Identity Distortion: The Perfect Family

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Bryan Shaw

June 4, 2016: One Day Missing

There is a sealed envelope on the floor. I have an idea what it could be but I don't want to say it out loud. Mom doesn't seem to want to either. She then suddenly started crying.

"Don't start crying. We don't know what's in the envelope yet," I said to her.

"I don't like the look of this!" Mom said, as tears run down her face.

"Should we open it?" I asked, reaching down to pick up the envelope.

"You read it and then tell me what it says," Mom said.

My hands are trembling and my heart is racing. It feels very difficult just to open a simple envelope. After ripping off the top part of the envelope, I took a deep breath and then took out the letter that was inside. It is a single page letter. It reads:

"So, you people think that you are the perfect family? Parading all over trying to appear better than everyone else. What is it exactly that makes you all think that you're perfect? Wealth? Success? Prominence? All of that means nothing and all of you are nothing. You people are sickening with your big house and fancy cars, thinking you're untouchable just because you live in the upper echelon of society. And then you all have the nerve to act perfect when there are people struggling daily to survive while doing way more work than any of you suckers ever could? Well, since you're the perfect family, you'll have no trouble coughing up a perfect sum of $750,000 for one of your own. You have 48 hours to wire the money. If you don't or if you notify the police, you'll never see the boy again. Account info is at the bottom of the page."

Mom is asking about the letter but I can't bring myself to tell her about it. Right now it feels like there is a vacuum pressed up against my stomach. I have a gut-wrenching pain. This cannot be happening. Not to Nathan. Mom picked up on my reaction and is now crying out loud. She leaned her back against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor. I went to sit next to her.

"How much is it?" Mom asked, trying to hold back her tears.

"$750,000 exact," I said, handing her the letter to see for herself, but she did not take it.

At least there is hope that Nathan may come back unharmed like the other victims. This hope is what's giving me the strength to cope with this right now. I'm still worried about what Nathan is going through at this moment though. We have to find a way to wire that $750,000.

Reading through the letter again, there's something about it that bothers me. It bothers me that whoever made it assumes that we don't work hard for what we own and are unmindful about what struggling is like. I can't really speak for Scott but Mom, Nathan and I had a tough life before making it to this point. We and my father lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment and we barely had any money despite Dad working two jobs on weekdays and Mom working long hour shifts. Things were rough for us all-around back then. Nothing was ever just handed to us easily. Nathan and I didn't grow up with a silver spoon down our throats so we've personally seen and know what struggle is like. Things got even worse for us after Dad's death. And even though now we've moved up in life, we still work quite hard to ensure that we don't end up returning to the life we used to live. I for one am currently trying to get through college to get my degree and I'm also the quarterback of the college football team. Additionally, our family has been putting in a lot of work to help better our community by participating in community services, organizing charity events, and more. So how dare this shithead make such ignorant assumptions about us! As for the 'perfect family' label, that is nothing more than a harmless gimmick that shouldn't be taken seriously. This letter seems to be more of an attack on us than a message. Other letters I've seen/read usually just made the family aware of the kidnap and stated the ransom required along with the bank account info to wire the money. Furthermore, this letter was typed and printed whereas other letters were made using newspaper clippings like the ones you see in movies. There is no picture in the envelope to prove that they have Nathan either. This letter seems like it was hastily put together in order to slip it under our door when no one was home. I wonder if our neighbors saw anything.