Microstory 1164: Tyler Bradley

< > Table of Contents

Tyler Bradley was not always a good person, and he knew this, but he didn’t care. That was his whole problem. He didn’t care much about anything; not really even his family. In reality, he loved his first son, but that son was taken from him, in every way. Escher was exploring the house next door when he became lost in an endless maze of basements, and other rooms. The house held many secrets, and had some sort of control over reality itself. At first, Tyler could remember his son, and desperately searched for him, but eventually, those memories disappeared, and he was left with a damaged soul. He lost interest in his wife, Cheryl, but they stuck together for more than fifteen years, because they were too apathetic to divorce. When his daughter was born, he didn’t care for her as much as he should have, and this was enough to force his wife’s hand. She finally divorced him, took full legal custody of Hogarth, and moved to Topeka. He was a broken man, and it seemed that nothing could be done about it, but then a friend made a suggestion. Kallias Bran was the detective assigned to search for Escher all those years ago. He managed to retain his own memories, and knew that the best thing for Tyler was for him to move. Springfield was doing nothing for him but weighing him down, and since Tyler knew intellectually that he should want to know his daughter, being geographically closer to her was best for everybody. This had an immediate positive effect on him. His mood improved, his motivation returned, and he started getting his life together. Things weren’t repaired overnight, but Cheryl eventually agreed to increase the time he had with his daughter from once a month to once a week. By then, Hogarth was old enough to understand her father, and to appreciate that he really was trying to be a better person. She continued to side with her mother whenever there was a disagreement, but she wasn’t completely against him. Tyler’s relationships with his family were strengthened with each passing year, and though he and Cheryl never got back together, they would later come to describe themselves as friends. Their lives were okay for awhile, until Hogarth disappeared much the same way Escher did the better part of three decades prior, but this time, they could remember their child.