A writing experiment


Randall Maverick – Photographer    handsome-tall-dark hair

  • married-no children
  • wife helps in photography business
  • difficult childhood - father an alcoholic
  • 4 brothers, 2 sisters - he is the oldest
  • embarrassed and ashamed of his father
  • very poor-father spent a lot of his paycheck on alcohol and the family suffered
  • looked down upon and ridiculed in school


He has a BIG secret - he is in the witness protection program - he was a drug dealer turned informant for the government in Miami.
He and his wife were relocated to Reno City with new identities. 

 
New Year's Resolution

 A common practice for many people is to make New Year’s resolutions. Randall had followed that tradition over the years and most of them fell by the wayside after a short time. This year Randall decided to make a resolution again, but this time would be very different than past years.  He knew he would persist until he achieved it. This resolution isn’t simply to lose weight, spend more time with family or any other common resolutions he had made in the past.

 He had only been in Reno City 8 months, but was fed up with living in this small boring town with all its boring people and living on a small income.  This was going to change. He had to do something, he couldn’t keep living this way.

His resolution is to make a large sum of money so he can relocate to another area in a larger city where the sidewalks don’t fold up at six o’clock. He wasn’t sure yet how he was going to make this happen, but his past kept coming to mind . . . he was very skilled in dealing drugs.

 

  

Reno City Gala

Life in Miami had been very different for Randall and Jenna, obviously. The Witness Protection Program doesn’t give the option of choosing the city for relocation and they certainly would have never chosen Reno City.   

They had a great social life in Miami with lots of friends and plenty of money. The Witness Protection Program provides a stipend for about 6 months and then you are expected to have found work and the stipend ends.  Randall was a photographer in Miami so had set up a photography business in Reno City, but the income from the business is nowhere near what it was in Miami. Jenna helps in the business and therefore provides no additional income source. 

Jobs from weddings, school pictures and sports team pictures is their main source of business. They have some general friends, but avoid getting into deep relationships for fear of probing questions or letting information slip about their former lives. 

Reno City is planning a gala to raise money for a new community center. Randall isn’t really interested in attending, but there is a certain expectation as a town business owner to make a monetary contribution as well as participating in putting on the gala. Jenna has been attending the planning committee meetings.  Randall will help with the setup the day of the gala.

Who He Is: Randall Maverick

Christmas with Randall

Christmas is always a difficult time for Randall and his wife Jenna. Being in the Witness Protection Program cuts all ties with family and friends. Christmas is a time of joy and family gatherings, but they have none of that. 

Randall and Jenna had to make up lies about their family to explain why no family ever came to visit, especially at Christmas. Their story was that both sets of parents had passed away and Jenna was an only child so had no siblings or nieces or nephews. Uncles and aunts were vaguely mentioned. 

Randall’s story was that he had two brothers who both lived in New York City and a sister who had been killed in a car accident as a teenager. For Randall to also be an only child might seem a little unlikely.  

Christmas brings up memories and longing for their families they will never see again. Randall had actually come from a family of four brothers and two sisters. Two of his brothers were no longer living, one having died of a drug overdose and the other from a heart attack. He hadn’t seen one of his sisters in years. Donna had left home at 16 years old because of their volatile home life and cut ties with the family. All he knew was she lived in St. Louis and was married with two children. Occasionally he would get a short letter from her. 

His two living brothers, David and Chris, still lived in Miami where Randall and Jenna had lived before being relocated. His sister Sheila still lived in Miami as well and the four siblings were very close. He missed them as well as his nieces and nephews. His family had suspected he was dealing in drugs, but turned their heads as if it weren’t true. He had a lucrative photography business in Miami so they chose to only look at him in that light. 

Jenna had one sister, a twin, and they were very close. Her sister Deanna had two young children whom she loved as her own – and she would never see them grow up. 

Randall and Jenna often wondered what their family thought had happened to them. Randall’s family most likely thought he had been killed by a drug deal gone bad or vanished to get away from the drug lords he had worked for. 

Jenna knew her sister was heartbroken at her mysterious disappearance and her little niece and nephew wouldn’t understand why Aunt Jenna didn’t come to visit anymore. Deanna knew about Randall’s drug connections and perhaps came to the conclusion that her sister and her husband disappeared due to something related to the drug world. 

“So, Jenna, what will Christmas be this year?” Randall asked.

“Well, last year we stayed home and watched Christmas movies. How about this year we take a little trip somewhere?” said Jenna. 

So it was decided. They drove to Hot Springs, Arkansas for a relaxing getaway where they didn’t always have to be careful what they said or answer any probing questions.