It's Just A Game

Parker remembered standing in the car watching his dad bring suitcases to the car. Parker asked him, “Where’s mom, isn’t she coming?” He replied, “No Parker, mom and I are playing a long game of hide-n-seek.” Little did Parker know at that time that mom would never win the game.
It all started when Parker’s dad, Braden, got fired from his job at the Missouri State Capitol where he was in charge of passing bills. Parker remembered hearing sounds coming from his parent’s room that night; he knocked on the door and walked in to see his dad pinning his mom to the floor. Braden looked up and told him that they are just playing a game. Many times Parker would hear sounds just like this. After this so called game, his mom, Tina, left the house crying and said she was going to go see grandma. Parker thought she was just sad that she had lost the game. This whole thing went on for a very long time, he was used to his mom leaving and coming back but this one time she did not return. Finally a couple hours later Braden came out of his room in a hurry, a rushed sort of mood.
“Parker go pack up your things and wait for me in the car, hurry, we don’t have much time.”
Parker did what he was told and stood in the car waiting while his dad brought the suitcases to the car. His dad climbed in the car and drove off not realizing that Parker had went back inside to get his toy. While inside Parker again yelled for his mom and in return got no reply. He walked back to his parent’s bedroom where he saw a line of dark red thick liquid on the floor, blood, he thought. He ran to the front to get his dad, but he had already left. He started to cry and went to call his grandparents. A short while later his grandma showed up and Parker showed her the line of blood on the floor. She followed the line which led from the side of rustled bed across the already spotted carpet and right up to the closet, in the very back of the room. She opened the door and screamed. She told Parker to go into his room and wait there till he was told to come out. Later, Parker didn’t hear anything from his grandma, so he decided to go out and look around for himself. He walked back to the closet where the line of now, dry crusty blood followed. He opened the door and fell to his knees by the sight of his own mother covered in blood hanging on a hanger. He was so shocked and filled with fear. Chills ran up and down his body as he thought what to do. He ran to the front door where he bumped into a local police officer. He called for his grandma but no answer came. She must have gone back to her house. The police officer asked why he was in the house. Parker replied, “My mom is dead.”
Years went by. Parker now is seventeen years old, and he lives with his grandparents in a small house just outside the city of Hollister, Missouri. The case that involved the murder of Tina had long since dissolved. They never again found or heard from Braden Jones. Parker now had become somewhat of a detective trying to figure out what has happened with his alcoholic father. He hadn’t had any leads on the case until one day he was walking home from school and a homeless man started to follow him. Parker took as many shortcuts as he could to lose him. But the follower kept a close tail on him. Finally, Parker stopped and turned around to prepare to fight. As he did the homeless person said, “It is just a game.” Parker looked really close and started to tremble. He thought to himself: could this dirty, old, nasty man be his father? He walked closer to the man and looked in his eyes.
The man said, “Parker, it’s me, Braden.” Parker stood and for a moment and without thinking punched him across the face.
“How dare you?” Parker said.
Then he turned and started to run, not looking back. When Parker reached his grandparent’s house, he realized that someone had broken into the house, the glass front door had been broken and shards of glass lay all over the entry way, still shaken up by meeting his estranged father, he searched the house to find his grandparents. When he reached the basement he saw two bodies bound and gagged lying on the floor. He ran over to untie them. Once they were ready the grandparents told Parker that two men in black masks had come into the house looking for Braden. They instead found us in the kitchen. They struck us both on our heads and that’s all I remember, said his grandma. Parker helped his grandparents up the stairs and into the living room. After they settled, he told them he was going to go look for clues. First he started to examine the broken glass near the front door. He was just about to give up when he found a small black cloth with the initials M.S.C. printed on the inside. He took the piece of fabric straight up to his room and started to examine it further. He didn’t find any finger prints on it besides his own; he wondered if the initials were that of one of the attackers. After a healthy dinner, Parker thought he ought to tell his grandparents about the encounter with his father. As he told the grandparents, they expressed great concern for him as well as their safety!
The next day Parker set out to try and track down his homeless father. He soon found him by a trash can not too far from where he had been attacked the day before. Parker bent down beside him and asked why he did it to his mom. Braden said, “Did what?”
“Why did you kill her?”
“I didn’t, you have to believe me, there was another man in the room when your mom and I were fighting, I went to my closet to get a book and when I returned I saw him carry her bleeding body into her closet. I decided not to alarm you, or let this guy know you were in the house so I just left. I was scared.”
“Who was this man?”
“I have no idea; his face was covered with a black mask.”
After Parker thought about this for a little bit, it all began to click in to place, the man who killed his mother might also be in the same gang who broke into his grandparents house. He told Braden that he should come with him back to his grandparent’s house and explain to them what had happened to Tina and get cleaned up and then help him decide who is behind all this. After all this, Parker sat down with Braden and tried to pry out information of if he had made any enemies where he worked at the State Capitol. Braden said, “None that I know of, however...” He motioned Parker to shut the door. “I was involved with smuggling secret information to a guy out in California but I stopped as soon as the police got word of what we were doing.”
“Who was the leader of this?” Parker asked.
“A guy named Slim Genes; I never knew what he used the information for though.”
“Do you think the group might want to get back at you for leaving them high and dry?” asked Parker.
“Could be. I think you and I should make a trip down the state capitol for some investigating!”
As soon as Braden and Parker ate dinner they waited until it was completely dark outside, the put on some dark clothing and headed out on foot from the grandparents house to the state capitol. When they reached it, they saw only one policeman apparently sleeping outside the side door, they walked cautiously to the door, they were able to get in with not waking the guard. They reached Braden’s old office in the back of the building, being very careful of the security cameras; they searched what used to be his office and now is a storage room. In a box in the corner of the room Parker found black clothing with the initials M.S.C. on it. He called to his dad, “Come look what I found, these initials are the same ones I found on the fabric that was left by the people who broke into Grandma’s house.”
“That means somehow the connection of them must be with people who work for the Missouri Sate Capitol.” Said Braden.
“Not necessarily” said Parker. “They are probably people who used the getup to disguise themselves as workers but instead are the ones trying to get at you for leaving them high and dry in the scam.”
“Maybe you’re right, but how do we know for sure?” asked Braden.
“Let’s stake out in the closet across the hall and watch who comes into this room tomorrow! While I was working here, this is the room where we were told the boss would get our messages.” Braden said.
So they both spent the night in the closet waiting and watching for someone to give them a lead on their case. A couple hours till dawn they were awakened by a muffled sound of footsteps. Parker was the first to slightly open the door and look through, Braden followed.
“That guy is Slim, he must be the one behind all this.” Said Braden.
Parker quickly found an old worker uniform and slipped it on over his clothes, he slowly stepped out of the closet with a maintenance cart and walked by the office. He peered through the door and saw two burly figures standing with their backs against him.
“How could you let him slip by Jim, now apparently he has his kid helping him trying to track us down, go get them at the grandparents house and don’t mess up this time.” Parker overheard who appeared to be Slim say to the other man in the room.
Parker quickly dashed around the corner and waited for both of the men to come out of the room and then he sent the cart flying at them, thus knocking them both down to the floor unconscious. Braden jumped out of the closet and helped his son tie the two crooks up.
“I called the police they should be here any minute.” Said Braden.
Just then the whole building was lit up by lights and four police officers walked into the hallway.
“Good work, Jones, Slim Genes and Jim Chragan, two men charged with the murder of your wife and the smuggling of money from the capitol.” Said the police officer to Braden and Parker.
The police escorted the two crooks out to their cars. Braden and Parker followed. One of the officers offered to take them home and when they got their. They went inside and told the grandparents what had happened.
“So everything can be back to normal, right, dad?” asked Parker.
“Right son, I’m sorry about all the pain I have caused you and want you to know that I thought I was doing what was best for you and your life by not having you know this information and such a young age and causing you any fear.” Braden said.
The family then settled down to play a nice game of their favorite game, “Clue”.
“It’s Just a Game.” Parker said smiling at his dad.

THE END