Family Tradition

A Family Tradition

         The Todds were a generally happy family. Frank had a good job in an office and was an excellent provider for his family. Samantha loved to stay home and take care of the house and the kids. Jack was in College, and soon would be going on to Medical School, one best in the country. Rachel got good grades, and was captain of the girls' soccer team in her school.

         The thing that brought them together, and yet drove them apart, was the family tradition. It was an activity that all the family had participated in for years. Since they had such a small family, in fact, they were the only living members, it wasn't really a competition, and it was always easy to be innovative.

         Most of the family loved the family tradition. Frank, although he was getting older, could still be active and take part. He loved it, and it had been handed down from his father and his father before him.

         Samantha had surprised Frank with her interest in it. It wasn't the sort of thing a woman typically got involved with, but she loved it, and she was good at it too.

         Jack's work on the tradition had been mentioned three times in the campus paper, and even once in the big city paper. Of course, his name was not there, since anonymity was a big part of the family tradition. But his parents could tell the work of their son.

         And then, there was Rachel. She had no real interest in the family tradition. She just wanted to go school, be with her friends, play soccer, and maybe open a store some day. She liked cooking; maybe she would own a bakery. It wasn't that she hated the family tradition. She didn't see anything really wrong with it. If the rest of the family wanted to keep it going, great, but she didn't see any need to be a part of it.

         At first, her parents thought it must be a phase. All teenagers had a rebellious streak, after all. It would pass in time. But it had been four years since she had learned of the family tradition, and yet she still refused to take part. This made her father very angry. After all, this was something that had been done since before his ancestors had left England to come here. Now his daughter was going to turn her back on it? Well, that meant she was turning her back on her family too. And so, they would treat her that way.

         And so it began. Her father refused to talk to her at all. Her mother treated her coldly and withdrew. Her brother took full advantage of the situation. He teased her, he dumped stuff on her clothes, but the final straw was when he stole her diary, and sent copies around her school. Her parents didn't do anything about it. He was part of the family after all, something she did not seem to want.

         Fine, if that was the way they wanted it, she would take interest in the family tradition. In fact, once she was done, she would be the undisputed master of the family tradition. She just had to wait and plan.

         It began one August morning. Samantha was baking a cake for that night. They were celebrating another of Jack's accomplishments in the family tradition. She took out the sugar, and found the box empty. Strange, she had used it yesterday and was sure there was some left. Oh well. "Rachel!" she snapped. "Get me some sugar from the basement."

         "Jawohl mein frau!" came from the living room.

         That girl was getting a bit too snippy. It might be time to teach her a lesson in manners. At least she did as she was told. With the sugar, Samantha continued baking.

         Rachel said, "I'm going out to the mall."

         "Fine, but make sure you are back by dinner time. This party is very important to us, and you are going to be here and behave.

         "Fine, mother!" Rachel stomped out of the house. It was hard on Samantha to keep this pretense up, but Rachel had to learn to respect the family tradition.

         As Rachel walked past her father, he was getting a jack out of the garage. When he got in the car that day, planning to drive out to the golf course, the oil light came on. He knew that meant trouble. Changing the oil shouldn't take too long. He got the car up, and then slid underneath to see what the problem was.

         At about the same time, Jack was going online. He loved the web; there was so much you could do on it. Today, he had two new emails, both from the same person, who was not someone he knew. He opened the first one.

         "Hey there. I've seen you around. I think you're my kind of guy. I really like guys who are into medical stuff. I love to play doctor. To find out more open the next email."

         This sounded really interesting.

         The next email had a number 30 on it. Then it changed to 29, then 28 and so on. Under the number was a note. "It's amazing what you can wire into a computer, Jack. What's even more amazing is that you can tie it into things like the clock so it turns into a timer. Look under the desk and say goodbye."

         Jack did look under. He saw a digital readout in red that now read 5. It was wired up to what looked like a small lump of clay, all of which was attached near the power outlet.

         Samantha had been baking away while this was going on, and paused to lick the stirring spoon when she was done with it. It tasted very strange, not sweet as it should have. She reached into the sugar, and pulled some out on her fingers and tried it. It wasn't sweet either. In fact it was...Oh Lord, someone had replaced the sugar with rat poison, and she had just...the retching began, but it was too late.

         Outside, Frank had found the problem. Someone had punched a hole in the oil pan with what looked like an ice pick. All the oil had drained out onto the floor. Who would do something like...then a strange sound came from the jack. Before he could move, the jack crashed down as if someone had cut part way through some vital part so that it would hold the car up for a bit and then collapse. As the pressure came onto them, all four tires blew out, dropping the car firmly onto Jack's chest.

         Upstairs, the device blew out, shorting out the power in the room. It also sent electricity arcing from the myriad devices in the room, and along the metal plate that someone had planted on the floor leading right to where Jack was sitting. The surge stunned him. The fire took care of the rest.

         When Rachel came home from the mall, there were police waiting for her. Apparently a fire had started inside the house. They didn't know how, it appeared to be electrical, in a computer room. Probably someone had tried to modify and improve the computer and ended up causing this. Her parents and brother were dead. She was the sole surviving Todd now. Of course, there was a sizable inheritance, but that could not replace a loving family.

         So, looking up from Hell, the Todds could see that Rachel at last had an interest in the family tradition. She had demonstrated it well on them. They could suffer for eternity knowing that the name and work of Todd, carried on from their however many great grandfather Sweeny.

         With her new found fortune, Rachel decided to explore her roots by moving to London. Maybe she would open up a place that sold meat pies, perhaps with a barber shop in the floor above. That would fit right in with the family tradition.