I Went Home

In the dark, my brother, John and I stepped slowly down the sidewalk. We didn't have far to go, only three houses away from our own, to the Barker's house. It was the red lights from the police cars swirling around that illuminated our way in the dark night. Several neighbors had already gathered at the perimeter of the Barker home while other neighbors stayed in their own yards trying to assess the tragedy from far away. Those of us close by stood and watched, paralyzed, as the officer put a sheet over Mr. Barker's face and body. He had fallen on the front porch; the victim of a fatal stab wound. It seemed like I was standing on the scene of a movie set instead of in my safe, middle class, suburban neighborhood.

I remained silent as many of the adults spoke with my eighteen year old brother. There was a lot of chatter and speculation. I was just a kid in jr. high so no one even attempted to talk to me.  I listened as the details spilled out about the crime while my eyes stay fixed on the lifeless body of the old man. I noticed that the white sheet was starting to soak up the blood around the fatal wound at his chest. Then, in my motionless state,  I put together enough of the conversations going on around me, to understand what had happened. It made me gasp.  It was Mr. Barker's daughter who had met him at the door that night with a large knife. This young woman, about 22 years old, had killed her own father!

My heart raced...Mr. Barker's daughter?! I remembered...I had heard gossip about her from the neighborhood kids. They were weird and spooky stories about how Mr. Barker kept her prisoner in their house after his wife had died, how she would stand and stare out her side bedroom window completely naked and how she had killed a small puppy once. Shortly after these stories had been related by the neighborhood kids they dared my sister Joni and I to ding-dong ditch the Barker house. The tales that seemed a little too fictional and contrived still frightened me. But we were the new kids in our suburban, Chicago neighborhood with something to prove, so we took the dare. 

I noticed as Joni and I went up to the front door that the vinyl curtains that covered the large, front window were crumpled and smashed into the glass. These were the curtains that the local kids said were NEVER opened. I think it was Joni who rang the bell, but all I remember was my heart beating out of my chest and then turning so fast to get away and running straight for home. The dare was completed.

Now several years later, I stood at the home I had feared that night and wondered if all those stories were true? I noticed that the curtains were still closed at the front window and realized I had NEVER seen them open. In the three years that we lived there I only saw Mr. Barker and never his mentally deranged daughter. 

I remember leaving the scene that night, returning to my home and later having trouble falling asleep. My mind for the first time, grasped the idea that evil really existed and that there are depraved and poisonous practices in this world; it had penetrated it's way into my town, into my neighborhood and onto my block. 

But I also came to know, in the safety of my parents home, that there is much good in this world. I was loved and cared for, I was taught truth and I was unafraid. 

While there are many circumstances today that point to the ailments and tribulations of this world, I am secure in the knowledge that there is good to be discovered. It is in the encounters of kindness with strangers, it is found in the love we freely offer our families and it is rooted in the truth that we impart as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. The powerful impact of His light can be professed, as my daughter Rachel reminded me this week, with a genuine smile, in a simple sentence and with a quiet choice to do the right.