A man with a bandaged arm is driving on a side-road that runs parallel to a major highway in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. There is no evidence, but only an assumption driving this statement. There are low-hanging clouds in the sky, like giant cotton balls. This morning, when the man looked up, he noticed the clouds rolling in. They were small, but he knew to watch them, for most low-lying clouds can grow into great, anvil-like wall clouds, which can soon turn to very dangerous weather. To his right, there is a hill - a park, where a couple is walking their dogs, Billy and Shelly.
The couple is comprised of a man named David Lovato, a brunette in his late twenties. He just graduated from law school, and has started his first professional job at a well-known firm. He specializes in criminal justice, but his longing is to one day be a music teacher. He's played piano since he was merely three years old, learning to play every song in his church's hymnal before he could spell the word, "religion." He might get his wish someday. He may even start a rock band with his chums and live the dream of touring the world, releasing four double-platinum albums before dying in his late 80s, one of the happiest men to ever walk the face of the planet. Then again, he could die today.
His girlfriend, Melissa, is a mid-twenties, bipolar, beauty-queen-all-grown-up. She was runner up for Miss Louisiana only ten years before this moment, and with her Bachelor's degree in English, she has begun her career as a secondary educator in one of the top schools in the area, a Catholic school renowned for its rigorous program, which has a perfect record of graduating no less than twenty Ivy-League-bound students every year. She dreams to save enough money over the next few years to help her thrice-divorced mother, Jill, care for her edge-of-seventeen sister, Stacy, a very happy, bright, ambitious girl, who, because of her cystic fibrosis, is presently unexpected to see the age of thirty.
David has made it his goal for the day to take Melissa to dinner and to request her hand in marriage. He's planned this for months, now, even asking Jill for her blessing, and getting to know young Stacy on a better level. He spent about three weeks browsing stores for a ring on his free time, trying to get away on his own as much as he could.
Melissa also has a goal for the day. She first noticed David behaving strangely about four months ago, when he began showering her with gifts and spending much more time with her, acting giggly and almost awkward at most moments. A few weeks ago, he began sneaking off. She has a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, and since she's been staying at his apartment so much, she's noticed a couple times where he is no longer in bed. A few times she arose from bed and walked to the living room, where he quickly shut his laptop when he saw her. He wouldn't admit to anything, saying he was, "checking his stocks." After the third time, he stopped getting out of bed, staying awake altogether. Once she found him sneaking out to his car and driving off. She followed him once, and saw him speaking to a pretty brunette lady about, "keeping this a secret." She never thought herself as the type to be cheated on, but, as her best friend has told her, you must be strong and move on when it's over.
Melissa has found out that she is David's next of kin in his notarized will and is due to inherit around $500,000 when he dies. Her sister's treatment should cost about that amount, though it will likely only extend her life a few years. David and Melissa are on their way home. Melissa has contacted David's executor, Jeremy, and told him to give her share to Jill, should anything happen to both of them.
Do you remember the man in the car? On his left is a woman who has no yet been diagnosed schizophrenic. She lives alone with her television and obsessional love of cheeses to keep her company. She wouldn't believe that if you told her, of course. She has painted herself a nice portrait of her dream life. She thinks she's married to a man, and has been for thirty-seven years. That would be true, of course. But her husband was the drunk driver involved in a fatal car accident between with a teenage couple on their way to one's house from prom.
