Game Date 08.06.2001

Frank and Mary's Dinner

Frank sat across from the woman he had know all his life as his sister. She was smiling and laughing at a shared memory from their childhood. Frank smiled and chuckled too. It hadn't been that funny at the time but looking back on it now it did seemed very funny. The two of them had snuck into the attic to get a look at their Christmas presents. Then got caught by their father when the ladder fell away leaving them hanging from the ceiling access way to the attic. It was one of many memories that they shared. Frank had tried to take the blame for the whole thing to protect her but had just made it worse for the both of them, and conversely even funnier now.

Frank sat across from his sister and knew all too well that she was trying to hide something from him. Mare tended to overcompensate and smile a lot when she was worried or scared. Then to hide the fact that she was smiling a lot, she had a habit of covering her mouth.

"What's wrong, Mare?"

"What makes you think anything's wrong big bro?"

"I probably know you better than anyone else, Mare. You always smile too much when things are bad and then you try to cover it up. I haven't seen you smiling and covering this much since someone let Elizabeth Dalton's secret out back in high school. She couldn't be homecoming queen and ended up changing schools."

"Well, A, Elizabeth Dalton was a bitch. B, She always acted like she was god's gift to life. C, Bad things happen to bad people. D, I wasn't even running for homecoming queen and E, no one ever proved it was me."

"I know you weren't running for homecoming queen but your best friend was. By the way, how is Kara these days? Don't think for one minute I don't know how you found out about Elizabeth's secret. You need to be a little more careful about where and how you get information. Matt told me he saw you sitting across the street from the abortion clinic in your car."

"I told you long ago that I was waiting on Erin to come out of the dry cleaners after dropping off a dress for her mom and since you asked, Kara is doing fine. She is living in upstate New York married to some guy she met in college. I hear they are expecting their first child in a couple of months."

"It doesn't matter why you were there. You were there and you saw Matt and Elizabeth going into the abortion clinic. I'm sure, it wasn't too difficult for you to add one and one and get two or in this case three. Did I ever tell you the real reason that they were there?"

"The reason was kind of obvious don't you think? You don't go into a place like that to order a class ring or a prom gown."

"No you don't smart ass. As it turns out, Elizabeth and Matt were there to pick up Kara who wasn't at the clinic to do volunteer work."

"You're wrong! Kara would have told me about something like that."

"Well, apparently she didn't. Then when you jumped to conclusions and spread the Truth about Elizabeth, she stayed quiet and so did Kara. Your "best" friend took advantage of you and the "bitch" kept quiet taking the hit to protect Kara."

Sitting in a stunned silence Mary looked down at her food. Frank reached over and put his hand on hers.

"Hey! Don't let it bother you. There was no lasting harm done. I can appreciate how far you're willing to go to help a friend. It's just that you don't hide it so well sometimes. The only reason I brought up the whole thing was to show you how you react when something is wrong. Now tell me, what's going on?"

"What's going on? Mister, you're the last person that I would tell if there was something wrong."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means that I know you too. How about George Bell, or Johnny Harris, or Mike Steiner?"

"Well, George Bell was just jealous and got what he deserved. Johnny Harris was bothering you and didn't seem to be able to take no for an answer. As for Mike Steiner, let's just say that justice doesn't always make sense."

"Johnny Harris was just interested in me and I was playing hard to get. He was being sweet singing outside my window until the bees attacked him. I saw the hive the next day. It had a hole in it, about the size a small rock would have made if it were shot from a sling shot."

"He deserved it. He singing was terrible. Besides, his antics disturbed my sleep the night before a big test."

"What about Mike Steiner? From what I heard he was really smart and always did well on tests. He never had to cheat to pass an exam in his life. It sure did surprise everyone when he was expelled from college for having copies of the exams before finals week. How do you explain that huh?"

"Like I said, justice doesn't always make sense."

Mary glared at Frank.

"Well, if you must know. During Mike's and my senior year, the college had a problem with a rapist. He preyed on very meek girls that could be easily bullied. The college didn't want a scandal so they tried to keep it quiet. A large anonymous donation to the college's law school along with very generous financial aid packages for the victims were very effective in hushing up the incidents. That probably would have been the end of it except one of the girls raped was a friend of mine. She was emotional shattered by the attack. It took a lot to get her to tell me what had happened and who had done it. Of course, I had no evidence to prove it was Mike. My friend certainly wasn't going to tell anyone else other that me that he was her attacker. So it was up to me to make sure that Mike did not get away unpunished. They take cheating on law exams very seriously. It also turns out that every law firm of any significance received notice of his expulsion and the reason why. Needless to say he never became a lawyer."

"I never knew."

"I know. No one else knows the real story either. But, I bet there were several women that had a party when they found out about Mike's misfortunes."

Frank stared fixed Mary to her chair.

"Now tell me what's wrong? Or are we gonna continue this dance? Neither of us are gonna win halos or wings."

Mary looked intently into Frank's eyes.

"Frank, I know if I don't tell you, you are going to do one of two things. Either you will keep badgering me until I tell you, or even worse you will start snooping around until you find out what's going on. Then you will go off half-cocked and someone will probably get hurt. So if I tell you, you must promise me that you'll stay out of it. Let me handle this myself. Promise me, Frank. Promise me on Mom and Dad's grave that you will let me handle this and by myself and that you won't interfere."

Frank stared into Mary's eyes.

"Mary you know that's not my way. I can't leave things alone when something's wrong. Besides, like you said even if you don't tell me, I will find out."

"Promise me Frank. I know you won't go back on your word."

"Mary, I'll promise with two stipulations. One, you keep me informed on what's going on and don't hold anything back. Two, if it looks like you're gonna get hurt, it's no holds barred. Under those conditions, I promise to let you handle it."

Mary sighed.

"I guess that is the best I'm going to get out of you. Besides, it is better than I expected."

"So spill it. What's up?"

"Its work related. There is someone blackmailing the mayor. I know him better than most. He is a good man doing his best to do well for the city. But someone has something on him and they are using it to sway his position on certain issues. He makes an act of putting up resistance, but in the end he gives in."

"What kind of decisions are they trying to influence? It can't be too bad, the city council would step in if it were."

"That's just it, they are strange things. He was pressured to have the city property office deed a small parcel of land to a certain large corporation. The funny thing is the parcel is small abandoned 2-acre plot and it is nowhere near any other property held by the company. He was pressured into establishing a citizen's oversight committee to investigate corruption in city government. The people sitting on the committee are clean, but are reputed to have close associates that have been or currently are suspected of providing payoffs and bribes to city employees and officials. There is currently a proposal on the mayor's desk to provide money to train and relocate the homeless. But, a city ordinance to provide funding for training homeless people was passed city council not six months ago."

"Strange, very strange…are you sure that the mayor is being pressured into supporting the blackmailer's agenda?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

"Then keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth closed. You don't want to attract any more attention to yourself than necessary.

"I will. Now how about you? According to the San Francisco Examiner you're alive now. Who ever was looking for you will be back to hunting you down."

"I suppose they will, but Uncle John's friends are helping me to find who ever is hunting me and try to put an end to it once and for all. But, my big concern is you. I don't want them to get any ideas about hurting you to get to me."

"Don't worry Frankie, I'll be ok. Promise."

"I'm gonna have to resurface soon I suppose. But, it is sooner than I had wanted. I wanted to put an end to this before I showed up again. But, if I don't, I'm afraid that innocent people are going to get hurt. I guess I'm going to be busy with my own problems for a bit longer. If you need me, call Uncle John's place and leave me a message. I check in there pretty often."

After a little while longer of lighter conversation, Frank says goodbye to Mary and leaves in the dark of the night.

Reflecting on the evening, Frank and Mary both think, "Damn, this is going bad and I don't know how to help."