No Way To Win

Joel was considered a rather handsome young man. With his dark, wavy hair and deep blue eyes, he made quite the striking picture. His sister Lucy, on the other hand, had dark, piercing eyes and long, honey blonde hair. 

         Joel had recently broken up with his girlfriend. He was in college and wanted to focus on his studies. Besides, she was way too clingy. She was even jealous of him spending time with his sister. He and Lucy were close, and he refused to have a girlfriend come between them. Lucy was beginning college this year, and was very thankful for her brother to be looking out for her.

         Joel and a group of his friends always met up to eat dinner and study. He texted Lucy to join them, and she was more than happy to oblige. She had a crush on Joel’s friend, Tony, and she knew that he would be in the group going to eat in the cafeteria.

         Lucy made certain that she dressed in a nice button down shirt. It was blue with pink and purple pinstripes throughout. She put on her nicest pair of jeans and her black western boots. She grabbed her jean jacket and slipped it on. As she was picking up her purse, her phone rang.

         Lucy answered the unknown number with a curious look on her face. After a cautious hello, her features smoothed out and the look of caution was replaced by one of annoyance. It was Joel’s old girlfriend, Patty, on the phone. She was begging Lucy to talk to Joel about taking her back. After listening to her beg and plead for fifteen minutes, Lucy had reached her limit. She told Patty that Joel wanted nothing to do with her and that she needed to move on. Patty told her that she couldn’t move on. She said that she loved Joel and that she was pregnant for his child.

         Lucy knew that this news would change everything. She agreed to meet Patty in front of the library and they would go to the cafeteria together to meet Joel and his buddies. Lucy hung up the phone, tucked it into her pocket, and left her dorm room.

         An hour later, Joel and his friends arrived in the cafeteria, but Lucy wasn’t there, yet. They got their food and sat down. Half an hour later, when she still hadn’t arrived, Joel tried to call her phone. After four rings, a strange thing happened. Patty answered Lucy’s phone. 

         Joel was surprised at this turn of events, since the girls didn’t care much for one another. He asked Patty how she had gotten Lucy’s cell phone. 

         “Well, honey, I will tell you. Lucy is here with me. I won’t tell you where. I will tell you that I have a challenge for you. I know how you love challenges. I have a hot shot of Heroin. IF you can figure out where I am with your sister within the next two hours, I will let her go and she will be fine. If not, I shoot her up and she dies.”

         “Patty, baby, this isn’t necessary. Please, don’t hurt Lucy.”

         “I won’t if you are as smart as you think you are. First rule, no help from your friends.”

         “Okay, no problem.”

         “Second rule – watch your time, because I’m watching mine.”

         “Okay, Patty, how am I supposed to find you?”

         “I will give you a clue. If you solve that clue, there will be another clue waiting. Good luck, Joel, you will need it. Your first clue is to go to where we first met.”

         With that, Patty hung up the phone. She looked over at Lucy.  

         “He will never find you in time. I doubt if he can solve the first clue.”

         Joel was in a panic. He made an excuse to his friends so that he could leave. He jumped in his car and drove to his old high school. Where had he first met Patty? He thought hard. At a football game, of course. He rushed to the football field and went to where he had been when he met her, but there was nothing there. He wracked his brain. Suddenly, he remembered that this wasn’t the first place they had met. They had met in Spanish class.

         Of course, the school was locked up tight. It was, after all, seven at night. Joel ran back to his car. He had nothing that would cut the chains holding the doors. He quickly drove to the nearest Home Depot and ran in. He purchased a pair of bolt cutters and ran back to his car. It was already bordering on seven thirty by the time he got back to the school.

         Joel snapped the chain and dashed down the hall to the old Spanish classroom. He searched desperately, and finally found the second clue that Patty had left for him. The note stated that he was now to go to the spot where they first kissed.

         Joel was now beside himself. He looked at the time. It was seven forty five. He grabbed his phone and called Patty. She answered on the first ring. 

         “Do you give up? Want to say good-bye to your sister?”

         “No, Patty, no. Just….how many clues are there?”

         “Why? Are you having problems?”

         “No, just please…”

         “Okay, you big baby. There are five. The one at the school was the first.”

         After hanging up, Joel allowed himself a moment, but no more, to panic. Five clues. He had just found one. He had an hour left. He tried to remember where they had first kissed. All of a sudden, it came to him. The movie theatre on their first date. He hopped in the car and drove to the theatre. He bought a ticket for the cinema they had been in and hurried in. He tried to picture that night. Where had they sat? As soon as he remembered, he hurried to that seat. He had to ask someone to move so he could search under it. He snatched the clue and ran back to his car. Eight twenty now. Only forty minutes for him to solve three more clues. 

         He opened the clue that he had gotten from the movies. Go to the first place where we made love. He knew right where that was. That was on his parents’ living room couch. It would take him fifteen more minutes to get there. He had a thought, and called his mother. He told her that it was a scavenger hunt, and she found the clue stuck under the couch. She read it to Joel. That clue said to go to the place where they broke up.

         Joel keyed the ignition, gunned the engine, and headed that way at almost double the speed limit. When he arrived at the restaurant it was closing. He had ten minutes to locate his clue. It took three to convince them to let him in. He skidded to a stop at the table they had eaten at and fell to the floor. He snatched the last clue from under the table.

         Rushing back to his car, he quickly read the clue. It said ‘Guess where I’m at. You’ll never make it in time.’

         He suddenly had a sinking feeling. He called the landline at Lucy’s apartment. Patty answered. He begged her, saying that since he had solved the riddle, she should count that even though he wasn’t there. 

         “Too late, darling,” she crooned. “Your time ran out five minutes ago.”

         Joel sped to his sister’s apartment. He found her lying dead on the love seat, a needle jutting out of her arm. There was an ultrasound picture on the coffee table with Patty’s name on it.

         Joel fell to the floor in tears.