A New Life Karl Singer
Marc Subaka woke up to the same old room, the same old breakfast of eggs and bacon, and began the same old walk to school. It was a nice day, as nice days go in the winters of Chicago. Marc had a pretty normal life…he went to school, hung out with his friends, and was a star on the basketball team. His parents were divorced as most of his friend’s parents were these days. He lived with his dad, Bill Subaka who was an accountant for a private business that he knew nothing about. Marc was use to living on his own, but he didn’t really like it, every chance he got he would hang out with his best friend Jack. They had known each other for 4 years, ever since he moved to Chicago.
Marc was a freshman at Oakland High School. He was pretty popular and had a hot girlfriend named Stacy, whom he thought he was in love with. They had known each other for 4 years also, and she and Jack were both friends too. They would all hang out and were best buds, this was when Marc would be happy. Marc was otherwise a thinker when he wasn’t with friends. He would often just daydream and think to himself about things and not often realize it. This being so, he was a C and B student. However, this was enough to keep him on the basketball team and that was what he cared about. When he was playing basketball, he was focused, nothing in the world could stop him, especially not the opposing teams. Marc was probably the best guard in the state and his 8th grade team had won last year’s state championship. His dream was to be a big name star someday and play professional basketball. Little did he know, that dream would never come true.
Marc wasn’t just a mean jock, he cared about people and never put people down. Although sometimes with his friends, he put on an act and made fun of the losers in his school. He always felt bad about doing it later. His family was one of the most important things to him. He loved spending time with the people he barely saw and especially loved thanksgiving when the whole family would get together. He would do anything for his family.
Bill Subaka walked into the big glass building on the corner of 31st street like usual, at 7:00 in the morning. He flashed his ID to the secretary who looked like an innocent 40 year old, but was trained in more takedown moves then you could imagine (and had a gun under her desk, just in case). Then he took the elevator to the 50th floor even though there were supposedly 40 floors. The rest was storage and no one could go up there because it was unstable. After he got there he walked up the empty hall that ended at a big metal door. The only way you could get through this door was if you were a registered F.B.I agent. He held his eye up to a hole in the wall that looked like a crack to anyone else, like he did every morning, and the door slid open. Up on the 50th floor of the insurance building on 31st street was a secret world. The room was filled with computers and offices with some of the world’s most secret information. It was also filled with the pictures and names of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Bill had to know these criminals like the back of his hand. He had a very dangerous job; stopping major drug trades in their tracks. Recently he had been working on catching Jose Sanchez, a drug dealer they had suspicions about bringing drugs across the border into America. He was also number 6 on there most wanted list. They had heard from an informant that he was planning his next transport to be next week. All they had to do now was wait and catch him, except Sanchez knew something was fishy and already had suspicions that he was in the F.B.I’s system.
Bill greeted the regulars who were there every morning, and then he walked into his office. His partner Mike was there waiting for him. They exchanged greetings and then got down to business. Mike had a very serious look on his face.
“Our informant is dead, Sanchez found him.” Mike said.
“That means he knows we are after him,” Bill said stating the obvious.
“How did they find him?”
“We don’t know, we just know that he hasn’t contacted us in 24 hours. We also think his computer was infiltrated as well. We have no access to it anymore. Bill we are all in danger. Sanchez knows who you are, since you were the main contact. You and your family have to get out of here. I think you know what that means. The only option you have is to send you and your family into witness protection until we can catch Sanchez, and the case goes through.”
Bill knew that he had a dangerous job and he never wanted to have his family put in jeopardy. He had no idea how he was going to tell Marc, who seemed to be so happy here in Chicago, that he had to move away without telling anyone to some hick town that the F.B.I feels safe. Bill and Mike, best friends and partners in the F.B.I for 6 years didn’t know if they would ever see each other again. Mike was the only one other than their boss who knew about Bill having to leave, no one else was allowed to know either. They would be sent to a new town, given new names, social security numbers, and Bill would have to find a new job. Marc would have to start in a new school, and, Bill realized with horror, his wife would have to live with them! They would have to start a new life.
Marc was sitting in Algebra 2, his least favorite class, when a student brought him a slip from his dad that said. “Come home immediately” Marc, relieved to get out of the class, showed the teacher his note and went to his locker to get his things so that he could walk home. It had turned into a chilly and gloomy day with the clouds threatening rain. Marc bundled up with his jacket, and was wondering why he had to come home so early as he began the 3-block walk to his house. Usually his dad wouldn’t be home till at least 5:00 o’clock p.m, about the time Marc’s basketball practice would end. Then Marc began to worry, maybe something had happened to his dad or his grandma, whom he was very fond of. He quickened his pace a little bit so he could find out why he had to come home.
As soon as Marc’s house came in site, everything looked normal except there was a black SUV and his mom’s Buick in the driveway. He let out a sigh of relief thinking that his mom had just come to visit and he was just called home early to have a chance to see his mom whom he usually only got to see once a month. He was actually kind of happy that he got to see his mom, and even though his dad didn’t get along with her, he always enjoyed having her around. Sometimes he would wish he had chosen to live with his mother, but she didn’t like the big city and Marc wanted to be where all of his friends were. He loved his life and didn’t want it to change. Yet this time he would have no choice.
He opened the door and saw a couple of suitcases lying in the living room and no one else. He yelled out “Hello!” but there was no response. He wondered around the house and saw that his mom, his dad, and a big tall man in a black suit sitting outside on the patio. His first reaction was to go outside and talk to his mom but then he grew wary of the man in the black suit. Maybe this man was holding his parents hostage, they both looked very stressed and worried. Should he call 911? The more he looked at the scene on the patio he realized that something was defiantly wrong. He was just getting ready to pick up the phone when a strong hand gripped his shoulder, making him jump. It was another man in a black suit.
“Are you Marc?” he questioned.
“Uh yea” he replied nervously.
“Well you aren’t anymore, c’mon we work with your dad and we have to talk about something. I won’t hurt you.”
Marc nervously followed the man out the door and onto the patio. He hugged his mom and his dad who just gave him a weak attempt at a smile. His mom was teary eyed and his dad had a solemn look on his face.
“What’s wrong” Marc asked, breaking the ice.
The man who had been talking to his mom and dad before, whom Marc realized was his dad’s friend, Mike, answered. “We don’t have much time, so I’ll explain this to you as quickly as possible, now this isn’t going to appeal to you but it is necessary for your safety.”
“Safety?” Marc thought to himself
His dad took over from there “Look Marc, I’m not an accountant. We all work for the F.B.I except your mother. I’m sorry I’ve lied to you all this time. Right now however we are all in danger. A criminal heard that I was working on catching him and he knows who I am. This man is a very evil guy and probably wants to kill me. I know this might not be fair but until we can catch this guy and the case goes through we have to, well move. I don’t know how long it will take but the sooner we get out of here the better. Mom will be living with us as well. We already packed up some of your stuff.”
Marc was at a loss for words, thinking that this was just one big joke, but somehow looking at his mom and dad made him realize that this was not a joke. They looked very serious.
“No” Marc said weakly “I’m not moving to some other part of Chicago. I will stay in town with grandma, until we are safe.”
His mom gave him one of her looks “Hon, from what I’ve learned we won’t just be moving to a different city. We are going to have to move somewhere along way away from here.” She said on the verge of tears, mostly ones for Marc.
Marc couldn’t understand why his parents were doing this to him. It wasn’t fair and he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have to tell Stacy, and my coach, and my friends.” Marc said somewhat dazed.
“I’m afraid no one can know where you are, it could put them in danger.” The man in the black suit who hadn’t spoken in a while said.
“Well I will stay with grandma for a couple of weeks then.” Marc said still in denial.
“No you won’t, I’m sure Sanchez and his gang of about 75 people, will come to our house and your school as soon as possible. You can’t be in this city or around anyone who knows who you are.” His dad said. “From now on your name is Jake Young, my name is Will Young, and your mom’s new name is Joy, do you understand. It is very important that we don’t call each other by our real names. Someone might recognize us, which is still unlikely where we are going but we have to be safe.”
Bill’s friend in the black suit told him to hurry up and grab a few personal things you want to bring and that they would be leaving in about 30 minutes.
Marc ran up to his room to get his things. He wanted to have his cell phone so that he could call Stacy. There was no way that he would leave town with out telling her first. He went to pick it up from its normal spot on his dresser, but it was no longer there. He quietly snuck downstairs to use the home phone only to be stopped by the other man in black who insisted that he called him Tim.
“Didn’t I tell you that you couldn’t call anybody?” he said.
“I have to call my girlfriend, I can’t just leave her,” Marc replied.
“If you really cared about her you wouldn’t call her, that way she is safe.” He said and then told Marc to go get his things we are leaving in 10 minutes.
Marc reluctantly went back upstairs to get some things. He discovered that his clothes, his music, and his pictures had already been packed. Nonetheless his most valuable possession had not. It was his first basketball. His dad had given it to him when he was 7 years old, when his family was happy.
There was a knock on the door and his mom came in.
“Hey sweetie,” she said hugging him. “I’m so sorry about all of this, hopefully we will be back home in a couple of weeks or so. I know how much you love basketball and I’m sorry you will miss the playoffs.”
The Playoffs! Marc hadn’t even thought of those. How was he supposed to explain to his team why he had been gone for so long! This was the first thing he asked his dad when they loaded into the big black SUV.
“We’ve already taken care of it with the school and told everyone there you are on vacation.” His dad said. “I’m sure your team will forgive you.”
Marc, who was now Jake Young didn’t reply. Instead he looked out the window as they drove away from the city he had been used to for so many years, wondering when he would see it again.
Somewhere along the drive Marc had drifted to sleep. When he woke up he had no clue where they were. He asked Tim, the driver, where they were going but he wouldn’t answer. His dad told him that they would be checking into a hotel for a couple of nights until they could get that straightened out.
Marc sank back into the comfortable leather seat in the back and thought to himself until he dozed off again.
This time when he woke up, it was dark and the clock on the dash said 10:30. They had been gone since 3:00 o’clock and Marc figured they would stop at a hotel pretty soon. Tim told him it would be about 15 minutes until they reached the Best Western hotel. His mom appeared to be asleep, but his dad was wide awake talking to Mike in a whisper so that no one else could make out what they were saying.
They arrived at a Best Western hotel at about 10:45 p.m. Marc, his dad, and his mom had a room and Tim and Mike had a room connected to theirs. Mike told Marc to never go outside the room on his own because he could still possibly be in danger here. Marc’s mom and dad were doing their best to get along with each other and make everything as good as possible.
Marc found out that the only thing to do was to watch television, which got wearisome quickly. They had been there all day and still hadn’t gotten a new location.
That next morning Marc woke up and no one was there. There was only a note that said
“Mike and Tim have taken us out to do some errands. Stay in the room and we should be back around 9:00 o’clock a.m,
Love Dad.”
It was 8:30 a.m and Marc saw no harm in exploring the hotel a little bit. He picked up the extra key card and walked out into the hall. They were on the 8th floor and as Marc looked down from the railing there weren’t many people up yet. He also saw a Starbucks and decided he would get himself a treat with the few bucks he had in his pocket. The only people who he came in contact with were a maid carrying towels and a man who looked to be in his 60s. He ordered a cappuccino (which he normally wasn’t allowed to have because it would stunt his growth) and a muffin. Then he went over to a table in a corner and ate his food. The next thing he knew it was 9:00 o’clock! He swiftly threw away his trash and ran to make it back to the room. He jumped in the elevator and stepped out onto their floor.
Eight floors below Tim, Mike, and his mom and his dad walked into the hotel carrying groceries for their mini fridge.
He didn’t know what the big deal was about him staying in the room but he didn’t want to get in trouble. He lay back down on the pullout couch he had been sleeping on and turned on the TV. About a minute later he heard a knock on the door and immediately went over to answer it assuming it was his parents. Luckily the chain was still on. The maid standing outside had an evil look in her eyes. As Marc made eye contact he saw her foot rise up to kick the door down with not quite so womanly strength, giving Marc a bloody nose. Just stepping out of the elevator were his parents and the men in black. Seeing this Mike ran over to the door throwing down the groceries and the coffee that they had stopped to get, and tackled the maid. Before the evil maid had time to react, Mike and Tim had her handcuffed and on the floor. Marc who just had a bloody nose and a headache rushed out into the hall as Tim was pulling back the maids face to reveal a 30 year old man. His dad seemed to know him as Sebastian Chang, one of Jose affiliates.
“H..H..How did he find us” Marc said stammering.
“Someone must have trailed us here.” His dad said. “They must have waited until we were gone to get Marc!” his mom said in horror. “Are you sure you are okay?”
“I’m fine I guess” Marc answered.
“We will leave as soon as possible. We have found a place for you guys in Jamesville, Louisiana.” Tim said. “Pack your things and we can go now.”
With that said they packed their things while Tim watched over Chang and they all loaded back into the SUV. Luckily no one had seen or heard the commotion that just happened.
After Chang was dropped off at a police station Mike explained some things to them.
“Once we make sure we are not being trailed, we will stop and get your car. When we have your new car, which will actually be a used one, we have to make the drive to Louisiana and we should be there by tomorrow by sunrise.”
After a lot of going around in circles to make sure they weren’t being trailed and getting their “new” crappy jeep, they finally started the drive to Jamesville. By dawn the next morning, just as Mike had said, they arrived at their new house. Marc had never seen anything so ugly in his life. It was a brown stucco house down a long lane hidden by trees with the intention of not being seen from the street. Inside there were 9 rooms and 2 bathrooms. Everything was also furnished with old furniture.
His mom and dad did there best to display a fake happiness but they were both used to better living conditions.
Bill, who was now referred to as Will, would start his new job as a Fed-Ex driver in a week. Marc, who was now Jake, would start his new school in a week as well. His mom would stay at home for the time getting everything adjusted in their house.
After they had brought there stuff in they decided to let Marc explore Jamesville, as long as Tim went with him. Being close to town Marc began the walk down the lane with Tim trailing behind him. Marc was not impressed by what was called “the town.” There were about 10 little stores in the streets and a few country restaurants. He also saw a Wendy’s, which looked, very out of place in the little town. There weren’t that many people walking around either, all he saw were a few older couples, and a few girls that looked his age. Marc didn’t feel like talking to them though, even when they started looking at him. His school defiantly didn’t look out of place with the town. If anything the town looked great compared to the school. Marc guessed that there was a maximum of 75 kids living in Jamesville. Marc also guessed by the amount of houses he saw there was a maximum of 300 people living in Jamesville. He had no idea what he was supposed to do here. He also wondered about how many kids had committed suicide out of boredom. At least there was basketball. There had to be basketball here even if there was only a population of 300.
After Marc had the “grand tour” of the town he came home to find that his mom and dad had started to settle into the house. The F.B.I had taken the liberty to provide them with all of the things needed in a new house. There was even a TV and some boxed and canned food in the shelves. Marc had already decided that he hated it here so far and believed that he would always hate it here. But hey, what were a few weeks.
Mike and Tim were going to stay with them for a couple of days so that everyone would understand what they could and couldn’t do. After that they would be on there own and one of them would come and check on them once a week. That night as Marc was laying in his new room incapable of falling asleep he couldn’t help but to hear his mom and dad quarrelling. His dad was saying something about not knowing how long they would have to be there and his mom was now crying. Marc didn’t want to listen anymore, putting the pillow over his ears and eventually falling asleep.
A week later, after nothing that exciting except getting his basketball hoop from the main city, Marc was supposed to start his first day at school and his dad was to start his first day at his new job. Marc had taken a tour of the school with the principal the day before and thought that he might actually like the slower pace. At his school in Chicago everything was always crowded and the classes were way too packed. This was defiantly not an issue for Jamesville high. He had also found out that there was a basketball team thank god, but there were only 6 kids on it. They were just getting ready to start their season too. Basketball wasn’t the only sport at Jamesville high. There weren’t enough resources for a football field, but there was a tennis team and a swim team.
Marc’s first day of school turned out to be really good. He turned out to be pretty popular since not many people seemed to move into Jamesville. He was also well admired from the ladies being very good looking with his tall muscular body, blond hair and blue eyes. That same day he came to practice with the team. His new friend who was in all of his classes, Joey, was on the team. The coach was Marcs History teacher. He explained a few of their plays and asked him if he had much experience in the sport. To answer his question he picked up a ball and shot it from where he was standing about 25ft away and drained it. The players stared at him in amazement as if they had never seen anyone make a three-point-shot in their lives.
“Ok this is great!” Mr. Smith said enthusiastically. “Well I’m sure you have met everyone here. We play our first game on Friday against the Cardinals from uptown, which we have never beat in school history, so with you on the team maybe we will have a chance.”
Marc doubted it, the rest of the team, besides Joey who was actually ok, just sucked. They could barely make a wide-open lay-up. Maybe they could get better though, just maybe.
For the next week Marc went to school, made new friends, and went to a few parties. It was Friday and the basketball team was on their way to Centerville to play the Cardinals. Marc didn’t know how good this team was but he was pretty confident that they were good enough to win. Marc’s team had started to play like a team in their little gym and was running all of their plays well. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long and when they got there the gym was not that much better then Jamesville’s. However, they had 10 kids on their team, which wasn’t that many, but compared to their 7 it was.
At halftime the score was Centerville Cardinals: 35 Jamesville Ravens: 25. Until six minutes into the 2nd quarter they had been putting up a good fight. But everyone on the team including Marc was too drained to keep running up and down the court to keep up with them. The final score was Cardinals: 63 Ravens: 50. They had tried hard throughout the game but they couldn’t keep up with them.
During the next week still nothing had been heard about Sanchez. Marc felt terrible about not telling Stacy and all of his friends about where he was. He was also kind of missing the big-city life. But he was completely useless to do anything.
The basketball team had been conditioning after school everyday. It was Marc’s idea. If the team were in good shape we wouldn’t run out of energy in the second half. They had played 3 more games on their schedule against teams from around the town and they had won all 3 of them. Marc had at least 30 points in every game and was turning into quite a stud at Jamesville High.
The Young’s had now been residences of Jamesville for 3 weeks. Everyone seemed to be adapting well. His mom had made friends with some other housewives around town and his dad had made friends from around town and at work as well.
Two more weeks later things were still the same and no one had heard anything about Sanchez. Marc’s team was now 6-2 forfeiting one game because of a lack of players. Apparently two of their guys thought other things were more important. However, the regional championships were the next day and it was the Cardinals against the Ravens again.
Marc got up the next morning and went on with the morning like everything was normal for basketball. He went to school and after school he got on to the bus and listened to his music to get pumped for the game. Marc knew that they would win and they did, beating the Cardinals 60 to 54. He was awarded M.V.P of the game and tournament; scoring 37 points with 10 assists he also had a few boards and blocks. After the game a photographer came and took their team photo to put into the state paper. He also took a picture of Marc the M.V.P.
It was the best day of Marc’s new life. After the trip home they all celebrated at the local pizza shack and had a great time. Marc went to bed happy for once and woke up the next day feeling great.
He went to school like normal and decided after school to go over to his friend’s house. He got home late at about 9 o’clock; the black SUV was parked outside in the drive. Maybe there was good news! When he got inside Mike was there, no Tim.
“Son, thank god you’re here.” His dad said. “Marc, they caught Jose! We can go back to Chicago!” Marc was too happy to say anything, but suddenly something came to mind.
“Where is Tim?” Marc questioned.
“Sadly, he was killed by Jose, Somehow Jose found out where you were. Luckily we were here and we killed him before he could kill you guys.” Mike answered.
Marc felt extremely guilty realizing that his picture had been in the paper. This was something that he had been warned about. It had never occurred to him what could happen from a little basketball picture. He was told that maybe it was a good thing he did that, they had caught Sanchez and even though Tim was killed, this was the way Tim had wanted to die.
Marc felt a little guilty about moving again, and just told him it was for his dad’s job. He couldn’t wait to get back to Chicago. Sometimes though he still missed his simple life in Jamesville.
Fin
