Snow In August

Part 3: Why He Left

PROLOGUE: DEEP IN WATER

15 Years Earlier…

Linus walked up to the Brown's residence. He rang the doorbell, and Sally answered the door. Linus almost rolled his eyes. He knew she was going to ask if he had come over to take her to the movies. He wished she would stop this pipe dream about them being destined to be together. She was almost as bad as Lucy with Schroeder. ALMOST! Unlike Schroeder, he didn't despise Sally like Schroeder did with his older sister, but often got annoyed by her constantly calling him her "Sweet Babboo".

"Before you ask me, no I am NOT here to take you to the movies," Linus flatly stated. "Besides, it's after midnight, and the theater is closed. Something happened at Violet's party tonight involving your brother, and I wanted to see if he was okay."

"He did come in without any clothes on," said Sally, remembering Charlie Brown coming home, clad only in his underwear. "Did it have to do with that?"

"Yeah, it did. Is he or your parents home?"

"Daddy is up right now. On weekends he stays up and cleans his barber equipment he brings home from the shop. Come in, Linus." And Linus went inside. He saw Silas at the table scrubbing what looked like hair clippers.

"Mr. Brown," Linus began, "is your son home? Something happened at Violet's party."

"What happened, son?" asked Silas.

"Well, Charlie Brown had a date tonight, as you probably knew."

"That nice Tracy girl he was with?" Linus nodded. "What happened?"

"Well, her ex-boyfriend Blake showed up tonight, and started in on him. The boy's extremely jealous, which was why Tracy left him in the first place. Blake made him strip down to his underwear in front of everybody. He destroyed his car, as well before he even came in to do what he did. Tracy herself didn't set Charlie Brown up, but I have my suspicions about who actually did. That's why I wanted to see if I could talk to him. If he's asleep, I can come back tomorrow."

"No, let's go up and see him. I want to know what this Blake kid did to my son." And Linus and Silas went up to Charlie Brown's room. They looked in and didn't see him."

"That's funny," said Silas. "Sally said he came home earlier tonight."

"Good grief!" shuddered Linus. "Mr. Brown, look at the bathroom, under the door!"

Silas saw what looked like water seeping out from under the door. He gasped at what that could have meant.

"Stand back, Linus!" And Silas busted the door open. What the two of them shocked them to the core. Charlie Brown was in the tub under water!

"MAUREEN, CALL 9-1-1!" hollered Silas. "LINUS, HELP ME GET HIM OUT OF THE TUB!" And the both of them managed to pull Charlie Brown out of the tub. Silas was trained in CPR, so he did some rescue breathing on his son. After a few breaths, Charlie Brown started coughing up water and was starting to breathe on his own. Silas was glad he didn't have to do CPR on his kid, or that he died. He just hoped he didn't have permanent brain damage from that stunt. Linus spied what looked like a bottle of pills on the sink.

"Mr. Brown, what is this?" he asked.

"My wife's sleeping pills," Silas answered. Maureen walked in.

"OH MY GOD, CHARLIE!" she cried out.

"It's okay, Maureen, he's breathing again," said Silas. "Did you call 9-1-1?"

"An ambulance is on its way right now. What happened?"

"According to Linus, something bad happened at the party involving Tracy's ex-boyfriend. Some asshole named Blake." Sally came running up.

"Stay back, Sally," said Linus. "Your brother's okay."

"An ambulance is outside our house!" said a concerned Sally. "What's going on?!"

"We'll tell you later, Sally," assured Maureen. "We're still figuring it out, ourselves." And soon, the EMT's came in to check up on Charlie Brown. Seeing his vitals were okay, they brought him to the hospital to see if any damage from his suicide attempt was done. The police would soon be involved in the investigation.

UP NEXT, OUR STORY BEGINS…