New Beginnings, Chapter 1
 
 

Sheridan Crane entered the Senior Citizen Center where she had been volunteering for Crane Charities for awhile now, and went up to the Nurses Desk.
 

" Hi Muriel."

"Sheridan! How are you? Thank you for coming in for this shift so soon after your last one."

" Oh, it’s no problem. How’s Mary’s son?"

" Well, they say that he’s lucky to be alive, with only a broken leg. When will these kids learn?"

" I know. So, anything interesting going on?"

" Actually, we have one resident who’s at the end. The doctor said that he could come back here to die."

" Oh, that’s so sad."

" I know. I enjoyed him a lot. So, I’ve been trying to do everything to keep him comfortable."

" Well, I’ll look after him, so that you can get a break."

" Thanks so much, Sheridan. In fact, it’s weird. He’s asked me to call your house several times."

" MY house?"

" Actually, the Crane Mansion. He wanted to speak to your brother, Julian."

" Julian? Are you sure?"

" Yes. I’ve called twice for him. Orville wants to see him, but, he says he doesn’t know Orville."

" Well, you know what? I’ll talk to Orville. See if I can help him out."

" Thanks, Sheridan. Well, since you’ll be sitting with Orville for a bit, I can do some paperwork."

" No problem.", Sheridan tells her. " I’ll go right on.", picking up his chart. Sheridan walked down to his room. She opened the door, to see him hooked up to machines.

" Mr. Perkins? Mr. Perkins?", Sheridan called out. Orville turned to her. He looked so weak, Sheridan’s heart broke for him.

" Hi. I’m Sheridan. I’m going to be sitting with you for awhile.  Muriel needed a break."

Orville nodded.

" Is there anything I can do for you?"

Orville pointed to a piece of paper on the nightstand beside him. " Call the number."

Sheridan picked it up, and looked at it. " This is Julian Crane's number."

Orville looked surprised. " You know him? I gotta talk to him."

" He's my brother.", Sheridan says with a smile. " If you tell me what it is, I'll tell Julian."

Orville got upset. " No. I gotta talk to JULIAN CRANE!" Sheridan sees how upset Orville is and dials the number to the house.

" Crane Residence."

" Pilar?"

" Yes, Sheridan, it's me."

" Where's my brother."

" He left about an hour ago, Sheridan. Emergency business trip to California, I think."

" Oh. Thank you, Pilar.", Sheridan says and hangs up. She turns to Orville and tells him, " My brother just left town for a business trip. It was an emergency. Don't know when he'll be back."

" But, I have to talk to your brother. I HAVE TO!!"

Orville was getting upset again. Sheridan took his hand. " Look, why don’t you tell ME what you were going to tell my brother. I promise you that I’ll tell him everything that you tell me."

Orville looked at the young woman. She seemed so decent. He couldn’t believe that she was a Crane.

" How do I know you’re a Crane? How do I know that I can trust you?"

Sheridan brought in her purse and showed Orville her driver's license. " See? It says Sheridan Crane." Sheridan then showed him a picture of her and Julian. Orville nodded and said, " I guess you're who you say you are. "

" I promise that I'll tell my brother whatever you tell me."

" It's not a pretty story. It's quite bad."

Sheridan looked at the old man. Part of her wanted to dismiss him as a crackpot. But, she looked into his eyes. This was a man who had something to say before he died. She was hearing his last confession. That it had something to do with her brother scared Sheridan. But, she had to know. If it was this important, she would find out whatever Orville knew, and tell Julian. She pulled up a chair next to him, and then, she got an idea. She popped up out of the chair, and left out of the room. A few minutes later, she came back in. She pulled up the moveable table that they would place the meal tray on, and put on top of it, a tape recorder.

" See? Now, you don't have to trust me that I'll remember everything that you say. I'll tape it, and make sure that Julian gets it. "

Orville nodded to Sheridan. " Fine. I'm ready."

Sheridan pushed record, and Orville began talking.

" My name is Orville Perkins. I guess this is what you'd call a last confession. I've done things I'm not proud of in my life, but, nothing comes close to what I'm about to reveal right now.

I have apologies to make. But, sometimes, when a person gets desperate, they do things that they ordinarily wouldn't think of doing. And, they're able to rationalize it all away. I know that's happened with me and this situation.

I'm confessing to you, Julian Crane, because I think you're the only one who is capable of correcting the wrong, and protecting the innocent. The circumstances under which the danger existed, still do.

And, I believe that I am placing lives at risk by making this confession. But, the pain that my lies have caused over the years, I can no longer live with, and I have to make peace before I die.

Mr. Crane, you believe that your firstborn child, a son born on Christmas Day, in Boston, is dead. I'm here to tell you that the child is NOT dead. He's very much alive and living in Harmony. "

" JULIAN HAS A SON LIVING IN HARMONY?", Sheridan exclaims?

Just then, Theresa, who had been delivering quilts and other donated items to the Senior Citizens from the church circle that Pilar chaired, stopped dead in her tracks. Julian Crane with a son? How could this be? She was very still, as she eavesdropped outside of the room.
 

" Miss Crane."

" I'm sorry, Mr. Perkins. But, are you sure? How is this possible?"

" Miss Crane…", Orville begins a fierce coughing attack, and Sheridan gets him some water. " Let me tell the story."

" Ok."

" Mr. Crane, that son is very much alive and well and living in Harmony. You believe that he's dead. There was a death certificate, a cremation, you say. I know that there was. There was supposed to be. But, the baby on that death certificate, who was cremated, was NOT your son.

I know this because………because, I was one of two people involved in the conspiracy to make sure that you and especially his mother, believed that he was dead.

I had a gambling problem, in my younger days. And, once upon a time, I found myself in debt to some very bad people. People who either collect their money, or take out their losses with a collection of your body parts. I needed a lot of money, and a 'job' came my way. I had already been working for this person already. My assignment was that I was to watch you and the mother of your son, and report back to my boss about the progress of the relationship. I was to monitor how many times you came to see her. How long you stayed with her. I was to inquire to her, about the depth and the seriousness of the relationship.

When she wound up pregnant and you left her, I thought that my job was finished. But, I should have known better. It was in the middle of December when I got the call. I was summoned and given the instructions. I had stiffed a guy in Atlantic City for quite a bit of money, and he was looking for me. I was informed that he would receive a map as to how to find me, if I didn’t do this job and do it fully.

The job was that the baby the girl was carrying was never to leave the hospital alive. I was asked if I understood the job, and I said that I did. In the end, I was told that I would be getting a partner, and between us, we would split the very generous payday.

Five hundred thousand dollars. Do you know what that kind of money meant in THOSE days? It was a fortune. And, all that needed to be done, is to kill a child. "

Sheridans eyes were full of tears, and she got up and ran to the window, looking outside, wishing she was anywhere but there. She turned back, and stared at Orville.

" Disturbs you, doesn’t it? That people could rationally sit around and think about killing a child. Design it, even. You detach your mind from the absolute heinousness of it. But, still, it comes down between you and this kid, and who’s it going to be?

It was rough. Watching the mother scrape together money, coming in so proud at the purchases that she made for the baby: a couple of outfits – white. One for him to come home from the hospital in, and a pair of blue baby booties. She KNEW from nearly the beginning, that the baby was going to be a boy. She was happy about it. There she was, alone, abandoned, really with no prospects, but, she was hopeful, because she wanted her baby.

She began having strong contractions late Christmas Eve. She called me, because I had told her that I would be only too happy to take her to the hospital. I picked her up, and took her there. Early Christmas Morning, the baby arrived. A healthy, but small, baby boy. She was tired, and the nurses took the baby from her and told her that he would return for his feeding in a few hours. It was the last time she ever saw her child. "

" You killed him?", Sheridan asked

" I told you, I know where your brother’s Son  IS right now. So, obviously, I didn’t kill him. It was a Charity hospital. Understaffed under normal circumstances. It being a holiday, they had a skeleton staff, and no security in the least. So, it was no problem. I’m no Saint. I’ll be honest. I entered that nursery with every intention of killing the child. After all, my life was on the line. But, it was Christmas. And, he was an innocent child. He looked up at me with those dark brown eyes, piercing  into me. I thought that he was looking for my very soul. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t.

Just then, I heard a monitor go off at another crib. This child was about the same size as your brother’s, but, he had been abandoned in an alley and left for dead. The monitor stopped, and I realized that the child was dead.  I went over to the dead child, and stopped in my tracks, when I saw his nametag. It was as if I was being given a Christmas reprieve. I was being given a chance to save myself and what little bit of my soul that was left. The irony was too overwhelming for it not to have been on purpose.

And, then, the idea came to me:

Switch the babies.

Switch the live child for the dead one, and inform the employer that it had been done. Because the child was indigent and abandoned, I knew that there would be no one looking for it. No one investigating anything. No one would care, in the scheme of things, if another abandoned Black Baby had died.

As I said before, security was lax, AND this was near the beginning of a shift change, which meant that any nurse who had possibly been observing would be gone, and a new shift wouldn’t know the difference between the babies. I took the name bracelet from your brother’s child, and slipped on the dead one. And, vice versa. And, changed the nameplates of the babies.

My employer would receive a death certificate, and the paperwork for the cremation of the baby boy. He would believe the job was done, and that would be that."

" What about the mother?", Sheridan said in a shaky voice. " Didn’t she deserve the chance to raise her child?"

" She was NEVER going to get to raise that baby. That baby was a liability. It was a threat. If I didn’t do it, I’m sure my employer would have found someone who would. And, this time, why stop at the baby? Get rid of the baby and mother, and everything would be even better."

" Stop it! I don’t want to hear anymore.", Sheridan screams.

" I’m sorry. You said you’d listen. I’m going to die, and I have to make this right. I have to help these people that I’ve hurt. I rationalized it later, to get through living, day to day, that everyone was better off. The mother, who had had some dark times before the pregnancy, I had hoped that she had gotten her life together. And, the baby boy? I had hoped that he had a good life. But, I told myself that at least he WAS alive. I hoped one day that I would meet him again.

Sure enough, I did. I met the mother, and the son. The mother had totally turned her life around. She had cleaned up. She was real respectable. She has a husband and children.

And, I met the boy, now a man. My hope for him having a good life wasn’t fulfilled. He’s had a crappy life. "

" He’s in Harmony?", Sheridan asked.

" Yes."

" What about his mother?"

" Yes. She lives here too."

" Who….who was your employer?"

" Miss Crane….you know who my employer was."

Sheridan knew that she did know, but, didn’t want to believe it. " I…..Julian will need to hear you say it.."

" Ok. My employer was Alistair Crane. Alistair Crane hired me to spy on his son and the singer he was involved with. Alistair Crane hired me with the express intent of murdering your brother’s son. "

Sheridan put her head in her hands, and cried out, " No…"

" Yes, Miss Crane. And, it was because of him, that I have kept quiet. I was afraid for my life. After all, I had double-crossed your father. Not a position that someone wants to find themselves in. And, then, I was worried about the young man. I thought possibly he was better off NOT knowing, because he would be safe. But, then, I believe he should know. But, he needs someone to protect him. And, I’m hoping that your brother will do it. If he chooses not to claim the boy, then, I guess that’s a form of protection. The boy is safe, as long as Alistair believes that he’s dead. If he finds out that he’s alive, I don’t know what he’d do. "

" You said that you had a partner in this. IF my brother chooses to protect his son by not revealing his paternity, how can we be sure that this person won’t crawl out of the woodwork for money from my brother?", Sheridan says coldly.

" Because my partner is dead. She was murdered last year in Harmony. "

" Murdered? There weren’t many murders in Harmony last year. In fact, there was only one woman murdered here. "

" Yes. A singer named Crystal. She was my partner. "

Theresa’s eyes popped wide open. Her mind began to reel, and to flashback to the Jazz Club, with Crystal. She began to go over asking Crystal to sing a special song. And, then, Theresa felt a chill go down her spine. She knew someone who had been asking Crystal about his parents. Someone Crystal said she knew ALL about his birth. Someone who was murdered before she could tell this person about his parents.

This person was CHAD. Theresa shook her head…could CHAD be Julian Crane’s son?

" This is very convenient for you. Crystal, just happening to be your partner. Tell me, how is it that you even knew her?"

" She sang in a club that I worked in years ago in Boston. The same club where your brother met the mother of his son. Crystal was good friends with the mother of your son."

" Then WHY would she possibly betray her like that? For money?"

" Actually, Alistair hooked her by telling her that he would help get her father out of prison. Crystal loved her father, and didn’t want to see him die in prison. Alistair kept his word. He was released from prison two days after Christmas. Once he had the Death Certificate in his hands."

" Ok. You’ve danced around it long enough. What is the name of my brother’s son? Who is this boy?"

" His name is Chad Harris."

Sheridan stared at Orville as outside the door,Theresa shook with chills. She saw someone coming, and she ran in the opposite direction, as fast as she could.