The Switch Up

Joe Falcon walked out of his beautiful four story house in the heart of Texas, to go meet his good friend John F. Kennedy. Before he left, he kissed his two boys, Daniel and Jack, and his wife Kim goodbye for the day. He liked letting people know where he went for college, so he wore an orange Clemson t-shirt and some nice black sweatpants to go along with the chilly weather. When Joe stepped out of the house, a bunch of news reporters and cameras were waiting for him. Joe was kind of used to the fame he’s been getting now. He helped invent the internet and the new cell phone, and people are going crazy about it and want to know what’s coming next. He ignores the paparazzi and gets into his Corvette and took off.

Meanwhile, Joe’s brother, Jeff, was trying to get ready to go Joe’s house for the day. He woke up in his nice three story house, not too far from his brother’s but was having trouble get out of bed. He pulled a remote control from under his pillow and pressed a red button. Through a speaker, he said,

“Amy, I need help get out of my bed.”

“Be right there.” a voice replied back through the remote control.

Jeff’s assistant, Amy, came up to his room and helped him get his legs out of bed. Jeff was mentally and physically impaired from a car crash that happened many years ago.

“Do you want me to get you some breakfast?” Amy asked Jeff.

“You bet your sweet bippy I do!” responded Jeff happily.

“Alrighty I’ll go downstairs and cook something up, just hang loose. Anything in particular you want?”

“Eggs and bacon!”

“Oh, that’s a bummer, we’re all out of bacon.” responded Amy.

“Okay, I want toast.”

“Toast it is. Give me a few minutes.”

Joe pulled his Corvette into a parking garage in downtown Dallas, Texas. He pulled into a parking spot, got out and was assisted by two men in black suits. This was a daily thing for Joe, he didn’t want anybody random coming up and start blasting him with questions and pictures. They walked into a big building and were greeted by the receptionist, and headed upstairs to the top floor. When they reached the top floor, they were greeted by two more men in black suits and were walked into an office. The two men in black suits opened the doors for them, and inside were John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline. John F. Kennedy stood and shook Joe’s hand, and his wife gave him a slight hug and kissed him on both cheeks.

“How’s it hangin? Gimme some skin!” Joe said to Kennedy.

“Hey Joe, take a seat. I got something to tell ya.” said Kennedy.

“Right on, lay it on me.”

“I’ve got a mission for you. I need you to find out who’s been sending me these letters. I’ve been getting ransom letters with cut out letters from newspapers, with death threats and money requests. I usually get a lot of them, but these ones seem out of the ordinary. Think you can read some and see who’s making them?”

“You bet your sweet bippy I can. I’ll handle it boss.”

“Far out. I knew you’d be the man for the job.”

What Joe didn’t know, was that the ransom letters were fake, made by JFK. This was his way of getting back at Joe, because Kennedy knew that Joe was cheating on his wife with his own wife. Kennedy figured it out when his wife kept saying she was going on business dinners. He had some of his team on her tail and found out she would go to different hotels, and through the window they saw her and Joe in the same room. So Kennedy made up the ransom letters to get Joe into some trouble, and hopefully take care of him.

Joe skimmed through all of the ransom letters, confused by what some of them meant. He tried his best to make sense of some of the random words, but some of them were also in a different language. Joe peeled off in his Corvette and went back home to try and get some peace and quiet to figure out these letters. He made it back home and walked inside to his brother Jeff sitting on the couch.

“Hey Jeff! How’s it hangin?” Joe asked.

“Good,” responded Jeff, “I am hungry”

“I bet. I am as well, I’ll get to cookin’. Anything you want in particular?”

“No, just hungry for food.”

“Right on. I’ll cook up some chicken.”

Joe started up the grill on the back patio, while Jeff stayed inside and watched television. Jeff turned around to see if Joe was looking, and when he saw that he was pretty occupied with the grill, he got up and went to the bathroom. What nobody knew about Jeff was that he wasn’t actually mentally or physically impaired, anymore. He was for the first few months after his accident, but things started coming back to him after some physical therapy and taking a lot of medication. When his assistant isn’t around or is sleeping, he goes on runs and lifts weights in his free time. Jeff heard Joe start to come back in, and quickly rushed back to the couch.

After Joe and Jeff were done eating, Joe went into his office to read over the ransom letters. Still confused by what most of them meant, he put it off to the side for another day, thinking that they couldn’t be serious and thought the president was over reacting. All of the sudden, there was a knock at the door. He looked at the clock and it read just a little past five in the afternoon. He got up, and went to the door. He peeked out the window and saw the first lady standing in his doorway. He opened the door.

“Hi, what are you doing here? I thought we weren’t meeting until later?” said Joe.

“This is important. Can I come inside?”

“Sure.”

Joe let Jacqueline in his house, and offered her a drink. She refused, but insisted that they go into his office and talk. As they went in there, she looked out the window, closed the curtains and made sure the door was locked.

“What’s going on?” asked Joe.

“I think John is onto us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I overheard him talking about it in his office. I don’t think he knew I was there. He was talking about sending people after you because some of his private investigators saw us in that hotel room together. You might need to crash someplace else for a little bit until he calms down.”

“What about these ransom letters? I thought he needed me to take care of these.”

“They’re fake, Joe. He made them up. He thought you’d be able to figure them out and eventually on one of them it says to go to some place and that’s where one of his men will kill you. You seriously need to head out of here.”

But Joe had another thought. Maybe if he could take out the President, he wouldn’t have to worry about being taken out. But Joe put it aside for now, and just wanted to let things go with the flow. There was a big thing down at Dealey Plaza tomorrow in Dallas, and thought he would go to that to confront him.

The next day, Joe woke up and got ready for the big event. It was around noon when he got there, and there was already a huge crowd of people. As Joe tried to make his way through to talk to John, Jacqueline noticed him and shot him a look that said he shouldn’t go over there. So, Joe waited in the crowd and he was just going to talk to him after the whole thing was over. Then, at about half past noon, there was a loud gunshot. Everybody freaked out and dropped to the ground, and Joe looked up and saw the President in the back of the car, lifeless.

At the top floor of a building near Dealey Plaza, was Joe’s brother Jeff. He overheard Joe’s conversation in his office with Jacqueline, and knew he had to do something for his brother, no matter the consequences. He slowly, but surely, made his way down to the first floor of the building, with his hands up. At the bottom, the whole police squad was waiting for him. They put him in handcuffs, and forced him into the back of the car. Joe noticed this happening and approached the car.

“Jeff? What happened? You can’t put a disabled man in handcuffs!”

“Sir, he just shot the president.” said the officer driving the car.

“It’s true, Joe. I haven’t been disabled for a long time. I overheard your conversation, it was either him or you.”

Joe was experiencing so many emotions at one time. Shocked, angry, relieved, confused, he wasn’t sure what was even going on.

The police car took off to the station, and that was all that was ever heard of Jeff again.