl of sesame seed snaps. Kyle's favorite treat.

"I bought these just for you." she said in that warm motherly tone "Remember every time we would get off the train you wanted to stop at the nearest corner store and pick up a handful? You we're so cute and pudgy then." Jeanie giggled at this and Kyle flushed. It was one of his closer secrets. He used to be a bit of a fattie. He grabbed a couple anyway and crunched away.

"What can I say, ma? They're delicious."

A couple of hours passed. They caught up and shared anecdotes. Jeanie talked about some of the neighbors and then some of the neighbor kids. Admittedly, Kyle wasn't particularly interested in any of it but aside from having generally good manners, what would he interrupt her with? After a few laughs, they washed out their mugs.

"Well then" Kyle began "I should be getting back on the road. I got a real long way to go." Kyle ran his hand through his hair, lowering his head in frustration. Jeanie was concerned at this and offered to pay for the flight but of course Kyle denied. He loved driving even if it was tiring. He hugged his mom and kissed her on the cheek.

"Bye sweetheart." she let out "Would it kill you to call me once in a while? I'd like to talk to my son if that's okay with you."

"Sure thing, mom. I love you. I'll call you as soon as I get home."

"I'll be waiting."

An mildly upset and worried look cast on Jeanie's faces but she said nothing. Kyle noticed that something was off. She was obviously holding back on something.

"Mom" Kyle demanded

"Oh! Y-yes?"

"Something's going on. What is it? What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the gravity of the situation but Jeanie didn't even try to put up a fight or even resist. Giving up, she reached into her pocket and sighed. "Oh, oh Kyle." quivering slightly she pulled out a small black envelope. It seemed plain at first but in very small, silver embossed lettering it read "Kyle. From: Bradley". This pretty much did it for Kyle. His head quickly lost blood and his feet wobbled. Holding onto the rail of the balcony, both he and his mother stood in silence. After a long pause and endless mental calculations regarding what to say or ask Kyle finally settled on

"Where did you get this? Who gave this to you?"

His mother straightened up. Her strong instinct kicked in. She had to be firm.

"You may be annoyed with me but I've had that for quite some time now. I found this here, taped to my door one morning back in September. I just held onto it up until now."

She was right. Kyle was annoyed. He held back but continued.

"You didn't think to get this to me earlier? You know, like three months ago?"

Jeanie wasn't having that. "When was I supposed to bring it up, Kyle? The fourth time you never called or the sixth? You never contact me, son. We don't talk. How am I just going to call you with something so...so strange so delicate? And why? So you can blow off Ed to drive all the way here to pick it up? It was best if I held onto it."

Kyle was still frustrated but didn't have a leg to stand on. He really would have done everything she said.

"So you didn't see who left it here?" Kyle toned it down.

"It was just taped here, sweetheart. I kept a lookout for days just in case but never saw a soul. Honestly I was a little bit scared. I didn't think anyone knew where I lived."

"Well if really is Bradley, he has all sorts of connections to the police. But why would he leave the letter here? I'm on a lease, it's not like I'm living out of hotels any more. All in all I'm a pretty easy person to find if anyone is looking."

"I don't know what to tell you, hon. What are you going to do now?"

A million dollar question if there ever was one. Too many questions. After a small pause, Kyle hugged his mother tightly. "Beats me."