The door to my parents' place was locked up tight. I ended up asking the uncle next door, and that's when I found out—my mom was downstairs playing cards, and my dad was hauling cement over at a nearby construction site.

I pretty much ran the whole way there.

At first, I didn't think much of the phone call yesterday. But then Dad kept repeating how the job wasn't hard at all, that he was just doing it to pass the time—that's when I started getting suspicious. My ...