Arc the Sixth: The Baker’s Fall
Chapter 1: James
We were set to graduate in just a few short weeks, and I received a 91 on the short story I wrote for writing class. Despite its high grade, I still felt like there were a multitude of things wrong with it, and the antagonist was far too esoteric and otherworldly for something that began like a typical summertime mystery, and he was kinda defeated by getting too greedy, nothing too big. I felt that, in the end, it was good, but definitely flawed. Franklin and Nathan both got to read it and they both seemed to enjoy what was there. Nathan said it reminded him of some show that was on TV that had just gone on hiatus, but I have no idea what he was even trying to convey.
Other than that, things have been going pretty damn well. I’ll be honest, I had forgotten about the papers I was given by Felix. They were still folded and clipped together, somewhere in a desk drawer back home. I was busy looking into colleges at the time. I had taken the ACT last year and earned 28 out of 36, which wasn’t bad. Franklin, on the other hand, scored a perfect 36, and took the SAT just to prove a point or some shit. He received a letter signed by the president, congratulating him on the highest score in the nation. He was rather proud of it, and for good reason. My scores could get me into a few decent schools, but surprisingly just one caught my attention.
New Infinity had its own college, and it was absolutely free. College debt is a nightmare right now, and even being able to get into Portland Community College would be a costly endeavor. I had plans to get into animation, and while this wasn’t a CalArts or anything like that, it was still something. It was a reasonable walk from home, free, and I wouldn’t need to travel across the country or live on campus.
I got on my jacket and started heading out the door, when I felt the folded up papers in my pocket. I hadn’t taken them out yet, I guess. I figured that Felix changed them like he did the photos I found, but I might as well check. I sat down at my desk and unfolded them. It was all the same, but as I sifted through, I found a part I had not read yet.
In 2002, James and Meredith Baker had been living in severe poverty, with James focusing on his art and giving any profit to his wife and children, and selling his collections of books and records for additional money. Sick of seeing his family live in poverty, James set out one night and murders Marcus Freeman, who at the time was enjoying life as a successful surgeon and professor. James took the man’s wallet, emptied his bank account, left the money to Meredith, and turned himself in. Meredith was understandably upset with him, stopped using his last name, and moved their family to Jefferson. Meredith did not want to use the $750,000 they had been left by James, found herself an adequate office job, and made sure Ashley would never find out about this ordeal.
…They… they were hiding this from me? Was this for real? I got up and quickly looked for Alex. “Hey, Ash. What’s up?”
“Dad—James. Did… did he kill someone for money?”
Alex stared at the ground for just a moment. “You… you found out?”
“Why would you try to cover this up? All of you?! The one person I’ve wondered about in my entire life, and you hide who he is from me?”
“Ash, wait—“
I ran back to my room, and on the shelf were the little wooden figures he made. In a fit of rage, I pushed them all off of the shelf, some of them breaking or splintering when they hit the ground. Out of one of them came a little note. I picked it up.
“Hey there Ashley. I’m sorry it’s had to come to this. I’ve left you all these little gifts. I hope you think of me as a positive force in your life, instead of what I’ve become. I’m sorry, girl.
-James Baker, 19 January 2002”
I… I didn’t know what to do anymore. I kicked all the debris under the bed and sat there for a second, staring at the wall. I just… did they not trust me enough to let me know the truth? Am I a bad person, stupid, what was it? Why lie to me?
I mostly laid in bed for the rest of the day. I was upset with everyone. James, Mom, Alex, Felix. Why would Felix do this to me? Why let someone take information like that home? Was he just some sadistic bastard who has been lying nonstop? I hated this. I know I heard Mom and Alex leave the house sometime during the day, and the house was dead silent. I could have gotten onto TF2 and played a bit with Isaac, but… I just didn’t want to. There was too much going on for me to even consider wanting to.
Sometime in the evening, Alex and Mom had not gotten home, but the phone rang. I let it go to the answering machine. “Hey, Ash? It’s—it’s Felix. I heard what happened. Your mother came by and talked to me about it. I—I want to make it up to you. I’m sorry. Please pick up the phone. Ash? O—Okay. I’ll just—“
About twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I got up and went to open the door. If it was Felix, I was just going to close the door on him and let him think about what he did to me. Sure enough, his stupid face was right there. “Ash, I’m sorry to hear about what h—now Ash, you don’t need to close the door on m—Ash, let me explain, please.”
“What do you want?” I asked him, “This wasn’t enough?”
“Do you have the pages with you?”
I went to my room for a moment, grabbing the papers out of the trash, and threw them at him. He picked them up, shuffled them together, and invited himself in to sit down at the table, with a bag in hand. “Now look, I know this looks like it probably says something about your father here, but that is not what I read. I have just the story of me getting my first job at… gosh, I was thirteen then?”
I didn’t believe him. He flipped through most of the other pages and set a couple of them aside. “Look, everyone has a story in them, a story of them. And like every good story, there’s twists and turns, ups and downs. You aren’t the lowest in your life. If anything, you are how you are because of some of that. If you live in poverty and get out, you wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy. If you face horrible conditions for some truly nasty people in your life, you just would rather want the best for everyone. Your story is a unique one with a tragic middle, but with some help, that can become a happy ending. I… I also have something for you.”
Felix reached into the bag and took out a few boxes strapped together. A drawing tablet, a keyboard, and a webcam. “I don’t want that,” I said.
Felix set them down on the floor, cleared his throat, and got up. I left his gifts on the floor and headed to my room, locking the door. I knew Felix was hiding some dark shit, but his manipulating me into discovering my family has lied to me is too much. Part of me thought that perhaps I was overreacting, but on the other hand I firmly believed it.
I really hated this—all of this. I felt like shit and Felix being condescending and making up some joke about it being about his job. Not like his job was like finding out your dad’s a murderer. Alex came and knocked on my door a few times today, and dropped off dinner. I didn’t really care to take it.
Alex knocked on my door the next day. “Hey, Ash, I feel really bad you learned of this all like that. We just didn’t want to make you upset abou—“
“Well you did.”
“Ash, come on out. Felix left you another gift as means of apologizing, and we have somewhere to be.”
“Tell Felix to take his gift and shove it, and I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“Ah, trust me, you’ll need it.”
I opened the door and stared Alex straight in the eye. “He left you some hot chocolate,” he said with a thermos in his hand, “here, take a little.”
It was good, but I didn’t really care for it. It’s like a joke, in more ways than one. Like it’s nice and all, but it doesn’t always make things better and you could forego it. Also it’s pretty laughable how Felix is trying to cover up his errors. If he had been up-front with us from square one, this wouldn’t happen. I was sick of him, I was sick of all this, I was sick of—
Alex took me out driving, let me pick the CD I wanted, stopped for ice cream, explained everything as well as he could. He knew I'd be upset if I knew dad had killed someone. He wanted to wait until I was older. Hadn't I already been older? Why did he feel the need to brush this all under the rug? Why did it have to be from Felix? Why did I have to learn this from the end of the fu—I'm stressing out again. We got home around 7:00 PM, and I headed back to my room.
Felix also stopped by again today to apologize once more. “I’m so sorry you found out about your old man this way,” he said, taking off his stupid hat, “if there’s anything I can do to make you feel a bit better… oh, I know! I’ll give you one free edit! Anything in town! Anything!”
I looked him dead in the eye. “Delete yourself from in front of my goddamn door.”
He lost his smile a little and nodded, walking away. As he got to the end of the driveway, he turned back for a moment and then sighed, heading back towards the capitol. Sure, Felix sees something different on these papers, but he runs the goddamn town on a goddamn computer, he should be able to see that, see everything.
Maybe I’m just getting worked up over nothing. I don’t even know anymore. I was about to say Felix has redeemed himself and that he couldn’t possibly be a shady guy, but something about it all with the book felt… manipulative. Why would he do what he did if he was innocent? Why let me keep this book of horrible stuff for nearly a year? I went back to my room and saw a second bundle of gifts on my desk.
He really doesn’t know when to call it quits. I walked over to the bundle and found an attached card. “I’m actually really sorry you found out this way, Ash. Please accept these things as a way of apologizing.”
It wasn’t really an apology when he just says sorry and gives me some stuff he probably didn’t have to pay anything for. It wasn’t even anything I could really use. A PVR to record console games (when my desktop PC is in a completely different room than the Wii U), a camera (when I have no interest in taking pictures or recording video), and a gift card for Wacom stuff (when he already gave me a freaking tablet). A single pinecone would have been a more suitable gift, honestly. It doesn't waste much space, and it can become a tree. This will all just become garbage.
There was another apology in the mail today, and he called to apologize once more. I don’t think he’s going to shut up about this anytime soon.
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