This is the newly revised, 6th draft. Please lemme know what you think - I'm open to new ideas and suggestions. The more specific you are, the better! I think I added in all the italics, but there may be some missing because I copy and pasted it from MS Word.
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Stop and Smell the Roses
By: Ralph Gallagher
Henri Fredric Amiel once said, "Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over flesh - that is to say, over fear... Heroism is the dazzling and brilliant concentration of courage."
I was sitting at my desk in my bedroom when Jake walked in. Jake was my six-year-old brother, a pain in the butt a lot of the time, but my brother none-the-less.
"What's up, Jake?" I asked, setting down my calculator and pencil.
"Can you take me to the park?" he asked.
"Why are you asking me? Mom and Dad always take you."
"I want you to take me! You're more fun than they are! And you take me when they're not home," Jake said as he climbed up and sat on my lap.
"That's supposed to be our secret," I reminded him. Mom and Dad were really over protective of Jake - never letting him out of their sight. Well, Mom is. Dad’s rarely home – always on some business trip.
"I know! I won't tell 'em! I promise!" he said, only it sounded like 'pwomise'. "Please!"
I looked down and Jake and he was staring up at me giving me puppy dog eyes. You know the ones that you just can't say no to? "All right, I'll ask them if I can take you."
He jumped off my lap and yelled "yay!"
Getting my parents to agree to it was not an easy ordeal. Let's just say it took twenty minutes of me promising to take good care up him, plus Jake begging and giving them puppy dog eyes. And after they gave us permission, we had to stand there and listen to a long list of rules.
"Don’t let him out of your sight. Hold his hand if you cross a street. Don’t let him talk to strangers. Don’t let him go to the bathroom alone." Those are only a few of the long list of rules Mom gave me.
Being a good son, I stood there and nodded while rolling my eyes. I'm eighteen for crying out loud, I thought to myself, I think I can take care of my own brother.
Once the lecture ended, Jake and I went upstairs and put on our shoes. I grabbed my wallet, keys and cell phone off my desk and we were ready to head to the park.
"Don't take your eyes off him!" Mom shouted for the hundredth time as we walked out the door.
"Yes, mother," I shouted back as I rolled my eyes.
The park was only about a mile or two from our house, so it only took a couple minutes to drive there. After I parked the car, Jake ran out into one of the fields while I grabbed a Frisbee from the trunk. Most of our "park toys" were still in the backseat from when I took Jake to the park last week. The next half hour was spent tossing a Frisbee back and forth, trying to out throw each other.
I decided to give him a little bit of a challenge. I threw the Frisbee towards Jake for what seemed like the hundredth time, only this time, I threw a bit harder, causing it to fly over Jake’s head. Keeping his eye on the Frisbee, he ran as fast as his little legs could go to catch it. Jumping in the air, he managed to catch the Frisbee, but forgot the landing. He landed on the soft green grass in a burst of giggle.
“Josh!” Jake shouted after he stopped his giggling. “I’m getting bored. Can we do something else?”
“Sure, what do you want to do?” I asked him.
“Can you teach me how to hit a baseball? Jimmy’s brother taught him.” Jimmy was Jake’s best friend and his brother, Craig, was my best friend and on my baseball team.
“Sure. Wait here and I’ll go get a ball and bat from the car.” I said as I ran back to where we had parked.
I grabbed my baseball bag out of the trunk and ran back to where Jake was waiting. He was standing in the same spot I left him, tossing the Frisbee up in the air. I set the bag down and got out a ball, a bat and a glove. I started out by teaching Jake how to hold the bat and had him do a couple practice swings to get the hang of it.
Once he was pretty comfortable swinging, I stood back a couple yards and gently tossed the ball for him to hit.
“Good job!” I yelled when he hit the ball and sent it rolling back towards me. “Ready for the next one?”
Jake nodded and I tossed another ball towards him. He hit that one too, sending it back towards me. Jake was pretty good at hitting the ball, hitting it more times than not even though the bat was a little heavy for him.
After Jake had hit a couple more balls, I checked the time on my cell phone, it was just after noon. “You getting hungry?” I asked Jake.
“Yeah, a little,” he replied.
“Wait here again and I’ll go grab us some hot dogs.” I told him.
He nodded and I left him there, tossing the ball in the air, while I went to the concession stand near the baseball fields. I grabbed us both hot dogs, and a soda to split.
When I returned, all of our equipment was laying on the ground. But Jake was gone.
“Jake?” I yelled. “Where are you?”
I turned in a circle and looked around. “Jake!” I kept yelling. I could not see him anywhere.
The hot dogs fell to the ground as I started shouting his name as loud as I could. I ran through the park looking for him. I checked all the fields, the bathrooms, even the woods. Jake wasn’t there.
I started to panic. Mom and Dad are going to kill me. I pulled my phone out and called my parents. Within minutes they arrived followed by a cop. They searched the park extensively but still could not find Jake. My mother was in tears within an hour.
The next two days were hell. The only time my father would talk to me was when he was blaming me for what happened. “This is all your god dammed fault!” he would yell after drinking himself silly. “You should’ve been watching him, damn it!”
My mother was not much better; she locked herself in her room and did nothing but cry. I ended up spending all my time at Craig’s house. I was a nervous wreck, spending most of the time pacing around worrying about Jake. If it was not for Craig, I think I would have gone insane.
“Don’t worry. They’ll find him,” Craig told me more times than I could count.
No matter how many times he told me that, I could not help but worry. My dad’s words kept playing over and over in my head. “This is all your damned fault.” The voice made me sick. Twice I had to run to the bathroom and empty the contents of my stomach.
When I returned from the bathroom and sat on Craig’s bed and just put my head and my hands. “I can’t take much more of this,” I told Craig.
I felt Craig put his hand on my back. “It’s all right, Josh. They’ll find him. I know.”
Then I felt smaller hands wrap around my waist and hug me. I opened my eyes and Jimmy was sitting next to me. “Jake will be okay,” he said looking up at me with hope.
I put my arms around Jimmy and hugged him back. “Thanks, you guys. You’re the best.”
The three of us laid in Craig’s bed together and watched a movie to try and take out minds off of everything. After the movie was over, I gave them both a hug and told them I was going to head home for the night. When I went out to my car, there was an envelope on my windshield. I took it off and unlocked my door. Sitting in the car, I opened the envelope, and $600 in monopoly money fell out. “Weird…” I muttered to myself as I unfolded the note that was still inside.
Hello, Josh. Yes, I know your name; your brother is very talkative. He’s still alive by the way, for now. I assume you want him back? He keeps saying how you’ll come and get him. All you’ve got to do is bring me $10,000 and I’ll give him right back. 4060 Rosewood. 8 am sharp. Be there and tell no one. You tell anyone, even your best friend Craig, and I’ll kill him.
- Charles Darrow
My breathing had sped up as I read it. I recognized the name on the note. Charles Darrow, the creator of Monopoly. It was how the Monopoly killer signed his ransom notes.
The Monopoly Killer, as the media dubbed him, was a deranged man who was kidnapping children across the country. They said Monopoly money always accompanied the ransom note. I sat there staring dumbly into space. Then I remember the last reason he was called the Monopoly Killer. He always killed the child he had kidnapped, and a Monopoly piece was always found with the body. No. Not Jake. That bastard can’t have him.
This isn’t real; stuff like this only happens on TV. Someone’s messing with me for sure, a prank, it has to be, a sick and twisted prank. I already knew it was not a prank, my mind just would not accept it. This can't be happening to me, to Jake.
“Damn it!” I shouted as I banged my hands on the steering wheel.
I knew what I had to do next. I started my car and by driving as fast as I could, I was able to make it to the bank before it closed. I withdrew my savings, all $6,327 of it.
When I got home, I went through everything in my room. As I went through all of my stuff, I piled up everything of value on my bed. My PS3, laptop, the gold crucifix my grandmother bought me, anything that looked like I could sell it. By the end of the night I had a pile of stuff on my bed. I figured it would be more than enough to get me the last of the money.
I loaded all of the stuff in my trunk. It took me quite a few trips, but I managed to do it without waking my parents. After everything was loaded up and ready, I lay in my bed and tried to get a couple hours of sleep. I spent half an hour tossing and turning before I gave up and lay on the bed staring at the ceiling the entire night, too nervous to sleep. A little before 5 am I gave up on sleep and changed my clothes.
I put on a black long sleeve shirt and grabbed a pair of black pants from the bottom of my drawer. I took my phone and wallet from the desk and put them in my pocket. At the last minute, I grabbed my old pocket knife from inside my desk drawer.
Before leaving, I made a stop in my father’s den and grabbed one of his old briefcases to put the money in.
Quietly, I crept out of the house and left. The sun was beginning to come up; the whole town seemed so peaceful despite what was going on. I drove to various pawn shops, selling as much as I dared without raising suspicion. I sat in the car outside of one of the pawnshops and counted the money. I had all $10,000 ready. I grabbed the briefcase that I took from my father’s office off of the backseat and put all the money inside it. After tossing the case back onto the backseat, I took the folded piece of paper out of the center console and reread the address.
4060 Rosewood was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the city. After parking my car in an alley next to it, I took the case containing all the money from the backseat and locked my car. When I got out of the car, I looked around outside the building, the entire block looked deserted. The morning fog still had not dissipated and gave an eerie feeling to the area.
Fear engulfed me with every step towards the building. I knew I was probably walking into a trap, but it did not matter, I would do anything for Jake. I stood outside the building, nearly shaking with terror.
A thought flashed into my head. Maybe I should’ve gotten help. No. It’s too late now. I fingered the knife in my pocket, and took a couple deep breaths to calm myself. Once I had control of my body, I opened the door and slowly walked in.
The door slammed shut behind me with a deafening thud. I stood, paralyzed in the darkness until a few dim lights came on. A man slowly walked out of the shadows. His right arm was raised, pointing a handgun at my chest. The briefcase suddenly seemed to weigh a ton. I tightened my grip on the handle so as not to drop it.
Once he was out of the shadows I got a good look at him. His face was hidden by an old, ratty ski-mask. The rest of his clothes were nice – almost too nice for a creepy psycho killer.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down,” he said as he got closer. “You’ve got all the money?”
I nodded, too afraid to speak.
He motioned towards a table near the side of the room. “Put it over there.”
I went over and placed the case atop the table, and turned to face him.
He was almost right in front of me. I looked away, no matter how hard I tried, I could not look at him. “Good, now turn around and lean against that wall.”
I did as he told me to. He began to haphazardly pat me down, pulling out anything he found. First, he pulled my wallet out, and tossed it across the room. He did the same with my keys. When he got to my phone, he threw it against the hard, concrete floor, shattering it. “Can’t have anyone interrupting us.” Then he found the pocket knife. He looked at the knife for a moment. “Cute,” he said before throwing it across the room. I managed to conceal a smile when he finished patting me down.
He spun me around and stared directly into my eyes. “Did you tell anyone about our little meeting?” he asked.
“I didn’t tell anyone!” I told him. “I swear!”
“Good good,” he said, smiling. I could hear the excitement in his voice. It sounded almost like he was having fun.
Beads of sweat started rolling down my face. “How’d you know my name and where I was?” I asked him. I needed to know even though I dreaded the answer.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your brother for a while,” he said smugly. “You were the obvious choice for the ransom, caring so much for your beloved brother.”
“Where the hell is he?” I found myself shouting. “I got your money, now gimme my brother!”
He let out a sigh. “What’s with you kids today? Always in a rush. Why don’t you stop and smell the roses for once?” He shook his head. “He’s right over there,” he said pointing to a corner on the other side of the table. I saw something lying in the corner, crumpled up in a ball.
I ran over to it as fast as I could. It was Jake all right. He looked like he had been through hell though. His body was covered in bruises, his clothes were torn. Kneeling down, I carefully picked him up and cradled him in my arms. He was barely breathing. “It’s all right, Jake. I’m here,” I whispered to him. “I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”
The man stood by the table laughing at us. “Now you two be good and I won’t have to kill you.” I looked up and finally got a good look at him. He was smiling again. I looked him in the eyes – the only part of his face I could see through the mask – they were dark, like they had no color to them.
It was his eyes that told the truth: he was going to kill us no matter what. The Monopoly Killer had never let a victim live. I made up my mind; I refused to die in this god forsaken place. I refused to let Jake die. I waited for him to make a mistake, waited for an opening to get Jake out of here.
The man was cocky; he turned his back to us to count his money. I carefully laid Jake back down on the ground. I kissed him on the forehead and whispered, “I love you.” Looking down at my little brother, I saw how frail and weak he was.
As quietly as I possibly could, I stood up and reached under the back of my shirt. I slid out the Stiletto knife that I had taken from my father’s den and concealed on my belt. As I crept over to the man, I flipped the Stiletto’s blade out. My hands were shaking as I walked over to him. At that moment, I wondered what would happen if I failed.
If I fail, he will definitely kill us. I immediately pushed the thought away. I won’t fail. I can’t. I won’t let Jake down.
After pushing everything out of my mind and focusing on the task, I kept going, slowly, as not to alert him. The only sounds I could hear were the swish of the bills entering and leaving his hands, and my heart keeping time in my chest. The man did not even notice I had moved until he felt the cold, steel blade slash across his throat. A single swipe of the blade was all it took.
Then everything seemed to happen all at once. I felt the warm, sticky blood gush from his neck and cover my hand. The gun fell from his hand and hit the floor with a loud crash. Not far behind was his body. Two monopoly pieces fell out of his pocket when he hit the ground.
I reached over the body and grabbed the ratty ski-mask, tearing it off his head. When I saw his face, I stumbled backwards, falling to the ground. I looked over at the lifeless face of my father. As I stared at him, the adrenaline began to wear off, and I remembered Jake. I ran over and knelt down next to him. He was starting to move.
"J... Josh...?" he stammered as he opened his eyes.
I shushed him. "Don't try and talk. I'm gonna get you to a hospital," I told him.
He smiled weakly. "I love you, Josh," he said. Then he closed his eyes again.
I picked him up and carried him out to my car. I carefully placed him in the backseat and drove him to the hospital, leaving the money and my father’s body behind. The entire time, I prayed that Jake would be all right.
Fear. It can be a powerful stopping force, but it can also be the strongest motivation. Eventually, we all must face our fears.
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