Taylor Young

The Fortune Cookie

Eleven O'clock on a sunny summer day it was my lunch break where I would go to catch up with

an old friend of mine. Things didn't go as planned. Surprise, your life is about to be hell. A warning would

have been nice. I will never open another fortune cookie again.

I grew up in Long Island, New York. Just the normal family, two kids living in a small house with a

white picket fence. Nothing out of the ordinary. Although, I grew up in a military family I decided to not

follow in my family's footsteps and attended college at Yale, and eventually became a stockbroker in

New York City on the Wall Street Journal. Now, my older brother, Shane, went into the military right

after high school. Shane was very successful in the military but he got an early retirement and decided

to start a family with his loving wife. He now has an adorable baby boy. My parents sadly passed away a

few years ago but that hasn't stopped me and my brother from becoming closer even though we did go

our separate ways. We keep in touch quite a lot now and he has started his own business to help raise

his family. At least I thought so...

New York City has always been busy with traffic so when I walked out of my office to catch up

with an old buddy of mine I decided to walk instead of taking a cab. It was a nice day outside so why

waste the good weather by sitting in the back of a cab. I needed the fresh air anyway, work had been

stressful recently. Not only was my boss overloading me with outrageous amounts of work but my co-

workers decided I needed to pick up their slack as well. This lunch break couldn't have come at a better

time, I thought to myself. As I walked a couple blocks I finally reached my destination at this delicious

new Chinese restaurant that had been the talk of the city recently. Once I opened the door I

immediately spotted my old friend, Jack, across the room.

"Jack! Hey, how have you been?" I asked as I gave him a hug.

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"Skyler! It's so good to see you man. I'm great. How about yourself?"

"Oh, you know. Just working my life away. Paying the bills one paycheck at a time." I replied.

He laughed at my remark and we made small talk all lunch. Reminiscing on the old memories we

shared at college, talking about family, and of course the casual "Got a girl yet?" I was too busy to even

think about having a girlfriend or starting a family for that matter.

"Fortune cookie time. It better be something awesome about my future." As I smacked the table

to get up.

Walking over to the bowl full of fortune cookies I turned my head to see if Jack wanted one as

well. He shook his head and shouted across the room, "Pick a good one!" I turned my head back to the

bowl to see there were only two left in the bowl. I was certain I remembered the whole bowl being full

but not thinking twice I grabbed both of them, and decided I wanted the one that was cracked in the

middle. I threw Jack his fortune cookie and he tore it open to just laugh at his fortune then threw it on

his dirty plate.

"Not even worth telling you, dude. What's yours say?" Jack said with a slightly bummed look on

his face.

I loved reading fortune cookies because they always gave me a little slim of hope about my

future. I strongly believed in these little pieces of paper that were typed by random people. I'm not sure

why I believed in them so much. They couldn't possibly be true. I pulled out the piece of paper and

started to read, but I was in shock with the words I was reading, "You're in danger. Leave the city

immediately without saying anything to anyone. Repeat: Say nothing" So many thoughts going through

my head as I calmly slid the piece of paper in my pocket.

"What's it say? Something ridiculous and crazy about your future?" Jack jokingly asked.

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I was in complete shock as my heart was racing a hundred miles per hour, "Oh, you have no

idea," I replied with a straight face. But this couldn't mean anything it was just a stupid piece of paper.

None of these fortunes ever came true. Just someone trying to be funny.

We carried on conversations about how work was going and he was updating me about his

horrible boss who treated him like he was a child. He needs a new job anyway, it was ruining his life.

With that thought running through my head I thought back to my fortune. Someone's prank is

not funny. It's stupid and a waste of time. It's not going to scare me. I feel around my jean pocket making

sure the fortune hadn't disappeared. I grab it with two fingers and wad it up in my hand pondering if I

should just throw it on my dirty plate and let it be thrown in the trash, or keep it and actually leave.

For some reason I started sweating and the back of my throat was hurting because I was

nervous. I was nervous for no reason. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong but my body chose to be

nervous and make my mind wander to places. I decided it was best if I just leave then.

I look at my watch acting like it was time for me to head back to work even though I still had a

good twenty minutes left. "Oh, It's already time for me to head back to work." I stand up and hold out

my hand waiting for him to stand up as well.

He shakes my hand firmly, "It was great catching up with you. Hit me up and we can get

together again."

I nodded my head to send off the message that I agreed. I turned towards the door and head

out into the city sidewalks with people heading in every direction. My heart is racing, I'm sweating so

much that you can see the sweat stains through my gray dress shirt, and my mind is going so many

places wondering what I should do. The thoughts going through my head were so frantic, Stop it, Skyler.

It's just a stupid piece of paper. This couldn't be true. I've never done anything wrong to the point where I

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should leave town. Should I leave town? Where would I go? What am I supposed to tell my boss and co-

workers? Well, nothing because I was threatened by a stupid piece of paper. I start turning my head in

every direction wondering if someone was watching me. Everyone seemed to be in their own little

world like nothing bad had happened. After pacing back and forth in front of my office building I decided

I should just leave and call my brother.

"Hey, Shane. It's Skyler. Listen, I know this is last minute but I really need," pausing for a minute

to think of a reason why I would be going to his house, "a vacation to get away from all this stressful

work stuff. Would it be alright if I stay at your place for a couple days?" I thought that sounded

reasonable and not mysterious. I could use a vacation anyway.

After a slight hesitation he finally responded, "Uh, yeah. I don't live in the same place though. I'll

text you my address if that's okay?"

"That would be great. Thank you." I hung up the phone with a little confusion wondering why he

had moved? He had a personal business in his original city so why would he give that up and move? The

text had arrived and he moved to a little town in Massachusetts called New Ashford. I had never heard

of it before but I decided to hop in my car right then and there, and start driving.

I typed his address into my GPS on my phone to display the message of, "137 miles,

approximately 3 hours." On the drive I started thinking back on all the reasons why someone would be

after me and why they would want me to leave the city without saying a word. I thought long and hard

about the past couple years, and I couldn't come up with a single reason why someone would be after

me. I've never killed anyone, I've paid all my taxes, and I've never fired anyone. Three hours later I had

arrived at my brothers house.

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It was far back in no man's land. Even my GPS had trouble finding this place. It took me on a long

gravel road back to a remote little one story house about the size of my small apartment in New York

City. Trees were surrounding the area which made it more hidden. It was like he planted this house in

this exact location. I put my old Toyota in park and opened my car door to see my brother running down

the stairs from the front door. He looked different. I couldn't quite pin point what it was until he got

closer and gave me a hug with a pat on the back. He had dyed his hair.

"Hey, Shane, why did you dye your hair and move out into the middle of nowhere? Seriously, it

took me forever to find this place." I had asked while returning with a pat on the back.

"Oh, you know just trying something new. The privacy is great back here. No one bothers you,

partially because no one can find this old run down place. Here, come on inside. " He replied as he

looked in the trunk for a luggage bag to carry into the house.

I ran over to the trunk and slowly shut it, "It was kind of a spontaneous vacation so I didn't pack

anything. Just the clothes on my back. Let's go I want to see my cute nephew and sister-in-law."

We walked inside to the messiest house I had seen in a long while. Papers were everywhere you

walked, little toy fire trucks were covering the floor, dishes piled up in the sink like they had been there

for days, and clothes were scattered throughout all the rooms I had passed to reach the tiny room I

would be staying in. So tiny it could pass as a walk in closet.

"Uh, are you sure it's a good time for me to stay here?" Curious as to why their house was such

a pig sty because my brother had never been such a slob.

"Yeah, sorry for the messiness. Your call was unexpected so we didn't have a chance to clean

things up. It's just been hectic around here, but you're welcome to stay here as long as you need."

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As he walked out of the room I pulled out the piece of paper from my fortune cookie, re-reading

it over and over again until I finally slipped it back into my pocket. Maybe this is all a joke or a prank? I

thought as I lay on my back staring at the popcorn ceiling above me. What if I over reacted and the

fortune cookies at this restaurant are supposed to be a joke. Or what if Jack planned this? He was always

a prankster. I should probably- My thoughts got caught off by my brother stumbling over the messiness

into my room, "Is chicken okay for dinner?"

I smiled acting like everything was okay, "Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you."

As I lay back down on the bed I could smell the fried chicken cooking in the kitchen. I could hear

my brother and sister-in-law whispering but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. It probably

wasn't important anyway. The smell of the chicken made my stomach rumble as I walked out of my

claustrophobic room to make my way into the kitchen. The dinner table was cleared off and plates were

set.

"I just want to say thanks so much again for letting me stay a couple nights on such late notice."

They nodded their heads as we finished our dinner and headed our separate ways. My brother

had given me black sweatpants to sleep in since I decided to not pack anything before my spur of the

moment "vacation". I slowly begin to fade off into a deep sleep.

I woke up the next morning to find a note taped to the fridge in the kitchen, "Skyler, we went to

the local grocery store to pick up a few items for the next couple nights. Be back soon."

Ah, I can take some time to myself and figure out what to do. Peacefulness. I decided I would

make myself some breakfast to pass by the morning and to get some energy in me. I found some bread

in the pantry and placed it in the toaster as I searched for the peanut butter and jelly. Once the bread

had popped up in the toaster I placed the two pieces on a plate. Splattered the peanut butter on and

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went to grab the jelly when it slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground making a bigger mess than it

should have. Crap, where are the napkins in this god awful house? I started rummaging through drawers

to find napkins when I picked up the mail on the counter and took a second look at the name addressed

on the mail. "Roger Banks" it read. Wait, who is Roger and why do they have mail coming to my brothers

house. We don't have a Roger in the family. I picked up more pieces of mail to see all of them with the

same name addressed. Right when I started to put them back my brother walked in, dropped the

groceries and had a blank stare on his face.

"I can explain," was all he said.

"Shane, what is going on? Who is Roger and why is their mail being sent here?"

He hesitated as he picked up the apples, pasta boxes, and bags of chips that had fallen out of his

grocery bag, "I, uh, I'm um, I'm Roger. I, uh, changed my name."

My eyebrow raised, "You changed your name? How did you even do that?" I asked in complete

confusion.

"Why don't we sit down at the dinner table and I can tell you everything."

I pulled out the chair from the dining room table and took a seat. My arms folded across my

chest patiently waiting for answers. Shane slowly sat across from me and looked me right in the eyes as

he told me everything.

"As you know I was in the military as a Crypto logic network warfare specialist, a highly

advanced computer job. Once I got my early retirement I decided I wanted nothing to do with

computers because I was on them every hour of every day. I wanted something new and fresh so I

started my own business in downtown Boston. But you already knew that. The thing you don't know is

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that my business failed within a year because of the economy. My income is what my family lived off of

and I did the only think I could, Skyler. I just couldn't risk putting my family out on the streets."

"Shane, what did you do?" He could hear the worry coming out of my voice.

He looked up at the ceiling with his hands clasped to his face. He let out a sigh, " I used my skills.

I did what I had to do and I applied my computer knowledge to gain some income. I tried hacking into

the government to steal some money. Let's just say it didn't end well. I moved locations to this

abandoned home back in the woods, dyed my hair, and changed my name hoping I would never be

found. I changed my name by forging my license, passports, everything you can think of , forged it all. I

told people my name was Roger, haven't gone by Shane in awhile. I had to Skyler, you understand that

right?"

I was in complete astonishment as the words rang out of his mouth, "No, Shane, I don't

understand that because you should know as your brother I will always be there to help you whenever

things go bad. It's' what our parents taught us. To stick together through the good and the bad. And- " I

began to trail off as the thought of the fortune cookie popped into my head. I began to fumble around

in my jean pockets as I pulled out the piece of paper and slid it across to my brother for him to see. "I

ate at a new Chinese restaurant in New York City yesterday for lunch and this was my fortune. You don't

think it has anything to do with you do you? Like this is a setup or something?"

His facial expression said it all. His face lowered to the table as his hands rose to the top of his

head with a loud sigh to follow. "We have to get out of here. They've been searching for me for months

and they came to their last solution which was you. Get up. We are leaving everything behind and

moving somewhere else." As he was yelling for his wife to grab the baby and a few extra clothes a knock

came from the front door. Shane walked up to the door and looked through the peep hole to realize it

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was the Secret Service. "No one make a sound. Let's go out the back door." He whispered and pointed

toward the back.

We all followed Shane towards the back of the house as we tiptoed our way through the

jumbled mess in the hallway. The floors slightly creaked in certain areas we stepped. We were walking

so slow it felt like we weren't going anywhere. We had almost reached the backdoor when the baby

started crying.

"Shhh. You're fine. You're fine," Shane tried calming him down while patting him on the back

while his wife held him.

Everything got quiet until we heard the voices outside counting, "1, 2, 3..." Boom! The front

door was down on the floor and we bolted to the back door noticing the Secret Service was at the back

door as well. Shane's eyes widened knowing there was no where left to run.

He punched the wall closest to him, "Game over."

I hesitate for a second making sure there was nothing we could possibly do to get out of here. I

look at my brother with his head resting against the wall as tears were streaming down his face. It was

like slow motion as I watched the Secret Service charge right past me and began to arrest my brother. I

stopped one of the Secret Service men, "How did you find him?"

"We traced your location off of your phone knowing the only place you could go was your

brother's house. The whole fortune cookie was a setup that led you right where we needed you,"

replied the guy.

This is all my fault, I thought as my sister-in-law, baby nephew, and I watched my brother being

pulled away to the Secret Service car. Tears were falling down his wife's face probably wondering what

she was going to do and how she was going to survive.

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"I know I screwed up and I'm sorry, but look after my family while I'm gone." He screamed as

they were pushing his head down into the car.

"I'm going to fix this, Shane. I promise!" I shot back before the car drove off with my brother in

the back seat. "I'm going to fix this," I whispered to myself.