TITLE: The Mistakes We Make
AUTHOR: Kelly Wood
STARRING: Peter Caine, Mary Margaret Skalany, Kermit Griffin, Paul Blaisdell, Lo Si, John Durham, Ariel,
GUEST STARRING: Jake Duncan, Will and Kristine Rogers, various supporting cast
OVERVIEW: Jake Duncan, a foster child, sees his neighbor murdered. Not sure if he can trust his foster parents, he runs away, ending up in Chinatown. Ariel finds him and brings him to someone she knows can help-Peter Caine. In the process of helping Jake, Peter comes to terms with elements of his own past.
The Mistakes We Make
By Kelly Wood
TEASER:
The treehouse was old, falling apart, twenty feet off the ground, and Jake's favorite place in the world. After carefully checking for anyone in the vicinity, the boy crept from the bushes and climbed the rickety ladder. Moving quickly, he pushed aside a broken board and slipped inside.
A camping lantern provided the only light. After turning it on, Jake sighed and sat, propped against the wall. He pulled out a notebook and a pen from his backpack and began to write. His concentration was interrupted by the sounds from outside.
Jake put down the notebook and crawled over to the other side of the treehouse where a tattered curtain hung over a crooked window. The boy pulled the curtain aside. Looking down, he could see straight into the house below. Two men were standing in front of the sliding glass door to the deck, arguing.
He recognized the first man as the neighbor who owned the house and the treehouse. "Huh," Jake muttered, "I wouldn't have thought that Mr. Blair would ever get mad enough to yell at anybody." The neighbor had a reputation for being laid-back. He hadn't even cared when he caught Jake climbing down from the treehouse; he had just told him to be careful.
The second man was no one he'd ever seen before. The boy strained to hear words, but all he could make out was the rise and fall of angry voices. He was about to return to his notebook when he saw the ugly shape of a gun in the hands of the second man.
Jake's heart was pounding as he watched Mr. Blair put up his hands and start backing away. The second man had a smirk on his face as he stalked towards Blair. As the boy stared, horrified, the gun recoiled, and his neighbor fell backwards to the floor, a crimson stain marring his once-white shirt.
With one hand clamped tightly over his mouth to stop any sounds from coming out and the other trembling on the windowsill, Jake watched as the gunman bent over the body. When the gun was tucked away, he knew that Mr. Blair was dead. Jake drew back from the window as the man stared out the glass door, searching for any sign of life in the backyard. Fortunately, he didn't look up. Without even realizing he was doing it, Jake committed every detail of the man's appearance to memory.
The man drew the blinds and shut them-Jake could no longer see what was happening in the house. Through his panic, he decided that the last place to be trapped by a murderer was twenty feet in the air. Jake quickly descended the ladder to the ground, cutting through the yard towards the house where he now lived.
It was his bad luck that the man walked out the door just in time to see him slip under the bushes. Jake looked back, met the killer's eyes...and then he ran.
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To Part 2