It was Christmas Eve.
Fog stuck to the tarmac at Lindbergh field. My family and I were getting ready
to head out to New York City where we would stay in a hotel until New Year’s
Eve. My wife and I had celebrated in New York before, but never with our two
children. My son’s name was Jacob, my daughter’s name was Samantha, and my
wife’s name was Janette. Our family had always had an amazing bond, and we
could not wait to spend our favorite holiday together.
It was 7:00 and our flight was coming
up. 30 minutes until boarding time, and everything was going as planned. Next
thing I knew, both of my children were tugging at my pants begging me to take
them to the frozen yogurt shop down the hall and of course their little puppy
dog eyes were irresistible, so I took them. My wife was sleeping in a chair
near our gate so we left her there in peace.
All three of us had our yogurt, and we even got one for Janette. We were
on our way back to the gate and everyone was in a good mood. When we got back,
Janette was nowhere to be found. At first, we assumed that she was in the
bathroom, but she wasn't. We waited and waited assuming that she would be back
soon, but the flight was boarding and she never came back. We did not board the
flight and we notified the police, but did they really care?
On
Christmas Eve 5 years later, and we still had no Janette. Where did she go?
Little did we know, the police were actually looking for her and they thought
they would be able to find her within the next few weeks. I didn't tell the
children because I didn't want them to get their hopes up about finding her for
real and actually getting her back.
It
was 4:30 pm on a hot Saturday, summer night when I received a call from the
local police. They told me that they know where Janette is, but they don't know
how they are going to get her just yet. Of course the new is a delight to me,
but we don't have her for sure just yet, so I haven't told the children. They
told me that they wanted my help to come up with a plan, so I did.
We
found a plan, we would surround the building she was in with police cars, but
in places that they couldn't be seen. I would approach the man keeping her whose
name happened to be Mark, and act as if I was buying some drugs from him. Then
the authorities would charge in and save my wife. It all worked in the end and
we found Janette. The only thing was it wasn't the same Janette I knew before.
5 years locked up can really impact a person and it's kind of funny how I never
thought about this before. I figured we would just send her to therapy and she
would be fine.
Everything was not fine, I found out that she caused her kidnapping by
not paying back her DRUG DEALER. She had been doing cocaine for the past 10
years without me knowing. Our marriage was done and I took full custody of the
children. I cannot believe that this all happened to me, why me? I never did
anything wrong.
Everything seemed pointless until I met the love of my life I knew I
could trust more than anyone, even Janette. We got married and lived out the
perfect lives with my beautiful children. In a life that was perfect and
instantly turned to tragedy, my new lover changed everything and made life
worth all that pain I went throughout. I am so happy that this all happened
because otherwise I would not have the life I have today. Everything happens
for a reason right?
Reflection: In the article, "The Plot
Sickens" by Fanny Howe, Fanny proposes that young contemporary writers conclude
their stories with violence to the craziest extent due to their inability to
find a rational solution to the very problem in which they created. In my
"free-write", the only thing I accomplished was proving Fanny Howe to
be completely and utterly correct. My story ends with the main characters wife
getting kidnapped on Christmas Eve, and then she never comes back to them
because the police are too preoccupied to help them out. I don't know if
laziness or inability was the cause to my uncanny ending, but it is still not a
good way to end my story. I need to find a rational solution to the problem I
created for the main character and his family. It is actually kind of sad how
young writers like myself are too naive to find an ending to a problem in which
THEY created. Hopefully I can use this article to improve my writing and other
students' too.
