February 23rd, 2017

Kinsky, California, USA

A World with No Secrets

Ash was in the middle of Kinsky’s only park. She was here because two days prior she received the strangest phone call of her life.

In the middle of studying late at home, she noticed her phone began to vibrate next to her notebook. She rarely received calls she didn’t anticipate prior, so she let it ring out. 

When she got up to take a bathroom break a bit later, she noticed to her surprise – and anxiety – that the unknown caller had left a voicemail. After she did her business, she came back to her room and put the receiver to her ear.

“Hello Ashlyn, This is Gordon Wilkins. Kat’s father. I wanted to discuss something with you related to your college admissions. Meet me at the park on Friday afternoon, at 3 o’clock.”

Ash was utterly baffled. She thought about maybe texting Kat about it, at the very least to make sure that it was actually Kat’s father calling her. But Ash was able to certify that it was the Gordon Wilkins through other means, and so she decided to keep things quiet and just see what he wanted. 

It was a warmer day, so Ash just wore a light flowery dress and a straw hat she had gotten at a thrift store about two years prior. She sat down on a bench, her nerves getting the better of her, when all of a sudden she saw from the corner of her eye an older blonde man in a dress shirt – one Ash immediately recognized as Kat’s father.

“Hello, Ashlyn?” Gordon asked for confirmation as he got within speaking distance of the girl.

“Uhh.. h-hello, Mr. Wilkins?” Ash replied, stumbling over her words.

Gordon took the moment to stop and look around the park, as if he was being followed. This served to only further concern the girl. Finally, after a few long minutes, he sat down on the bench next to her.

“I wanted to talk to you about your education,” Gordon began, getting straight to the point. “More specifically, I want to pay for your admittance into the design school.”

The words came as a shock to Ash. “I… how… how did you-”

“Kat told me about it. That you were having struggles. That your parents weren’t willing to pay.” The last comment, of course, Kat had never said – but Gordon looked up into the sky as if his mind had been thoroughly made up on the topic long ago, long before even Ash’s case had even come to his attention.

“I believe it is the sole and utter duty of a parent to give everything for their child. Sacrifice all that they have to make sure that their son or daughter succeed. If it was Kat, I would’ve done anything in my power… but I just so happen to have enough to give to others as well.”

Ash was speechless. She didn’t know what to think. The man turned towards her – his face was stern, determined.

“So send me anything related to your tuition at Alto, and I’ll pay it. Of course, I mean more so to send it to my wealth advisor – I’m a rather busy man. His information is on this card right here. Just loop me into everything and I’ll see that it gets done. He’s already well aware of the plan.”

Gordon handed Ash a crisp business card, engrossed with gold lettering. She rubbed it in her hand, realizing its near godly weight and texture.

“Thank you, sir,” Ash let out. “Really, thank you.”

“Of course.”

Gordon got up from the bench, brushing himself off as he did. “And I apologize for the earlier vagueness in my request. But I assumed it would be better if you heard from me directly, face to face.”

Just as soon as he had come, the man was gone. It was all contained as if it were a company transaction – a life-changing event for her was simply a matter of business to him.

Ash continued to look down at the card. Despite a huge burden lifted off her shoulders, she wasn’t sure if she should be happy. It was something about the way he delivered it all – this wasn’t some sort of charity or scholarship, but rather almost entirely to spite her own parents. She was just in the middle of it all.

She knew it wasn’t out of kindness. It was a message.

…

At the home of the McNamaras, the boys – more specifically Lukas, Aaron, Isaac, Maurice, and Rodrigo – sat at a table in front of a large pizza. Lukas in particular looked the most nervous, twiddling his thumbs in his lap as he wondered what he would say.

“Is Rus coming?” Rodrigo asked, looking out the window. “I don’t see his car.”

“Nah, he’s not,” Isaac answered as he returned from the bathroom, wiping water off on his jeans. “I don’t blame him. Think he’s busy with church stuff.”

Aaron looked up. “You wearing the glasses all the time now?”

Isaac felt the frame of the rims as if he just remembered he had them on. He raised his hands defensively.

“I’m switching it up with the style of the times. Chicks love glasses, man.”

Aaron gave an unimpressed nod. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Isaac pulled up a seat on the other side of the table, next to Lukas. Rodrigo followed suit, closer to Maurice.

“You can get started then, Lukas,” Aaron declared. Lukas let out a sigh, and from under him took out the plastic chest for all the boys to see.

“During the funeral, Marion – Cole’s stepmom – told me that Cole had left something for me. This chest. And speaking that Cole told her to give it to me right before he died… I think it has something to do with the whole Anita case. Something that proves he didn’t do it.”

The boys leaned in closer to look at the chest. It didn’t take any of them long to spot the metal combination lock around the hatch.

“As you can see, there’s one problem. The chest is locked, and Marion said he didn’t leave behind any combination. So I have no clue how to open the thing.”

“Couldn’t we just… I dunno,” Rodrigo said, waving his hands around. “Cut a hole or something in the chest, get it out that way? It just looks like one of those dollar store things.”

Lukas shook his head. “I thought of that too. The problem is that I don’t know what’s in it. All I can tell is that it’s pretty hefty, and it’s got a few loose pieces. If there’s something fragile in there, or some type of liquid or something, it could damage the inside.”

Isaac snapped his fingers, pointing at the chest. “Then we don’t go for the chest – we go for the lock. Snap it off with bolt cutters.”

For a brief moment, Lukas thought Isaac’s idea was brilliant – something he hadn’t considered before. But Aaron quickly shot down both of them with the vigorous shake of his head.

“Nah, the chest is too tiny. A pair of bolt cutters wouldn’t be able to get a good grip. Besides…” Aaron gently picked up the chest, inspecting it a little closer, in particular the lock.

“What is it?” Maurice asked out of curiosity.

“It’s weird,” Aaron continued. “For such a cheap chest, he didn’t spare any cost on the lock. This thing’s CuraSecurity, it’s some industrial shit. They use this brand on the school gates.”

“That’s another thing I was thinking, ese,” Rodrigo said, leaning on the table to get a good view of the chest. “He spent all that money on a four-digit combo lock. Aren’t those things the easiest ones to crack?”

“You know how to crack them?” Isaac asked from across the table. 

“Uhh… no, not really.”

“I think he wants me to solve the lock, then,” Lukas mentioned softly. “An expensive lock, but one that’s easy to guess… it’s like, symbolic in a way.”

“Then that means there isn’t any key or code we’re missing,” Aaron said, sliding it back to Lukas. “It’s something he thinks you could solve.” 

The boys all looked at the chest, their thoughts in consternation. A four digit code could be anything, and none of them were particularly good at puzzles.

“Did he have a favorite number?” Rodrigo asked aloud. “I dunno, just… spitballing.”

Lukas shook his head. “Not that I know of.”

“Any number significant to your guy’s friendship? Like, number of… times you did something together?” Isaac asked, some hesitation in his voice as he realized the unlikelihood of his guess.

“That could go into the four digits? I don’t think I would even be able to get a number on it.”

“Could be that the four digits are just because of the lock. Maybe it’s zero, zero, something?” Aaron hypothesized.

This seemed a little bit more likely, but Lukas was still stumped. “Could still be anything. What, number of times we hung out? I doubt either of us was keeping track.”

“Ooh! It could be a date, right?!” Rodrigo brought up, a little too loud in his excitement. “Like… two digits for a month, two digits for a day?”

Lukas nodded. “That makes a lot of sense, but… I’m still drawing a blank.”

Isaac brushed the bottom of his chin with his thumb. “Maybe… a birthday? An anniversary of some… friendship thing?”

“Probably with just you and Cole, too. No Kat, if she wasn’t included,” Aaron added.

All the time the boys were hypothesizing, Maurice stayed quiet at the head of the table, ruminating in his thoughts. It was at this last comment, however, that the internal lightbulb lit off in his head, and he finally made his own theory.

“Could be a year, too. What year did you two meet?”

Lukas thought to himself. “That would’ve been midway through first grade. So 2005 or something like that. Holy shit, that might be it…”

Lukas took the chest, grabbing the combination lock and inputting the digits. After a single hard tug, the lock gave way. It was opened.

“Ha! Emily’s rubbing off on ya, huh?” Rodrigo said, scooting over and giving his boyfriend a friendly jab in the arm.

“Just a lucky guess, is all,” Maurice answered back humbly. 

Lukas opened the hatch to find the true nature of the contents – some torn sheets from a notebook, as well as a single letter addressed to him.

“Looks like it’s a bunch of papers… might be old journals?” Lukas mentioned as he shuffled through the papers. “They all have dates on them. Funny, he never told me he kept one.”

“It must be evidence he left behind,” Isaac pointed out. “He wanted us to know the full story about what happened.”

“Well, he wanted Lukas to know,” Aaron corrected. He turned over to the boy in question. “You should read over it, and let us know if there’s anything that might help.”

Lukas nodded, removing the lock and closing the chest. “Sounds good. I’ll just use the group chat.”

The five boys hung out a little bit longer, trying their best to stay casual even with the dark mystery looming over their heads.

…

Sadja was sitting on a bench in the choir practice room. There was a lot on her mind, and all she wanted to do was distract herself from it. But it didn’t help when she heard the door open, feeling the thud of Kat’s duffle bag next to her as the girl immediately came her way.

“‘Sup,” Kat let out casually as she inspected herself in the mirror. Sadja didn’t look up.

“Hey.”

Kat could immediately tell the girl wasn’t herself. “You under the weather? Or just nervous about the practice?”

“I mean… I don’t know. I guess.”

Realizing it might be a bit more serious, Kat stopped and turned towards the girl. She realized how numb Sadja had become, and kneeled down next to her.

“Something wrong?” Kat whispered.

There was a lot Sadja could say. But only so much could she bear to admit in the moment. Still, she knew that Kat wasn’t going to let up until she said something real. So she went with the safer option.

“I’ve just been thinking a lot about the Cole thing, you know?” Sadja said, her feet on the bench and her arms hugging her legs together. “I just feel like… part of that whole thing is my fault.”

Kat looked at her skeptically. “What do you mean?”

Sadja closed her eyes. “When Cole was still alive, Maria came to me… she told me she was trying to find answers about what had happened. And I suggested that maybe she talk to Cole, because he was… well, he just seemed like he would know a lot. But I didn’t mean it like that, like… he was a bad guy. But ever since what happened… I just worry… what if I incriminated him? What if I’m the reason he’s gone?”

Sadja opened her eyes again, and noticed tears welling on top of her cheeks. Kat had moved now to be on the bench with her – she felt Kat’s hand gently brush her back.

“None of it’s your fault, okay?” Kat spoke soothingly to her. “I worry sometimes, too. Worry if there’s something I could’ve done. Worry that this all could’ve been my fault, too. But there’s nobody to blame here. And there’s no reason to worry about something that’s already happened. Now, we just have to move on and heal.”

Sadja released her legs back to the ground. “Yeah… I know. You’re right.”

Kat had a level of strength about her that Sadja always admired. But now that she looked into Kat’s eyes, nothing but concern and worry set in for her. A long time ago a speech like that would’ve made her feel better. But now that Sadja knew what she knew, that she did what she did, it didn’t make her any more confident. In fact, it just made things worse.