July 10th, 2001:

Crazy Man’s is an abandoned sub-division. Legend has it that a building contract company started to build houses and pave roads for a sub-division called BrookStone. They built a nice pond and a clock tower. A nice brick wall was starting to go up. All the roads were paved, and a few houses had the foundations poured. Then, one night, a man wandered into a nearby house and brutally slaughtered the entire family living there with a pitchfork. The building company was so scared that no one would purchase the houses that they abandoned the project all together. Legend tells of a wooden bridge, at which, should you stop your car and turn off the engine at midnite, it will not start again. Crazy Man is said to wander the abandoned sub-division. Most of his activities are centered around the Clock Tower.

Back when I was in high school, the roads into the sub-division were not blocked to public access. On weekends we would go out there late at night and goof around, climbing the clock tower, or trying fruitlessly to find the bridge. One time, about three years ago, we ventured out there during the day. We found an abandoned house on the outskirts of the BrookStone sub-division. After much discussion, we wandered inside.

Whomever lived there left in a hurry. All of her personal items were still there: clothing, food, toiletries. Although the wind had moved things around, and busted out several windows, it was pretty obvious to us that whomever lived there left and didn’t bother packing. We found opened and unopened mail, large posters campaigning for the position of mayor of Denton county, and thousands of 3×5 index cards with journal entries neatly typed on each of them. We collected many of them, picking them up from outside and off the floor as the wind had tossed everything so badly. I believe my brother still has everything in a box somewhere.

After our little adventure, we went home. Jaclyn and I were meeting my mom at a bowling alley to celebrate my birthday. My mom and Dad, my aunt Melba, my cousin Alex, my sister, her boyfriend, my brother and his girlfriend were all supposed to meet there. We left my apartment around 4:30pm and headed over to Jaclyn’s place so she could change clothes. We made it to the bowling alley around 5:30pm.

I walked inside, Jaclyn just behind me, looking for my parents. I started to go off one way and I heard a whistle behind me. I turned around and saw my dad and Mom. As I was walking over there I turned around to see where Jaclyn was. As I turned around I hear a giant “SURPRISE!”. I turn back around to see EVERYONE, and I do mean EVERYONE sitting all around where my Dad was when I first saw him. I can’t believe I didn’t notice them.

I believe my exact words were, “Woah!”.

I am still in shock at how manipulated I was to do exactly what my mom and Jaclyn wanted me to do in order to make the surprise party work out perfectly. I guess I am not very observant when I don’t feel there is anything to observe.

Truly, it was a wonderful time. I was very touched that so many people showed up, some who drove an hour or more just to wish me a happy birthday. It is also amazing that Jaclyn and my mom would go through so much to make this happen. Even more incredible than that is the fact that none of the people invited killed Jaclyn due to her constant worrying and checking-up, nor did they tell me.

I hope I am not missing anyone, but here is the list of those who attended: