Murder Mystery Excerpt

"I'll get it, baby." Anna said walking through the kitchen. She was wearing a white, flowered short sleeve dress that fell to her knees and a pair of four inch white heels. Her long, brown hair fell in gorgeous, loose curls down her back.

I smiled at her. "Okay, babe. It's probably the offi..." I stopped as I heard the door open. Anna said nothing for a moment. Puzzled, I left the kitchen for the front hall, the next room over.

"C-come in sir." Anna stuttered as I walked into the room. She was talking to the officer but staring at the floor.

I nodded to the officer as he came in but focused on Anna. "Breakfast is on the table Anna. Why don't you go eat?"

"Thank you Michael." Anna left the room quickly and I followed, separating her and the still nameless officer.

I ate my breakfast without speaking. The officer introduced himself to Michael and I as Officer Jayce Martin.

When I finished eating, I excused myself saying I had to finish getting ready for the book signing.

Standing in front of the mirrored dresser, I adjusted my locket and changed my earrings to a pair of blue dangling hearts.

Michael came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "You know him." It wasn't a question.

I nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"And it's not in a good way. I can tell by the look on your face and the way that you are not looking at anyone."

"No, it's not in a good way. Years ago, before I met you, he tried to date me, tried to get me to have sex with him. I wouldn't do anything of the sort. So, he decided that he'd date my best friend: to make me jealous. He didn't give a crap about her but, she fell for him. They slept together quite a few times. Then one day..." My voice cracked and tears poured from my eyes. "One day she came to my house. She was crying. When she calmed down enough to talk, she told me that Jayce had taken her to meet his friends at a party. This is probably where I should mention that Jayce is a dominant so, when he and my friend had sex she was often bound."

"That's why you didn't want to date him."

"Part of it yes. Anyway, while they were at the party, Jayce decided he wanted to have sex. So he took her upstairs and bound her to the bed. Then, he blindfolded her. He and at least dozen other guys had sex with her that day. When they were all done with her, Jayce told her that he didn't care about her at all, that he never did, and left her bound to the bed. By the end of the night every male at that party had raped her. She got pregnant, sued for child support, was denied because they couldn't find the Jayce, the father. I'd thought he'd disappeared forever."

Michael hugged me closer. "I'm sorry baby. That's sad."

"Yeah, it was difficult for her to raise the child on her own. But she did. I helped her out a..." The sound of a gun being fired stopped me mid-thought.

Michael and I ran downstairs to find the living room window broken and Jayce lying on the floor with a bullet in his head, a second one in his neck, and a third where, if he hadn't been wearing a bulletproof vest, he would have been shot in the heart.

"Those bullets weren't meant for me, I don't think. Too many to the same pers-..." A gun fired through the broken window again but missed both Michael and me. "That bullet was for me though. Call it in?"

"Alrighty." Michael picked up the phone and called for an ambulance.

Tearing Children Down...Or is it Lifting Them Up?

I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed and came across a very interesting article. The article was about James Harrison, a Pittsburgh Steelers player,who had come home one night to find that his sons had received trophies. However, Harrison was not all that pleased with this because the boys had received the trophies for their participation and not because they had earned it. Here is what he posted to social media:

“I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I’m sorry I’m not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I’m not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best…cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better…not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u up and keep you happy. #harrisonfamilyvalues” James Harrison

I must say that I agree with him; children should have to earn their trophy instead of be handed it for the general fact that they participated in the activity, with a few exceptions. Here is the question that I ask myself, and many people should to ask themselves, when considering whether or not participation trophies are good: Who is it that we are dealing with?

Let's say you are a middle class, middle school student playing football recreationally. When the season is over, your team was sixth place over all of the eight teams in the division. At the end-of-season party (again, something that I don't always agree with if the reason is wrong) each player on your team is handed a trophy, made of cheap plastic, that has the name of the division, Football Participant, and the year; not that you as a ten or eleven year old would know that. You feel so proud of yourself that you continue to play recreationally for the next four years till you get to high school. At this point you have been playing for so long, and receiving a trophy for it that in your head you believe that you must be so good at football. With this mentality, you go try out for the high school varsity team. Unfortunately, you don't even make the JV team. Your little heart is crushed and you throw  all your equipment and trophies away, never to play again. 

For this child, they will likely experience problems as they go through high school because they may feel jealous of those that did make the team or those that made the team will tease this child for not making it. Additionally, his hopes of going to college on a football scholarship have now been crushed as he can't even make a JV high school team. Is giving them hope through a trophy that means virtually nothing to then brutally tear that hope away when the child does not make the team worth it?

Okay, now let's say that you are a middle class, special needs, middle school child playing football with other special needs children. They, too, receive a participation trophy at the end of the season but, are the consequences the same? Although it is possible for the consequences to be the same, the chances of that happening are smaller. Unfortunately, in today's society, special needs children are out-casted and often will not try out for high school sports teams. Additionally, high school is an important time for these young adults to learn how to support themselves and provide for themselves so sports participation can sometimes be put on the back burner. With that being said, by giving a special needs child a participation trophy they can proudly say "I did this!" and for some special needs children, just being able to have a trophy or metal that says they participated in something that was probably challenging for them is enough for them. They don't ask for more.

See the difference? As I said before, I whole-heartedly agree with what Harrison did. But, as I tried to explain here, are all participation trophies as bad as we make them out to be? I do not believe so because for some people, participating once is enough of an accomplishment for them.

I'm Starting to Realize...

Like most other little girls, I often played house with my baby dolls; pretending to have a family or taking care of a baby. By the time I reached middle school, dating had become a popular topic for discussion. Everyone was talking about who was dating who, which couples had been together for a while, which ones had broken up and why, as well as the things that may (or may not) have taken place in some of the relationships. I often heard the girls gushing about their boy saying things like "I love him" and "We are never going to break up." Know how many of those middle school relationships I was always hearing about still exist? None.

I wasn't against the idea of dating in middle school or even high school. My thought was I didn't want to be in and out of six, or more, relationships by the time I graduated high school. I have always been a long-term, dedicated, serious relationship kind of gal. Additionally, my education is important to me and I didn't want to get into a relationship with a clingy boy who would, potentially, take me away from my studies. Besides, all the boys I knew where just that, immature guys who didn't understand what it meant to love someone.

Okay... To be fair, I didn't really understand what it meant to love someone either when I was a freshman. I had an idea of what it was but, that was an idea based off of romance movies like the ones on Hallmark. Even still, I'm almost positive that was a better idea of what love was than anything the boys had. And, of course, I had this "perfect boyfriend" image in my head too. This image was made up of all the characteristics that I wanted my boyfriend to have; the characteristics coming from the things I want my future husband to have. Yes, I knew full well that the chances of finding someone that fit every single desire was slim to none. But, it is good to know what you want and not just settle for anything. I had long list of things I wanted in my boyfriend (Mature, respectful, funny, thankful, understanding, sympathetic, etc.) and was expecting him to have at least 90-95% of the characteristics on the list. But, I found someone who changed that....

There is something about being emotionally hurt that changes the way people look at love. For me, my emotional hurt came from the young boys who only wanted me in their lives to fill a physical craving called sex. I never dated them because sex is something that I have always seen as special and something to be done with your spouse. For my boyfriend, his was the feeling of being used since he was cheated on a few times. For both of us, the hallmark definition of love is only part of it.

I've been with my boyfriend for nearly five months now and I'm starting to realize that love is the bond and connection of two hearts in a way that makes it hard to be away from the other person. It is a desire to be with them even if the two of you aren't agreeing with each other or are fighting with each other. Love is wanting the other person with you all the time because they make you a better person and you can't imagine your life without them. Disagreements are going to happen, they do in every relationship, but if taken care of properly, those disagreements bring you closer to each other and make your relationship stronger.

Even though he isn't everything I imagined he would be, my boyfriend is everything I ever could have asked for realistically and so much more. I love him with everything in me and I can't imagine living without him. He is my "Forever Love" "Always and Forever"