Sequence of Events

By Winona Wendy Joy

Jake, a middle-aged man, has a beautiful home, a well-paying job, a wife he dearly loves, and two teenage daughters, both of whom he adores. He is a very happy man and hardly ever remembers the bad thing he did when he was a teenager. The bad thing happened in nearly total darkness and was the result of circumstances, confusion, and anger released in a moment of insanity. No one ever suspected Jake was responsible for what happened on that dark night almost twenty-five years in the past, and he had no reason to worry on it. Of course, he was sorry and felt ashamed, but he forgave himself and resolved to be a good man and to lead a respectable life. He was successful, and in time, he achieved his goal. He became a kind, loving family man. But the thing is, dear reader, we hear the gods of perversity laugh, and they will amuse themselves, teaching a mere mortal how hard it is to forgive himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winona Wendy Joy
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370611591

Winona Wendy Joy

I am writing my fifth book. It will be on Smashwords soon. I'm sure you'll like it, a MYSTERY!I live on the coast of Oregon, alongside a raging creek with seven fish ladders just outside the door. Makes for the most lovely, crashing water sound. My boyfriend, Author/Writer, David Seed opened up the world of writing for me. He has several published books on Smashwords.com.

Book preview

Sequence of Events

by Winona Wendy Joy

Published on Smashwords

by Western Grebe Publishing

Copyright 2017 Winona Wendy Joy

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for buying this ebook. It is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you want to share this book, please purchase another copy to share. If you’re reading this book and didn’t buy it, please buy a copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

About the Author

Chapter One

APRIL AND JULIE

Both girls were having a riot, because their mother and father had left them alone for the very first time in their lives. Their parents would only be gone for a couple of hours, though.

Julie decided to take the lead, even though April was the oldest. April was much slower and much nicer than Julie. Julie thought.

Let’s go to Mother’s room and find out what she’s kept hidden all these years, okay? Julie asked.

Honestly, Julie, I don’t think we should, April said, Haven’t you ever heard of respecting someone’s privacy?

Certainly, but this is our only chance to see what they’re keeping from us. Mother always says that her room is off limits, and I’m tired of wondering what she’s hiding up there. Let’s go, April.

Racing through the house to their parent’s room, sure enough, the door was locked as usual. Julie wouldn’t give up so easily, though. She ran back through the kitchen and out the back door to where she could view her parent’s bedroom windows. Good, she said. One’s open just a crack.

Remembering the aluminum ladder in the garage, she ran and got it. April now stood on the back steps, waiting to see what her sister was going to do next.

April yelled, You better not go through that window, and I mean it. If you do, I’m gona tell on you, Julie!

Julie proceeded to climb up the ladder until she was even with the open window. Then, she could see a stick was against the sash of the window, placed there to keep the window from opening all the way. It was easy removing the screen. She carried it down the ladder and laid it against the house. Scampering back up the ladder to the window, she opened it a little more until it hit the stick. She reached in, keeping her body sideways. Since she was much thinner when she turned sideways, she twisted and leaned in to reach the stick. Practically laying horizontal, reaching as far as possible, she actually touched the stick; but she couldn’t get it out of the window sill.

Backing down the ladder, Julie jumped to the ground, ran around the yard until she found a sturdy twig from one of the fruit trees. Now, back up the ladder, trying again, she pried the stick out from the sill with the twig; and the stick flew out of the window and across the room onto the floor. She scrambled through the open window and jumped inside onto the carpet. Loud knocking sounded on the bedroom door, alerting Julie that her sister wanted inside.

Sure, now that she had done all the work of getting into their parent’s bedroom, April wanted in.

Are you going to tell them if I let you in? Julie asked. You better not, or I won’t let you in.

No, no, of course, I won’t tell. Now open the door, Julie, please. I promise.

Julie opened the door, and April bolted into the room.

I have to go put everything back, just in case they come home, Julie said. I don’t want to alert them to what we’ve done. Then, if we hear them drive up, all we have to do is lock the door and get out.

April shook her head up and down to signify ‘okay’. While Julie was gone, she decided to look around, remembering she and her sister had only been in this room a handful of times. There on the dresser was Mother’s jewelry box. Walking over to it, April opened it; and gazing at the dazzling rings, bracelets, and necklaces, she remembered each time Mother had put them on. She and Julie were envious of her wearing the jewels and thought her very beautiful.

Upon Julie entering and noticing what April was doing, Julie announced, Let’s not touch anything if we can help it, and most of all, if we do touch anything, let’s put it back exactly as it was.

Okay, I will.

The first thing Julie wanted to see was the closet. Moving into that small room, she noticed the extent and quality of her parents’ clothes. Some so fine, she thought they must have cost hundreds of dollars. Her father’s suits were hand tailored, made just for him, they were expensive and in the best style and taste.

Julie thought, I’m not interested in clothes. The clothes can’t be why this room is off limits to us. Whatever it is, it’s in this closet. Must be in a box, trunk, or the desk. Probably some secret papers. There are plenty of boxes, two trunks, and loose files in the closet. A large old desk is out in the main part of the bedroom. I’ll look in that too after I look in here.

April, trying on some of the diamonds, looked in the mirror and yelled, Come look at me; I have on mother’s jewels.

I’m busy doing what I came in here to do. You have fun dressing up while I get down to business and see why it is that we’re hardly ever allowed in this room.

She thought, I’m being sarcastic, even a little bad about it, but April can be so dumb sometimes. April’s seventeen so she could be the leader, but her personality doesn’t allow her to take the lead at all. I’m only sixteen, and I’m far more savvy for my age than even Mother. But not Father. He’s very smart. He can even read me sometimes, which I don’t like at all. Oh, here’s some legal looking documents.

One was her parents’ marriage certificate, MaryElizabeth Henderson and Jake Allen McArthur became husband and wife, this day on June 11, 1996. Julie found her birth certificate and one for April. Then she found another one, a birth certificate for a boy, right underneath the marriage license. He weighed six and a half pounds, was twenty one inches long, and had long narrow feet according to the foot prints on his birth certificate. His name was John Edward Henderson, and he was born in 1992, which was before the birth dates of April and Julie.

Julie yelled, Come here and see what I found, April.

No, I’m busy. I’m having fun.

Well, it’s the most important thing you will see today. Get in here, April.

Both girls, looking at the document and exclaimed different points of view.

April wondered out loud, I wonder where he is and who he is.

Julie said, It’s only obvious that he died in infancy. We never knew him, and he’s not here, so he’s dead. Do not ask them about it. Just wait till they tell us, okay? Maybe it hurts them too much to talk about his death.

But, but, I want to know about it now. I can’t believe we could have had a brother all this time, and we didn’t even know about it. Wow!

Well, they’ll be home any time now. So take off those diamonds, put them back exactly as they were before we came in here, and then, we gotta get out. I can feel it; they’re coming.

Julie quickly put the papers back into the file in the exact order she had found them. She thought to look all over for an extra key to the room before leaving.

There must be another, she mused. I know that birth certificate is not the only reason this room is locked up tight. I aim to find out whatever there is to find out.

Before leaving the room, she looked it over as she stood by the door making sure everything was left precisely as it was when they entered. No key was found; even though she found some keys and tried every one of them to see if one of them would fit the lock. No such luck.

Locking up their parents room, leaving it, and going into the kitchen to find food, the sisters sat at the table looking across at one another. April grabbed a banana from the large fruit bowl that was the centerpiece on the family table. Julie took an orange and a napkin. She begin to peel the orange.

With her mouth full of banana, April muttered, I can’t believe they had another child and never mentioned it.

Well, it could be too painful for them to talk about, you know. I’m not saying one word about it. In the first place, we’ll get in big trouble for snooping. In the second place, they will tell us if and when they ever want to tell us. Don’t you think? Julie asked.

Okay, yes, you’re right. I’ll keep quiet, I don’t want to get in trouble, and I don’t want them to think we stooped to breaking into their room either.

Something struck Julie so hard she left her orange half peeled laying on her napkin. She ran through the big living room, into the hall, and then up to her parents’ bedroom door. She tried the knob; yes, it was locked. Then, she looked up. Getting a hassock over to the door, she stood up on it. Now, she was tall enough to feel over the top of the door frame. Just as she thought: a key. Trying it in the lock, it worked! Replacing it where it had been, she hurried up and put the hassock back just in time to hear the front door open and then her parents talking to April.

Drat, Julie thought, all this time, it was right there, practically in plain site. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I would have thought of that in the first place, not to mention scraping my leg getting through their bedroom window."

Chapter Two