Susan & Ray
Chapter 8
“No ... you didn’t. I wanted it just as much as you did. Anyway, Charles left home, and a year later so did Laura. He set up a place for them to live together. She brought me along, so grandpa wouldn’t have a little one running underfoot. Charles and Laura had you, then decided there would be no more kids.”
“So, what happened to Dad and Carol,” I asked.
“Apparently, around the time you turned either six or seven, Laura found out that Carol was back in town and told Charles to pick one and only one. This started a very loud argument out in the street in front of our neighbors.”
“But dad got shot... who did that?“ I said getting loud.
“Raymond, you need to calm down because the next part may be tough to hear and understand,” my sister said to me.
Wrapping her arms around me, she continued, “Apparently, we had a loaded gun in the house. I didn’t know it at the time, but you must have seen where daddy kept it!”
“Oh, god ... oh god, Oh my dear god,” I said. “D-Did I kill Daddy?”
Holding me even tighter still she said through tears, “Yes, you did. You dropped him with a single shot. The police came. You were in shock, and they took everybody’s statement. They couldn’t put you in jail, and nobody else even knew the gun was in the house, so there were no charges filed and the case was buried deep in the archives of the Provo police department.”
“All of that work we did together. You helped only so you could keep me from finding out that I killed my own father? Now, I know that you love me. Thank you for telling me all of this.”
That was mom’s cue to come out with hot cocoa and little marshmallows.
“I hope you don’t hate me for keeping this from you, Ray. The therapist said that you had forgotten what happened, and I was told to reinforce the lie,” mom said.
Although shook up a lot by all this information, I answered back, “I think I understand why you did what you did. I hope that you also understand ... I am not willing to give up my sister as my life partner until the highly improbable happens that someone better comes along.”