Chapter I - One Cloudy Day
Hello, my name is Millard, and the story I’m about to tell you all started on a cloudy afternoon during the Autumn of 2018, not long after I had turned 21, and just the year before, I married Lorena, who I met back in high school.
I’m Asian-American, and I was born in the United States, specifically in Georgia, but I later moved to Minnesota shortly after I graduated from high school, mainly because I wanted to move away from my family, for personal reasons.
That one day was, as usual, boring and uneventful. I had to work another day at my awful job as a waiter, where I was constantly dealing with customers who never tipped, acted entitled, and always complained that their orders were “wrong”, as if I had anything to do with that.
At the time, I never got the chance to take any college yet nor did I enroll in university, since I was running really low on money.
I ended up choosing to work as a waiter at Jamal’s Burgers And Fries, a small restaurant that a lot of you probably never even heard about, even though I was hoping to be a AAA video game designer for years at that point.
I didn’t even hate the job itself, and being a waiter wasn’t the issue, it was the fact that the management seemed to always side with the rude and ignorant customers because they were so afraid of one bad review.
The salary was pretty good, so that’s mainly the reason why I stayed in that job.
It’s also important to note that Lorena, my wife, worked there too as a drive-thru operator, but she wasn’t able to come that day because she broke her leg the day before.
Basically, we were walking on a sidewalk the day before, and it was really windy that day, then, a large tree branch suddenly snapped off a nearby tree and collapsed on her in almost an instant.
I immediately rushed her to the hospital, and when we arrived, the doctors there said that she would need surgery done, and we would have to wait two months for her leg to recover afterwards.
In the meantime, she had to use crutches just to walk around, and that’s obviously not fun at all.
Anyways, after I got home from work, I fed my pet dog, Barney. I named him after the resistance leader and former security guard from the Half-Life franchise.
He’s a mix between a Labrador Retriever and a German Shepherd, one of my two favorite dog breeds.
I found him back in 2016, when he was still a puppy. When I first saw him, he was a lonely stray dog living in an alleyway.
Lorena went to the pharmacy right before I got home, so I decided to head to the supermarket to get more groceries and supplies for us, since we were running a bit low on them.
While I was there, it only took about 12-15 minutes. I grabbed everything we needed, paid for it, then started heading back outside to get into my minivan.
But the moment I stepped out of the building, I bumped into someone, and both of us fell to the ground.
As I got up, I quickly gathered his stuff off of the ground to help him, and when I looked up, I immediately recognized his face.
“Karl?! I haven’t seen you since 2015!” I exclaimed.
He seemed to be as surprised as I was, as he said to me, “Millard?! I didn’t expect to see you again, not after you moved out of Georgia! Damn, it’s really good to see you.”
“So, what are you doing here in Minnesota?” I asked while I continued to help him.
“My cousin Topanga got arrested again, I came here to bail her out.” Karl responded.
His cousin Topanga had pretty much always gotten in trouble back when she still lived in Georgia, like I did. I’m not sure why she moved here, though, but I do know her side of the family moved to Minnesota a year before I did.
So anyways, I asked Karl “And what did she do this time?”
“According to the police, she lead an armed robbery not too long ago, but it’s total bullshit.” He responded.
“Hold on, what do you mean?” I asked him.
“She was framed, and I’m certain that I know exactly who did it.” Karl whispered.
But right as we were still talking, he suddenly looked down, and pulled a phone out of his pocket, like he got a notification onit.
“Damn it! I don’t have time right now, I’ll explain it later. Here’s my number, call me when you can.” Karl said as he shoved a sticky note, with his phone number written on it, into my hand.
And just like that, he ran back to his car, then quickly drove out of the parking lot.
