It was two weeks after my wife, Carmen, told me that she was three months pregnant with our first child that I received the envelope. The envelope was large, brown and addressed to me alone. I opened it as soon as I got in the house. The rainy weather had sent me home from my construction job early. Carmen, who worked for the same firm, but in the office, was still at work.
I was still frustrated about being sent home. Before Chad had taken over, we could sit around on rainy days and still get paid. However, like so many things, Chad had changed all that. Now three of my friends and I had to go home when there was not anything to do, which cut into our pay. Angry, I opened the envelope. Inside was a slim sheet of paper. On it read the words, "Because everyone needs to know the truth."
Thinking that was odd, I almost tossed the paper and the envelope when I happened to glance inside and see a small flash drive. I pulled it out and wondered what on earth this could be. I headed toward the home office. Passing the wedding pictures, taken six years ago when we were both nineteen. The same year we started working for Todd Spencer at Spencer Construction Company. Those were the days, I mused to myself, sitting down at the office computer. The days when 18-year-old Chad was just helping his father out on the construction site as a fun loving kid that all the men loved having around, even if it was just to blame all the things that went wrong on. It was all before he came back from college an arrogant jerk, who took over the family business and then cut the hours of the workers he did not care for and treated those same works like crap.
Luckily, Chad liked Carmen and she got to keep all of her hours, which most people would be happy about, but not Carmen. Carmen had wanted her hours cut. Carmen had decided about three years ago that she hated being the sole office worker for the company. She had started going to a massage therapist school taking one class at a time. She was almost finished, but had kept it from everyone including Chad. She feared he would fire her before she had finished.
Carmen was lucky though, she already had a job lined up for when she finished. Her friend, Emily, had just opened a chiropractic office in town and was looking for a full time massage therapist. She agreed to let Carmen fill the position once she was finished with school. Emily had hired an hourly therapist to get through until then. She had even agreed to set up Carmen with a few new clients three times a week to get her practice hours complete. Carmen went every Tuesday and Thursday. She used a key to the private massage room in the back, while the rest of the office was closed. There she would do one-hour long sessions each day.
I had been initially nervous about her doing this alone, but my nerves were erased when she started bringing home tips. Those tips were helping supplement the pay for my lost hours. Plus, as Carmen told me, most of her clients were females or very old, fat men.
The file box on the computer opened, showing one video file. I clicked on the file and Chad's face popped into view. He was sitting in his office and it was clear that he had recorded the video from his laptop. My mind swirled, was he about to fire me. Leave it to that prick to do it this way. I felt a sudden panic as I pressed play on the computer.
"Alright Bryan! I guess you are probably wondering why I am sending this video. Well, partly it is because I, like the note said, believe everyone deserves to know the truth. See the truth is that I cannot stand the sight of you. You probably do not remember when I was sixteen, you, and Terrance, Leon, and Mike used to make my life so hard with my dad. But I remember it well. I remember the constant berating every day on the ride home and the 'you can't do anything rights' he would scream at me. I knew then I hated you and honestly, if it were not for my dad and that lovely wife of yours you would probably be out of a job right now. You see back then, your wife was the only one who was nice to me. She was so nice, so sweet and even though I never really was around her, because dad always made me work out on the site with you Neanderthals, I developed a bit of admiration for Carmen. That Bryan is why you get to keep your job and that Bryan is why I think you deserve to know the truth."
The screen went black and I sat dumbfounded. Treated him harshly. I had never. The little snowflake needed to be toughened up and that is all we did for him. I moved the curser to close the window and saw that the video was much longer. As I went to fast forward the video past the black, a video faded back on. It was of a familiar doorway and was obviously being shot from a cell phone. It was about chest high and it appeared that it was in someone's chest pocket, camera pointing outward. My brain tried to rationalize were I had seen the door, when I watched a hand come into view and a finger pointed out to press the button on the doorframe. The door opened and there stood Carmen. Her petite frame, dark brown shoulder length hair and curvy figure outlined in the open door. She wore the blue scrubs that she worked in each Tuesday and Thursday. Behind her, her massage table and the massage room. The door was the back door to the chiropractic office, the one only open after hours.
"Chad!" Carmen said surprised.
"Carmen!" he said with equal amounts of surprise.
"I had no clue that you were the Chad that was showing up today." I could sense her nervousness. She had been busted and she was freaking out about losing her job. It was just January, five months before her expected graduation. "Emily just left a name and said that she had a regular client who had pulled a muscle and needed to be seen tonight. I had no idea it was you!" Carmen was talking fast, trying to cover. The camera was moved inside and a moment of light adjustment made everything go white before the light was normalized to manageable levels. The view returned to something presentable.
"Carmen, Emily told me that she had someone giving free massages after hours, because they were in school and needed practice hours, but I had no idea that it was you. Have you been in school long?"
"Well, yes! I am almost finished. I started three years ago and I finish in May."
"Oh, wow! I hope that doesn't mean you'll be leaving me to run that office alone," I heard Chad say.
"Oh no," she lied. "Anyway, I typically don't massage people that I know. It can be very awkward. I can let Emily know that you will reschedule with her regular therapist tomorrow." I saw Carmen turn and pick up her phone.
"No, Carmen, I am sure it won't be awkward. I mean I cannot wait until tomorrow. I hurt my leg on the job today. Emily saw me for an adjustment earlier, but said that I needed a massage to relieve the pain."
"Oh, that's odd. She doesn't typically send people to me for leg pain."
"I am not sure. She said a deep massage on the part of the leg that was in pain would be beneficial to help it heal," Chad said.
"Well, okay." Carmen brushed her dark hair out of her face and put the phone back down on the counter. "If you are sure, then I don't have a problem. I mean eventually I am going to have to get used to seeing people in here that I know." She blushed.
