Note: This story came from the original version of the McCarey Files," and decided to make it separate. A former employee came up with the title.

Fred saw a train station five miles close by. He walked five more miles. He saw a bathroom near him, put his suitcase down in the stall and thought about going on a train and go as far as the train could take him. He had been away from Kylie’s house for over ten hours so far. He walked out of the men’s room, had his suitcase in his right hand and asked for a ticket for the train. Kylie is his niece and happens to be a lawyer.

“Where are you going?” the man asked Fred.

“I don’t care, as long as the train takes me,” Fred said in a sad voice.

He got on the train and waited for the ride to begin. Kylie and the family put posters of Fred all over the neighborhood and everywhere in town so if anybody had seen him.

“Are you still thinking of suicide, Kylie?” Hank asked her.

Hank happens to be her daughter Daphne’s husband.

“Yes, Hank. If the police don’t find him soon, he would have been dead or something,” Kylie said.

Patsy saw the flyer of Fred by the office when her lunch break was over. She is Kylie’s secretary. Even she does a good job and everyone who comes as clients like her.

“Gosh, they are busy with this search,” Patsy told herself, helping her boss worry about her uncle’s disappearance.

People had heard that Fred committed suicide in Milwaukee, even passengers on the train. They had thought it was the same Fred from the gang with Scooby Doo and another Fred who died in a coma Sunday night, but it was the other way around. One of the passengers reported it to the officer in charge of the train that they had seen Fred in the car. He reported it to the station about the suicide. She answered the phone herself.

After getting off the phone with the Louisiana police, she was excited.

“Guess what! Guess what!” she said to the family members who were present.

“What?” they said at the same time.

“The police found Uncle Fred!” Kylie said with a smile on her face.

“Where did they find him?” Heather asked.

She happens to be one if Kylie’s nieces.

“The Louisiana police found him and reported out here. They said he was on a train.”

“It looked like Canada,” Kylie added.

“Canada? Why would he go there? He doesn’t know anybody there, for Pete’s sake!” Peter said.

“We know that, Peter. He has never made a trip to the other side of the world alone like that. He’s too shy for that kind of thing, but he might have gone with us,” Kylie said.

“Somebody help me talk to Uncle Fred when the police bring him here.”

“Who knows what’s on his mind?” Hank asked after deciding to help Kylie.

“True, Hank, but we need to get information out of him. He does not talk much. Funeral plans are made for Grandma Jones and Dad already, so I don’t think he should go to the double funeral.”

The police brought Fred back to the house where the whole family was waiting.

“Uncle Fred, how could you do such a thing? You made us worry,” Kylie told him.

Kylie and the family thanked the police officer for bringing Fred home safely.

“Our job, Ms. Jones,” the deputy said.

“You could have died!” Kylie told him.

“I wanted to die, Kylie. Since my brother is dead now, I might as well do the same thing.”

The officer left after she asked Fred that sort of question.

“Your life isn’t over yet. You still have time left,” Peter told him.

Fred and his brother were inseparable, so that tells you something.

“Why did you leave a note like this? You know we love you just the same as my father, Uncle Fred. You know that.”

“You don’t.”

“Uncle Fred, it is hard when someone you love passes away like that. You have to respect that,” Daphne told him.

“Whom am I going to when I have a problem? He was the only person that could solve my problems!” Fred said, tears coming down hard.

“Didn’t Grandma and Grandpa solve those problems when mysteries or crimes came up?” Claudia asked.

“No! They did not know how to solve them. Your father was the only person who could. Now he’s gone and I don’t have anyone to go to!” Fred screamed and tears were still coming down harder than the first time.

“Fred, I heard a joke at the bar the other night. Do you want to hear it?” Hank asked.

He happens to be a bartender in some sort of bar.

“No! I want my brother!” was Fred’s response.

He was not in the mood for jokes.

“Go ahead and tell the joke, Hank. It might work,” Kylie told him.

“Okay. Let me think how it works.”

He was quiet for a while so he could get the joke into his head.

“Okay, Fred, here’s the joke. You might think it is funny but here goes. One of my customers told us the joke,” Hank said.

“I hate jokes.”

“The joke goes like this: A man goes into a store and asks for a haircut, and what does the clerk tell him? The answer he gets is ‘you are in the wrong store, sir. You are in a retail store. If you want one, go to the haircut place,” Hank said.

The rest of the family was laughing and Hank was too. Everyone but Fred were laughing.

“That’s funny, isn’t it, Uncle Fred? Tell another one.”

“That’s the best joke I’ve heard for years,” Peter told Hank.

“Yeah, me too. I’ll have to tell that customer thank you for telling me that joke.”

“I hated it,” Fred said.

“Hey, Fred, I got another joke, but this one is a knock – knock. Do you like those?” Peter asked.

“Those are childish.”

“Tell it,” Claudia begged.

Peter made it up and made everyone laugh again, including himself and Hank until they could not laugh anymore. Fred was the only one not laughing.

“Keep the jokes coming until Uncle Fred is laughing. This is a good start, Hank. Glad you thought of it.”

Everyone took turns telling jokes until there were no more to share. The jokes did not work on Fred’s moods at all. He wanted his brother the most, not jokes. He walked away from the family members during Daphne’s inside joke and walked to his bedroom upstairs. They did not notice that he had walked out on them.

Fred pulled his reading glasses from his suitcase that he brought back to the bedroom and wanted to read for a while. He did bring a book to read while on holiday vacation, but did not get the chance to start it, so he bought it out of the suitcase besides his reading glasses. The book was nonfiction, so it was a few years old, so he did not care how old books were. He did love to read because of the job he had at Barnes and Noble many years back. He would read the books that first came out when they were published and he and the coworkers would recommend the books to each other.

He remembered the first time he got reading glasses when he and Freddy first turned eighteen years old and they graduated from high school. He first got them before moving to Washington. They were the only pair of glasses he’s owned, so his eye vision was perfect for the rest of the time, and didn’t need any other pair for driving and stuff like that. He heard the family downstairs ask where he was, but by that time, a few friends had already left ten minutes ago. He heard Kylie’s footsteps come up the stairs.

He had been in the book for twenty pages so far when nobody was bothering him. He was reading about science in the book. He heard a knock on his door. He carried the book in his arms and went up to answer the door. His glasses were still on, so he did not bother to take them off.

“There you are, Uncle Fred. We were wondering what happened to you. Mind if I come in?”

He let her into the bedroom without saying anything.

“You made us worried sick when you disappeared,” Kylie told him.

The door closed.

“I did that because of Freddy’s death, Kylie.”

“We thought it was suicide, but thank goodness you didn’t kill yourself. We know you’re not that kind of person to do that sort of thing.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Kylie. I just want to know whom would solve a problem.”

“Don’t be silly, Uncle Fred. You have us. We’re family. You know that. What kind of book is this?”

“A science book. It is still somewhat a few years old, and I just started it. Checked it out of the library before I came out here.”

“I seem to remember Dad telling me you used to have a job at that bookstore in Washington.”

“For several years. Cashier.”

“Dad never gave me the name of that bookstore you worked for.”

“Barnes and Noble,” he told her.

“That’s a nice store, Uncle Fred. I used to get my books about the law when I finished school.”

“I’m sure you did,” he told her.

They talked for a few more minutes longer, and then Kylie said, “This talk helped me feel better. How do you feel about it?”

“Fine,” was the answer.

“Good. I’ll order some pizza for dinner. How does that sound?”

“Fine,” he said once more.

“I’ll go ahead and do it. I’m sure Danny could pick it when it’s ready.”

Fred didn’t seem to mind that she would order from Papa Murphy’s. He’d go either way no matter who she called for an order.

Pizza sounded like a good idea to him. Danny happens to be her husband, but unlike Kylie, he didn’t become a lawyer. He’s more of a landlord. He’s good at it too.

Somehow Kylie decided to add Blake as her last name after the first one. At least it works for her. He also heard her call in for the order. He didn’t need to tell her what he wanted, and by now, she probably remembered it.

When Danny picked up the pizza about an hour later, he called Fred down since it was ready to be in the oven. So Fred did that.

In case you were wondering, Kylie looks exactly like her father with the blonde hair and blue eyes. So did he, but his hair was dark blonde.

When the pizza came out twenty minutes later, the three of them ate at the kitchen table. Papa Murphy’s was their favorite place, and it was way better than Pizza Hut.

They didn’t say much while eating three slices of pizza. All of them stayed up for about three more hours, and then it was time for bed. Fred, Danny and Kylie had a very good – night’s sleep.