Week 13: Current Events
Excerpted from EPA Report #30347-JX-19:
Verraro Property, Pleasant Oaks Township
EPA report
The Anthony Verraro property is 25 acres in unincorporated Bear County near the Village of Pleasant Oaks (see map attached). Public records show that Mr. Verraro has been illegally receiving waste material including toxic substances at his property since the early 1970s, and Bear County as well as state and federal agencies have pursued legal actions against Mr. Verraro since that time. Although the judgment of multiple courts determined that Mr. Verraro should remove various waste materials and adhere to the environmental guidelines, zoning ordinances and state laws regulating permitting of landfills, the problem continues.
The state EPA performed surveillance confirming that Mr. Verraro was indeed allowing trucks hauling various waste materials to dump on his property, in violation of state and federal environmental protection laws. Such materials have included unused materials from nearby construction sites, excess waste from various nearby auto repair businesses, and most disturbingly, unspecified materials from Xenogen Research, located approximately fifteen minutes away. Mr. Verraro has been observed taking money from parties dumping material on his grounds, in direct violation of state and federal statutes concerning the disposal of such substances.
Extensive litigation has taken place relative to this site, which Mr. Verraro has successfully fought with the aid of his legal representation, Crocker & Blackmon, P.C. The state EPA is currently mounting a new case against Mr. Verraro, which is expected to be completed in 18 months.
Dear Diary,
Me and mom and dad just got back from the hospital, but Ginny's still there.
We shouldn't of gone there. I know it. But Ginny wanted to go see old man Verraro's junk heap, and when I said mom wouldn't like it, she called me a little baby again. I HATE it when she does that.
So after school, we told mom we were gonna play in the woods out back, and she believed us. We even headed into the woods, so she could see us from the kitchen window. But once we got out of sight, Ginny led us right to the fence that marks old man Verraro's land from ours.
She held up the wire and looked at me. "C'mon, baby," she said, with that look she gets. I went in.
There wasn't too much to see at first, just lots of the same kind of trees we have. But there was sort of a little trail Ginny found, and we followed it. There were lots of mosquitoes, and a really nasty smell. Then the trail turned a corner and we saw it.
It was huge pile of junk! All kinds of stuff: old refrigerators and stoves, doors, a rusted out car, bags of garbage, scraps of lumber, all in this big pile about thirty feet high. And it wasn't the only pile, there were lots of others just like it.
It was cool. It was scary. I started climbing on the pile.
Ginny climbed a little, too. Then she began pulling at the lid of this one big rusty barrel near the bottom of everything.
"What do you think's in here?" she asked.
"I dunno. Maybe something that'll make you stink less?"
"Oh, real mature, baby, you're the one climbing on a pile of garbage."
"I TOLD you, don't call me--"
I didn't say "baby" because I something shifted under my foot, and then I was sliding backwards, tumbling, and all this garbage started chasing me. There was a huge THUD in my head, like the entire earth shook at once, and then I was laying on my back, looking at the sky.
I don't know how long I lay there. Some big refrigerator had landed on top of my legs; it didn't hurt, but I couldn't move. There was a pain on top of my head; I put a hand up there and when I pulled it back it was covered in blood. I screamed.
"GINNY!!"
I called a bunch of times, but she didn't come. After a minute I wriggled over enough to see where she was. She was next to that same barrel; there were a whole bunch of them, all the same, that had "Xenogen" painted on them. Some of the garbage that came off the pile had knocked one over, and the lid came off, and a big puddle of this grey stuff leaked out. Something that came off the pile must of hit her on the head, because she was laying face down in the puddle.
"Ginny...wake up! Help me!" She didn't move.
I don't remember how I got the refrigerator off me. When I did, my ankle hurt, but I went over to Ginny as fast as I could and rolled her out of the puddle. I shook her; she wasn't breathing. I ran back home and got mom. I thought she'd be mad, but she just followed me to Ginny and called someone on her cell phone when she saw her. They came and took us to the hospital. I needed stitches in my head; they said Ginny had gotten some stuff into her stomach and her lungs, and they didn't know what it was.
But they said she was strong and should get better, even though she hadn't woken up yet. Dad had come to the hospital and said we should go home for the night.
They haven't even punished me for going over there.
I hope Ginny will be alright.
From the website of Crocker & Blackmon, Attorneys At Law:
Sidney Crocker takes on State Attorney General and the Environmental Protection Agency. Client cleared of all charges.
The People v. Anthony Verraro is a landmark case in environmental litigation, and one of the most significant triumphs of Sidney Crocker's long career. (NOTE: Mr. Verraro's name has not been removed due to the well-publicized nature of the case.)
Verraro had plans to develop his property for business purposes, but his neighbors, concerned about their property values, did not want him to change the land, and took Verraro to court. After they were unsuccessful, the State Attorney General took up the case, and Verraro asked Sidney Crocker to represent him in court.
The case wound through the courts for more than two years, with Sidney Crocker appearing on his client's behalf, facing the Attorney General and several prosecutors. Sidney Crocker filed numerous motions on his client's behalf, demanding full disclosure of the evidence.
On June 18th, Sidney Crocker stood before twelve jurors and made his closing argument. He explained how Verraro embodied the American entrepreneurial spirit, and that he was a victim of greed. "Every one you have seen come up here and speak for the defense, you have to ask yourself: 'Do they personally gain from abridging Mr. Verraro's rights as a citizen?'. If the answer is yes, then you know what you must do."
After two days of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict: Mr. Verraro was not guilty on all counts.
Dear Diary,
Ginny told me she had something to show me today.
I didn't know what to think. She almost never talks to me anymore. Never talks to any of us.
I think she's stupid. I never want to be like her. She's fifteen, but she acts like she's twenty-five or something. Her hair's all black, because she dyed it that way, and she wears those stupid black jeans and black boots. I tell her she's going to get run over at night because nobody will be able to see her when she walks home along Oakfield Blacktop after getting her high-school friends to drop her off at one in the morning.
But she doesn't listen. She just tells me to stop being a baby and lights up a cigarette.
But today she didn't call me a baby, just told me to come outside.
Mom doesn't like us going out back anymore, ever since we went on old man Verraro's property two years ago. She watches us like a hawk. This time, when she told us not to go, Ginny swore we were just going to the old treehouse. Mom rolled her eyes, but said it was okay. I was glad; usually nowadays, whenever Ginny doesn't get her way, she says something that makes mom cry.
I figured we weren't really going to the treehouse, so I was surprised when she went right there. We hadn't used it in a long time; we kind of left it one summer when hornets built a nest in it, and we never went back.
There weren't any hornets anymore, but there was lots of warped wood and the smell of dead leaves. We climbed into the loft, and she shut the trap door.
We just sat there quiet for a few minutes, me on a crate we'd hauled up there years ago, she huddled against the wall, wrapping her arms around her legs. She lit a cigarette.
I couldn't stand it. "So what'd you wanna come out here for?"
She glared at me. "You want to go back to your XBox?"
"Beats being out here in the stupid heat."
"I can turn invisible." She said it just like that, no warning.
I thought she was joking, so I tried to joke back. "No shit. You disappear whenever mom wants you to do the dishes--"
"No, I mean really. I really can turn invisible."
"What do you--"
"Watch."
She held out her right hand, and stared at it really hard. And gradually, like a movie screen fading to black, it just...faded away. It disappeared.
I shook my head. "How did you..."
"Shhh..." she held her finger to her lips. She pulled her cigarette from her mouth; at least she must have, because it disappeared. Then she unfolded her invisible fingers and it was floating in midair, a little wisp of smoke rising from it.
Then she stared at her hand, or at where it must be, and concentrated again, and it became visible.
We were quiet for ten whole seconds. "Whoa!" I said, "that's awesome!!" She grinned a little and stubbed out the cigarette. "That's cool! How long have you been doing this? Can you do more than your hand? Can I--"
Without warning, she leaned over and threw up. Violently. It went on for minutes, and when she was done she began shivering, curled up in a ball on the floor of the treehouse. By that time, I was over her, calling her name, wondering what I should do.
Eventually, she managed to sit up, still clinging to herself. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "I've been like this since we went over to old man Verraro's that one time. You remember what happened afterwards?"
I nodded. She didn't wake up in the hospital for a whole week; we wondered if she'd ever wake up. And then these men showed up, and said they could help her, but they needed to take her away for a while. Mom said they worked for the government.
Dad didn't have good health insurance or anything. So mom and dad agreed. And they took Ginny away.
And then three months later, she came back, and she seemed fine. But she wouldn't talk about what had happened there, and after a while mom said I couldn't ask.
It was after she came back that she started dressing in black and fighting with mom.
"They did stuff to me there," she said now. "Tests and things. They stuck things in places..." She shook her head, hard. "I don't ever want go back there again. Not ever."
"So you've been able to do this ever since?"
She shook her head. "No. It was about a year after before I figured out how. I'd had a fight with mom. I was sitting in my room, wishing I could turn invisible, thinking about what it would be like. And then...I just was invisible. Just like that."
I thought about how many times money had gone missing from mom's purse this past year; how many times we'd looked for Ginny and she wasn't there. "So...you've been doing it all this time?"
"Yeah."
"Then...why are you telling me now?"
She put a hand over her eyes and rubbed them. "At first it was easy. I could do a part of me, or my whole body, or whatever. And I could come back when I wanted. But now...now, when I want to come back, it's hard. It hurts. It's like tensing a muscle for a long time. Sometimes it's so hard, I can't turn back to being visible right away. I have to wait a few hours, build up my strength. And every time I come back, I get sick now."
"Then don't do it anymore." I was scared of losing my sister.
"You don't understand..."
"What? It seems pretty simple to me--"
"No it isn't!" she shouted. "I'm...I'm telling you because...I need to tell somebody."
"Then tell me. Tell mom. Tell mom and dad both. They'll try to help, they'll--"
"I'm not telling them. They'll just make me go back. Make me do more tests."
"But maybe--"
"I'm not going back!! You hear me?!"
Her voice echoed in the glen, but no one came to see what she was shouting about. Finally, I asked, "Then why are you telling ME?"
Ginny rubbed her eyes again. "I'm scared, lil' bro. This morning...I woke up and--and I was invisible. I didn't make myself invisible. I just was."
"That's why mom couldn't find you?" She nodded.
"I'm scared, Danny. What if I turn invisible...and I can't come back at all?"
For the first time in two years, I saw my sister cry. I put my arms around her, and she didn't draw back.
SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT
CASE NO. 2,131,587
Plaintiff's name(s): Anthony Verraro
v.
Defendant's name(s): Franklin and Julia Rawson
NOTICE TO THE DEFENDANT:
1. You are being sued.
2. You have 21 days after receiving this summons to file a written answer with the court and serve a copy on the other or take other lawful action with the court.
3. If you do not answer or take other action within the time allowed, judgement may be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.
COMPLAINT:
On the date listed below, the children of the defendants, Ginerva and Daniel Rawson, did enter the private property of the plaintiff, violating state and county statutes against trespassing and causing grievous legal and emotional damage to the plaintiff. The plaintiff seeks damages of $250,000 dollars plus legal fees.
[This document must be sealed by the seal of the court.]
Dear Diary,
Tonight dad cried in front of mom.
He didn't know we were listening. We were at the top of the steps, eavesdropping on them.
We knew the case against old fart Verraro wasn't going well. Dad couldn't afford a good lawyer, and we could never afford to pay the fine if we lost.
His lawyer, the only one we could get, told him how close we were to losing. After all, Ginny and I really DID trespass onto old fart Verraro's property back then. There was no way to pretend we didn't.
Listening tonight, sitting on the steps, Ginny clenched her fists. No matter how angry she gets with mom and dad, I know she loves them.
And she was the one who got us to break the law.
As dad broke down and told mom what he was afraid of, how scared he was that our family was over, I could tell how close Ginny was to crying. "Someone has to do something," she whispered. And she got up and went back to her room.
From the Bear County Register, Obituaries
Anthony J. Verraro, businessman
Anthony J. Verraro, an entrepreneur who attempted to establish a waste disposal business on his property, died Sunday at Frye Memorial Hospital of brain trauma after a fall down the stairs in his home. He was 62.
He was born and raised in Bear County, and graduated from Oakland High School. After serving with honors in Vietnam, he returned and purchased 25 acres in unincorporated Bear County, near Pleasant Oaks Township. Mr. Verraro never married.
His death has been ruled an accident by the police.
Dear Diary,
They buried old man Verraro today.
We didn't go to the funeral. Mom and dad's lawyer says that Mr. Verraro's case against them will probably be dropped. But I'm not sure if they even care, because they're so worried about Ginny.
No one has seen her for a month. Not since we sat on the stairs listening to dad cry.
Mom and dad asked me if I knew anything about Ginny. And it had been three days, and I was worried, so I told them. I told them about what Ginny had told me in the treehouse. Mom got mad and shouted at me not to make up stories; dad told me to go to my room.
Now the cops are looking for her, but they aren't finding anything. Mom and dad are talking about hiring a private investigator, but they don't know if they can afford one. The lawyer is trying to find someone for them.
Nobody's asked me anything about it since. But I wonder about stuff.
I remember how Ginny said someone needed to do something. I wonder if she really hated mom and dad. I think, underneath it all, she really didn't.
I think about what she showed me. And I wonder if old man Verraro really fell down the stairs by accident.
And I remember how scared she was when she showed me what she could do. How she said it was getting harder to come back each time. And I wonder about what really happened to her.
I love my sister. I hope she's okay.
Excerpted From the Bear County Register, Page 1C
Locals Rejoice Over End of Illegal Dump
By Joyce Barr, staff reporter
With a mighty cheer, a large crowd gathered as the last dump trucks vacated the site of a sprawling, illegal dump that they had complained about for decades now. The property belonged to Anthony Verraro, who died in a home accident six months ago. His dumping ground was the subject of an ongoing EPA investigation.
Deputy J.T. Marshall of the Bear County Police was on hand to manage the crowd. "It's always good to see justice served," he told reporters.
Several of the neighbors on hand seemed to agree. "He was just an awful man," said Marjorie Helmsman, who lived across the street. "We're so glad that his land is finally getting cleaned up."
One group who was notably subdued was the Rawson family, Mr. Verraro's next door neighbors. Their daughter Ginerva has been the subject of an ongoing missing person investigation.
They declined to answer questions regarding the investigation. Deputy Marshall said, "It's a shame for them. No one has seen their little girl for six months, you know."
This story was inspired by the events concerning John Tarkowski, whose property was the subject of an EPA cleanup: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-barrington-dump-cleanup-20120204,0,5220000.story.
However, this story is a work of complete fiction, and all events imposed on the story of Mr. Tarkowski are entirely the product of the author's imagination. Note that the following pages related to the Tarkowski case also provided inspiration:
http://www.epa.state.il.us/community-relations/fact-sheets/tarkowski-property/tarkowski-property-1.html
http://www.cookcountycriminallawyer.com/lake-county-illinois-attorney-general.html
Verraro Property, Pleasant Oaks Township
EPA report
The Anthony Verraro property is 25 acres in unincorporated Bear County near the Village of Pleasant Oaks (see map attached). Public records show that Mr. Verraro has been illegally receiving waste material including toxic substances at his property since the early 1970s, and Bear County as well as state and federal agencies have pursued legal actions against Mr. Verraro since that time. Although the judgment of multiple courts determined that Mr. Verraro should remove various waste materials and adhere to the environmental guidelines, zoning ordinances and state laws regulating permitting of landfills, the problem continues.
The state EPA performed surveillance confirming that Mr. Verraro was indeed allowing trucks hauling various waste materials to dump on his property, in violation of state and federal environmental protection laws. Such materials have included unused materials from nearby construction sites, excess waste from various nearby auto repair businesses, and most disturbingly, unspecified materials from Xenogen Research, located approximately fifteen minutes away. Mr. Verraro has been observed taking money from parties dumping material on his grounds, in direct violation of state and federal statutes concerning the disposal of such substances.
Extensive litigation has taken place relative to this site, which Mr. Verraro has successfully fought with the aid of his legal representation, Crocker & Blackmon, P.C. The state EPA is currently mounting a new case against Mr. Verraro, which is expected to be completed in 18 months.
Dear Diary,
Me and mom and dad just got back from the hospital, but Ginny's still there.
We shouldn't of gone there. I know it. But Ginny wanted to go see old man Verraro's junk heap, and when I said mom wouldn't like it, she called me a little baby again. I HATE it when she does that.
So after school, we told mom we were gonna play in the woods out back, and she believed us. We even headed into the woods, so she could see us from the kitchen window. But once we got out of sight, Ginny led us right to the fence that marks old man Verraro's land from ours.
She held up the wire and looked at me. "C'mon, baby," she said, with that look she gets. I went in.
There wasn't too much to see at first, just lots of the same kind of trees we have. But there was sort of a little trail Ginny found, and we followed it. There were lots of mosquitoes, and a really nasty smell. Then the trail turned a corner and we saw it.
It was huge pile of junk! All kinds of stuff: old refrigerators and stoves, doors, a rusted out car, bags of garbage, scraps of lumber, all in this big pile about thirty feet high. And it wasn't the only pile, there were lots of others just like it.
It was cool. It was scary. I started climbing on the pile.
Ginny climbed a little, too. Then she began pulling at the lid of this one big rusty barrel near the bottom of everything.
"What do you think's in here?" she asked.
"I dunno. Maybe something that'll make you stink less?"
"Oh, real mature, baby, you're the one climbing on a pile of garbage."
"I TOLD you, don't call me--"
I didn't say "baby" because I something shifted under my foot, and then I was sliding backwards, tumbling, and all this garbage started chasing me. There was a huge THUD in my head, like the entire earth shook at once, and then I was laying on my back, looking at the sky.
I don't know how long I lay there. Some big refrigerator had landed on top of my legs; it didn't hurt, but I couldn't move. There was a pain on top of my head; I put a hand up there and when I pulled it back it was covered in blood. I screamed.
"GINNY!!"
I called a bunch of times, but she didn't come. After a minute I wriggled over enough to see where she was. She was next to that same barrel; there were a whole bunch of them, all the same, that had "Xenogen" painted on them. Some of the garbage that came off the pile had knocked one over, and the lid came off, and a big puddle of this grey stuff leaked out. Something that came off the pile must of hit her on the head, because she was laying face down in the puddle.
"Ginny...wake up! Help me!" She didn't move.
I don't remember how I got the refrigerator off me. When I did, my ankle hurt, but I went over to Ginny as fast as I could and rolled her out of the puddle. I shook her; she wasn't breathing. I ran back home and got mom. I thought she'd be mad, but she just followed me to Ginny and called someone on her cell phone when she saw her. They came and took us to the hospital. I needed stitches in my head; they said Ginny had gotten some stuff into her stomach and her lungs, and they didn't know what it was.
But they said she was strong and should get better, even though she hadn't woken up yet. Dad had come to the hospital and said we should go home for the night.
They haven't even punished me for going over there.
I hope Ginny will be alright.
From the website of Crocker & Blackmon, Attorneys At Law:
Sidney Crocker takes on State Attorney General and the Environmental Protection Agency. Client cleared of all charges.
The People v. Anthony Verraro is a landmark case in environmental litigation, and one of the most significant triumphs of Sidney Crocker's long career. (NOTE: Mr. Verraro's name has not been removed due to the well-publicized nature of the case.)
Verraro had plans to develop his property for business purposes, but his neighbors, concerned about their property values, did not want him to change the land, and took Verraro to court. After they were unsuccessful, the State Attorney General took up the case, and Verraro asked Sidney Crocker to represent him in court.
The case wound through the courts for more than two years, with Sidney Crocker appearing on his client's behalf, facing the Attorney General and several prosecutors. Sidney Crocker filed numerous motions on his client's behalf, demanding full disclosure of the evidence.
On June 18th, Sidney Crocker stood before twelve jurors and made his closing argument. He explained how Verraro embodied the American entrepreneurial spirit, and that he was a victim of greed. "Every one you have seen come up here and speak for the defense, you have to ask yourself: 'Do they personally gain from abridging Mr. Verraro's rights as a citizen?'. If the answer is yes, then you know what you must do."
After two days of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict: Mr. Verraro was not guilty on all counts.
Dear Diary,
Ginny told me she had something to show me today.
I didn't know what to think. She almost never talks to me anymore. Never talks to any of us.
I think she's stupid. I never want to be like her. She's fifteen, but she acts like she's twenty-five or something. Her hair's all black, because she dyed it that way, and she wears those stupid black jeans and black boots. I tell her she's going to get run over at night because nobody will be able to see her when she walks home along Oakfield Blacktop after getting her high-school friends to drop her off at one in the morning.
But she doesn't listen. She just tells me to stop being a baby and lights up a cigarette.
But today she didn't call me a baby, just told me to come outside.
Mom doesn't like us going out back anymore, ever since we went on old man Verraro's property two years ago. She watches us like a hawk. This time, when she told us not to go, Ginny swore we were just going to the old treehouse. Mom rolled her eyes, but said it was okay. I was glad; usually nowadays, whenever Ginny doesn't get her way, she says something that makes mom cry.
I figured we weren't really going to the treehouse, so I was surprised when she went right there. We hadn't used it in a long time; we kind of left it one summer when hornets built a nest in it, and we never went back.
There weren't any hornets anymore, but there was lots of warped wood and the smell of dead leaves. We climbed into the loft, and she shut the trap door.
We just sat there quiet for a few minutes, me on a crate we'd hauled up there years ago, she huddled against the wall, wrapping her arms around her legs. She lit a cigarette.
I couldn't stand it. "So what'd you wanna come out here for?"
She glared at me. "You want to go back to your XBox?"
"Beats being out here in the stupid heat."
"I can turn invisible." She said it just like that, no warning.
I thought she was joking, so I tried to joke back. "No shit. You disappear whenever mom wants you to do the dishes--"
"No, I mean really. I really can turn invisible."
"What do you--"
"Watch."
She held out her right hand, and stared at it really hard. And gradually, like a movie screen fading to black, it just...faded away. It disappeared.
I shook my head. "How did you..."
"Shhh..." she held her finger to her lips. She pulled her cigarette from her mouth; at least she must have, because it disappeared. Then she unfolded her invisible fingers and it was floating in midair, a little wisp of smoke rising from it.
Then she stared at her hand, or at where it must be, and concentrated again, and it became visible.
We were quiet for ten whole seconds. "Whoa!" I said, "that's awesome!!" She grinned a little and stubbed out the cigarette. "That's cool! How long have you been doing this? Can you do more than your hand? Can I--"
Without warning, she leaned over and threw up. Violently. It went on for minutes, and when she was done she began shivering, curled up in a ball on the floor of the treehouse. By that time, I was over her, calling her name, wondering what I should do.
Eventually, she managed to sit up, still clinging to herself. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "I've been like this since we went over to old man Verraro's that one time. You remember what happened afterwards?"
I nodded. She didn't wake up in the hospital for a whole week; we wondered if she'd ever wake up. And then these men showed up, and said they could help her, but they needed to take her away for a while. Mom said they worked for the government.
Dad didn't have good health insurance or anything. So mom and dad agreed. And they took Ginny away.
And then three months later, she came back, and she seemed fine. But she wouldn't talk about what had happened there, and after a while mom said I couldn't ask.
It was after she came back that she started dressing in black and fighting with mom.
"They did stuff to me there," she said now. "Tests and things. They stuck things in places..." She shook her head, hard. "I don't ever want go back there again. Not ever."
"So you've been able to do this ever since?"
She shook her head. "No. It was about a year after before I figured out how. I'd had a fight with mom. I was sitting in my room, wishing I could turn invisible, thinking about what it would be like. And then...I just was invisible. Just like that."
I thought about how many times money had gone missing from mom's purse this past year; how many times we'd looked for Ginny and she wasn't there. "So...you've been doing it all this time?"
"Yeah."
"Then...why are you telling me now?"
She put a hand over her eyes and rubbed them. "At first it was easy. I could do a part of me, or my whole body, or whatever. And I could come back when I wanted. But now...now, when I want to come back, it's hard. It hurts. It's like tensing a muscle for a long time. Sometimes it's so hard, I can't turn back to being visible right away. I have to wait a few hours, build up my strength. And every time I come back, I get sick now."
"Then don't do it anymore." I was scared of losing my sister.
"You don't understand..."
"What? It seems pretty simple to me--"
"No it isn't!" she shouted. "I'm...I'm telling you because...I need to tell somebody."
"Then tell me. Tell mom. Tell mom and dad both. They'll try to help, they'll--"
"I'm not telling them. They'll just make me go back. Make me do more tests."
"But maybe--"
"I'm not going back!! You hear me?!"
Her voice echoed in the glen, but no one came to see what she was shouting about. Finally, I asked, "Then why are you telling ME?"
Ginny rubbed her eyes again. "I'm scared, lil' bro. This morning...I woke up and--and I was invisible. I didn't make myself invisible. I just was."
"That's why mom couldn't find you?" She nodded.
"I'm scared, Danny. What if I turn invisible...and I can't come back at all?"
For the first time in two years, I saw my sister cry. I put my arms around her, and she didn't draw back.
SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT
CASE NO. 2,131,587
Plaintiff's name(s): Anthony Verraro
v.
Defendant's name(s): Franklin and Julia Rawson
NOTICE TO THE DEFENDANT:
1. You are being sued.
2. You have 21 days after receiving this summons to file a written answer with the court and serve a copy on the other or take other lawful action with the court.
3. If you do not answer or take other action within the time allowed, judgement may be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.
COMPLAINT:
On the date listed below, the children of the defendants, Ginerva and Daniel Rawson, did enter the private property of the plaintiff, violating state and county statutes against trespassing and causing grievous legal and emotional damage to the plaintiff. The plaintiff seeks damages of $250,000 dollars plus legal fees.
[This document must be sealed by the seal of the court.]
Dear Diary,
Tonight dad cried in front of mom.
He didn't know we were listening. We were at the top of the steps, eavesdropping on them.
We knew the case against old fart Verraro wasn't going well. Dad couldn't afford a good lawyer, and we could never afford to pay the fine if we lost.
His lawyer, the only one we could get, told him how close we were to losing. After all, Ginny and I really DID trespass onto old fart Verraro's property back then. There was no way to pretend we didn't.
Listening tonight, sitting on the steps, Ginny clenched her fists. No matter how angry she gets with mom and dad, I know she loves them.
And she was the one who got us to break the law.
As dad broke down and told mom what he was afraid of, how scared he was that our family was over, I could tell how close Ginny was to crying. "Someone has to do something," she whispered. And she got up and went back to her room.
From the Bear County Register, Obituaries
Anthony J. Verraro, businessman
Anthony J. Verraro, an entrepreneur who attempted to establish a waste disposal business on his property, died Sunday at Frye Memorial Hospital of brain trauma after a fall down the stairs in his home. He was 62.
He was born and raised in Bear County, and graduated from Oakland High School. After serving with honors in Vietnam, he returned and purchased 25 acres in unincorporated Bear County, near Pleasant Oaks Township. Mr. Verraro never married.
His death has been ruled an accident by the police.
Dear Diary,
They buried old man Verraro today.
We didn't go to the funeral. Mom and dad's lawyer says that Mr. Verraro's case against them will probably be dropped. But I'm not sure if they even care, because they're so worried about Ginny.
No one has seen her for a month. Not since we sat on the stairs listening to dad cry.
Mom and dad asked me if I knew anything about Ginny. And it had been three days, and I was worried, so I told them. I told them about what Ginny had told me in the treehouse. Mom got mad and shouted at me not to make up stories; dad told me to go to my room.
Now the cops are looking for her, but they aren't finding anything. Mom and dad are talking about hiring a private investigator, but they don't know if they can afford one. The lawyer is trying to find someone for them.
Nobody's asked me anything about it since. But I wonder about stuff.
I remember how Ginny said someone needed to do something. I wonder if she really hated mom and dad. I think, underneath it all, she really didn't.
I think about what she showed me. And I wonder if old man Verraro really fell down the stairs by accident.
And I remember how scared she was when she showed me what she could do. How she said it was getting harder to come back each time. And I wonder about what really happened to her.
I love my sister. I hope she's okay.
Excerpted From the Bear County Register, Page 1C
Locals Rejoice Over End of Illegal Dump
By Joyce Barr, staff reporter
With a mighty cheer, a large crowd gathered as the last dump trucks vacated the site of a sprawling, illegal dump that they had complained about for decades now. The property belonged to Anthony Verraro, who died in a home accident six months ago. His dumping ground was the subject of an ongoing EPA investigation.
Deputy J.T. Marshall of the Bear County Police was on hand to manage the crowd. "It's always good to see justice served," he told reporters.
Several of the neighbors on hand seemed to agree. "He was just an awful man," said Marjorie Helmsman, who lived across the street. "We're so glad that his land is finally getting cleaned up."
One group who was notably subdued was the Rawson family, Mr. Verraro's next door neighbors. Their daughter Ginerva has been the subject of an ongoing missing person investigation.
They declined to answer questions regarding the investigation. Deputy Marshall said, "It's a shame for them. No one has seen their little girl for six months, you know."
This story was inspired by the events concerning John Tarkowski, whose property was the subject of an EPA cleanup: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-barrington-dump-cleanup-20120204,0,5220000.story.
However, this story is a work of complete fiction, and all events imposed on the story of Mr. Tarkowski are entirely the product of the author's imagination. Note that the following pages related to the Tarkowski case also provided inspiration:
http://www.epa.state.il.us/community-relations/fact-sheets/tarkowski-property/tarkowski-property-1.html
http://www.cookcountycriminallawyer.com/lake-county-illinois-attorney-general.html