The start of something strange

As a general rule of thumb Locke did not receive mail. Occasionally there would be a package from home if Kendra found something that she thought he needed. He had no subscriptions to magazines or newspapers. Those that he kept in contact with knew to email him. Which was why the plain white envelope sitting on his desk captivated Locke.

At first he was convinced it was some sort of mistake, a letter for another student that had fallen into the wrong hands. But his name was very plainly written in neat print. There was no return address, simply the faded ink marks over the postage stamp. The handwriting did not look familiar, but given how light and flat the envelope was he doubted that it held anything dangerous. Once again he entertained the idea that he had a letter meant for someone else. If it had been meant for him then surely it would have been forwarded from San Francisco. Only problem with that was Tori wasn't a common last name, and Locke seemed to be an even more uncommon first. Simply put he had a piece of mail that could not be meant for him, and yet it had to be his.

Locke squeezed the envelope, turning it over in his hands like a kid with a wrapped Christmas present. There isn't much in there,[/color] Locke thought to himself. The envelope itself was one that would be used for mailing a gift card, but, from the feel of it, it had something much smaller in it. He tapped the side of the envelope on the desk a few times, letting what was inside of it slide to the bottom. Just because it seemed safe didn't mean he was just going to tear the thing open. After cutting the envelope open he extracted the small paper that was inside.

It was a picture, no description on the back, no note inside. Weird,[/color] Locke thought, flipping the picture back over to study it once again. At first glance he had just noticed the toddler in the picture. Beside them a man was on his knees, holding the child and trying to get them to turn towards the camera. It wasn't anyplace spectacular, like Disney World. In fact it looked as if the picture had been taken inside of a general store, judging by the racks of greeting cards in the background and the inexpensive toy still in the packaging that the toddler was holding. Everything was slightly out of focus, the motion of the adult and the child. Why would anyone take this? he wondered, staring at the distracted toddler, and the profile of the man's head. Wait... is that..."Dad?" Locke dropped the picture, his body going cold. There was no doubt that the man in the photo was his dad. Even blurred he recognized his father. The glasses were Hugo's old pair, one of the mementos left behind after the accident, and the shirt was one of his father's favorites. Locke even recognized the clothes that the kid was wearing, and realized with shock that he was seeing himself, probably not much older than a year. He had never seen this picture before, and he had poured over every photo album and family video as soon as he was able to after getting out of the hospital.

He grabbed the dictionary off his bookshelf and flipped it open to a random page before shoving the picture in it and slamming the book shut. He didn't want to look at it, didn't want to think of it.