Andrews, Henry
DOB: 03/16/1979
Place of Birth: Chicago, Il
Henry Andrews grew up just a few dozen yards away from the perimeter fence of O'Hare International Airport. To most, living in the neighborhood, the constant sound of planes taking off and landing were a source of intense noise pollution. To young Henry, the planes were a source of endless fascination. At the age of five, he would often go to the fence and watch the planes coming and going, trying to identify each one. While most kids his age had bookshelves full of comics or fantasy novels, his were filled with books on aircraft, from Cessna's to 747's. The fascination with planes had a two-fold importance. For one, Henry truly loved them. For another, it was a great distraction from his tyrannical mother and depressed alcoholic father. His mother ruled the household with an iron fist, never missing an opportunity to tell Henry what a disappointment he was, or his father how much she hated him. His father, despite being a successful venture capitalist, never argued with her. He just drank scotch and tried to ignore her. Henry did his aircraft identifying ritual every chance he got. It got him away from his mother, and it gave him a few brief moments of happiness. He knew that whatever he did with his life, he wanted to be involved with airplanes. Not a pilot, as Henry did have an unfortunate fear of heights. But he wanted to work with them, in some way.
At the age of ten, his mother died suddenly of a stress induced heart attack. His father was utterly grief-stricken, plunging deeper into alcohol and depression. Henry, on the other hand, felt an incredible relief. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from him. He thought that his father would eventually get over it as well, remembering just how much his wife had tormented him. But that never happened. He had never realized just how whipped his father had been. Soon, Henry's father was having trouble performing at his job. He would come home and go straight to the bottle, leaving Henry to largely take care of himself. It destroyed him to see his father in the state he was in. By the time Henry graduated high school in 1997, he had begun to suspect that his father was in that state because Henry had never properly mourned his mother. It was untrue, of course. But Henry believed it enough to have it always in the back of his mind.
Despite the setbacks, Henry decided to pursue his goal. He enrolled in a technical institute, hoping to learn all he could about avionics and aircraft engines. As it turned out, Henry had quite a knack for such things, and he found himself at the top of his class. His time in the school became the greatest time of his life. He was away from home, working on things he was passionate about, and he didn't think about the self-imposed guilt about his mother. He graduated in 2001, and wasted no time getting into his desired field. The obvious choice was to go to work at O'Hare Airport, the very place he had idolized as a kid. Within a few weeks, he had gotten a job as an aircraft mechanic. The job fit him like a glove. His apprenticeship was over in record time, and he developed a reputation as one of the top mechanics at the airport.
His focus on his job was interrupted by a phone call from his father's attorney in 2004. He was told that his father had been killed in a drunk driving incident. He had wrapped his car around a streetlight, with a blood alcohol level of eight times the legal limit. Despite the years as a venture capitalist, Henry's father's funeral was a small, modest affair. A few people from the firm had shown up, as well as his father's golfing friends. One person who did show up was James Kramer, a kid that Henry had lived next to back in the old neighborhood. They had been friends, but not particularly close. After the funeral, James took Henry out for a drink. While not normally a drinker, Henry was pouring them back like a pro. James told him that he was a lawyer now, and was working in a prestigious Chicago law firm. Over the course of the evening, Henry loosened up and admitted to James that he had hated his father almost as much as he hated his mother. While his mother was a tyrant, his father just took all the abuse. He never once stood up to her, and as a result, Henry had never really had a father. Though drunk, Henry vowed that if he ever had kids, he would be a better father than his own.
Weeks after that night, James introduced Henry to Monica Hughes, a legal secretary from his firm. It was set up as a blind date, and Henry at first wasn't very enthusiastic. When they met, however, that changed. Monica was a gorgeous young woman, and was very smart to boot. By the time the first date was over, Henry was absolutely smitten with her. They dated steady for four months before Henry realized that Monica was the one. She was who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He proposed to her a week later. She agreed, and on May 4, 2005, Monica and Henry were married at a lavish ceremony. Henry paid for most of it with the inheritance he had received from his father. They honeymooned for two weeks in the Bahamas. Henry couldn't believe how lucky he was. He figured that the next logical step was a family of their own. It was a chance to do a better job than his own parents had done with him.
That dream, as it turned out, was slow to come. For several years, all their attempts to have children failed. Henry was discouraged, but he vowed to not give up. That sooner or later, their perseverance would pay off. His dedication to his job went much more smoothly. In 2009, he was made a senior mechanic at the airport. With the increased pay and benefits, Henry was able to purchase a dream house in the city. Monica quit her job at the firm, claiming she wanted to dedicate herself to the house and the eventual family that would they would have. Henry made more than enough to support them both, and he agreed. He simply devoted himself entirely to his job. It was as he did so that he failed to notice a change in Monica. He didn't quite notice her becoming less open with him, as well as not talking like they used to. That was lost in his pursuit of his job and house.
Finally, in 2011, Monica became pregnant. Henry had come home early one day to surprise Monica with a night out. He came home to her finishing a pregnancy test. He surprised her, but she laughed it off. The real surprise occurred when the test results came up. She was pregnant. Henry felt an uncontrolled wave of joy. He hugged her close, telling her that he knew this day would come. The dinner they went out to that night was a night to remember. That weekend, Henry wanted to call everyone he knew to tell them the good news. Monica disagreed, saying that she wanted to invite all their friends and family over to tell them in person. Henry loved the idea, and let her make all the plans.
That Monday, Henry went in to work, still enthralled by the events of the last weekend. Around noon, however, several Chicago police officers arrived at the airport with a warrant for his arrest. They told him that he was being arrested for assaulting his wife. Henry was sure that it was all a huge misunderstanding. At the station, he tried to call Monica, but there was no answer. He called James Kramer next, asking for a lawyer. Kramer told him that he couldn't come by, but that he would send someone from the firm to represent him at the arraignment.
The next morning, Henry was taken before a judge to enter a plea. He pleaded not guilty. The prosecutor asked that he be remanded without bail. The young clerk Kramer had sent over argued against it, but that changed when Monica entered the courtroom. She had bruises and cuts on her face, and one eye was swollen shut. She didn't enter dramatically, but just enough for the court to take notice. Her presence was enough for the judge to remand him without bail. Henry tried to ask her what had happened, but Monica recoiled from him like he was a monster.
The next few months were like a nightmare. For weeks, he couldn't get any information about what had happened to Monica. It wasn't until the trial that he learned some of the truth. When Monica took the stand, the real horror began. She told the jury that Henry was an abusive monster who had hit her constantly throughout their marriage. She told them that she was terrified for her life every day. When the prosecutor asked her what had set him off that morning, she told the jury that she had revealed that she was pregnant. That news had sent Henry into a rage, and he had beat her nearly to death. She tearfully said that it was then she decided to go to the police, as she feared now for the safety of her child.
That would have been bad enough, but then the prosecutor brought forward their neighbors as witnesses. These were the housewives that Monica often socialized with. They told stories of how cold and angry Henry was, and that they had seen him almost hit her countless times. His own lawyer barely cross-examined any witnesses, and Henry felt the whole courtroom despise him. The jury deliberated for only three hours before they brought back a verdict. He was found guilty of assault. The day before sentencing, Henry asked Kramer to watch over his accounts and affairs while he was in prison. Kramer agreed, and vowed to get behind what had really happened. The next morning, Henry was sentenced to four years in prison.
TBC
