Charlie Parker’s Reunion

Charlie Parker, now twenty-eight years old, stared at the envelope. Inside was an invite to his 10th high school reunion. He had been waiting for this for months. He’d been dreaming of the chance to see his old high-school buddies, to take a step back into his past and erase the everyday stress of being married with a kid. But what about his wife, Sally Ann? She graduated from the same class. Was she going to go? He doubted it. They weren’t getting along; that was one thing, plus she never liked anyone else in school. Charlie tore open the invitation.

Holy cow, they’re having it at the Biltmore Hotel. That’s a bit weird. Why not have it somewhere on Clearwater Beach? He looked at the front of the paper, and there was a picture of the hotel, which was over one hundred years old. The largest wooden structure of its kind in all of the U.S. A sudden chill ran through his entire body, and he shivered. The card felt suddenly hot. Charlie looked over at his four-year-old son sitting across the floor. He was busy playing with several checker pieces and was paying no attention to his dad. The card ignited and burst into flames. Charlie shrieked, tossed the flaming paper to the ground, and then rolled out of the way. When he righted himself and looked at the invitation, it was intact and lying on the ground, and his son never even flinched at his dad’s actions.