The Man

I am going to be hung in two days. I am in jail for a homicide. I told them that all I wanted was to give him pain, the same pain he caused me. They won’t believe me. You are probably wondering, why I am in jail. Well let me tell you. First go find yourself a nice mug of coffee, or some hot chocolate. Now find a good resting place and read my following story.

It was June the 8^th, and my friends and I, decided to go for some pizza, down at Maximos. They have the best pizza in town, and it’s always full, it wasn’t then. After we ate, we came out, and started walking towards home. We started talking about sports, and cars, and new technology. I wasn’t interested, so whenever someone asked me a question, I either replied with a yes or no.

A man came up to me, as we crossed the street. He looked at my shirt and said “the mouth is not right,” and then walked away. I wondered what he meant by this, but didn’t think much of it. I soon went home, and started watching television. I turned on the 10’o clock news. It was the same news everyday. A woman raped on the corner of “X” street. A man caught for fraud. Then comes the ritualistic “be scared of the African bumblebees” or the “ice cream raises cancer” news section, god how that makes me sick. But today, I realized something completely different. I saw the man on there. He was in the corner crying, and telling his story. Apparently, it was a case of where the wife ran away. I found it weird for such a minor story to be on the 10’o clock news…but then, this is America right? I turned it off, after a glimpse of his name.

I fell on the bed, tired, and I dreamt. In my dream, I dreamt of him. I saw him. He was crying. He was sad. I went over to reach him up; he looked at me and said “the mouth is not right.” I looked at the shirt, and the mouth slowly changed. He looked at me and started smiling. I woke up. It was 6:00 AM, and I went to get some cereal.

I left the house at about 7:30ish, and went to my first class. It was English. As the teacher started talking about the youth in Catcher in the Rye, I spaced out. I started thinking about the man. What did he mean by the line “the mouth is not right?” What did it matter to him? Why did he care? Was his appearance on the TV and me meeting him a pure coincidence, or was it all planned? And the question, why me? Suddenly I got the feeling that big brother was watching.

After class, I went to get a snack. The man was there. He was sitting there as if he was waiting for me. He looked at my shirt again, and didn’t comment. Wanting to find out more, I sat down where he was. He didn’t look at me. He stared at his hands, kept staring, kept staring, got up and walked away, and sat at another table. Confused, I tried not to pay much attention, tried to forget it. This was silly. I took my food and walked to my math class, Calculus to be exact. I remember because we learned about derivatives that day. God how I hate those. The teacher kept on talking and talking, but I couldn’t take my mind of what the man had said. Why, I kept asking myself, WHY was it bothering me so much? I was intrigued to find out more about this man, but I had no clue how.

I went home thinking, after a long day of classes. I got right down to my work and finished it, since I had a party later that night. It was all easy, except for the damn derivatives. Sigh.

The party was fun. It kept my mind of the man, until later that night. That was when my insomnia started. I tried to sleep but, I couldn’t. I sat up all night on my laptop, playing, chatting, and trying everything to keep my mind off the man.

The next day, I handed in my homework, and the teacher realized something different. It didn’t have my name on it. Surprised, I looked, and almost horrified, I found out that it was not my name that I had written, but the man’s. I took the paper, said sorry, changed it and gave it back to him.

I didn’t see the man for about 1 week. One day I decided to go watch some old comedies at this vintage theater. I suddenly saw him in a movie theater, sitting next to me. He looked at my shirt, it wasn’t the same shirt, and he looked at me in the eye and said it again. “The mouth is not right.” I looked at him and almost screamed, but I held my self back. Slowly and calmly I asked him, what he was talking about. He answered with “the mouth is not right.” I kept asking him, and he would not answer. This time I screamed in his face. He said the same thing. I took him by the collar and took him out the movie theater, and threatened him. He said the same thing. He took my hands, and walked away. Later that day, I realized I had become obsessed. I was obsessed with this man, and his one sentence conversations I always had with him. What was his problem, more of what was my problem? Why was this bothering me so much? I didn’t have an answer.

The next day I met a girl. Her name was Sylvia. She was nice. I thought to my self, that if I occupy my self with another being then maybe it will take my mind of off him. It didn’t help. Every time me and Sylvia were on a date, I would some how end up talking about him. Somehow, my inner self would lead me to bring this character out. This character that needed to be forgotten, this character that needed to be drowned, but he came out every time. I really liked Sylvia, and she broke up with me for one reason, I always talked about him. After the break up, my life was messed up. I still couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t pay attention, and my grades were dropping.

One day I decided. I was going to kill him. I was going to hunt him down and kill him. The next day I cut all my classes and spent a day hunting him down. I couldn’t find him. I checked everywhere. I even went as far to ask the news crew if they knew where he was. I lied about being related to him and such, and went to seek him out. I couldn’t find him. Frustrated I went back home and spent the rest of the night awake, thinking what I was going to do to this man.

The next day, I cut all my classes and went out to find him again. I couldn’t. This went on for about a week; I had no clue as to where this man was. I grew sick and tired, I hadn’t shaved, I hadn’t showered, and I hadn’t gone to classes!

One day, I decided to quit looking for him, to just stop. I showered, shaved, got dressed and went to class. I lied to all the teachers, telling them I had a serious knee problem.

After class, something took hold of me, if I think about it now. I didn’t want to do this, but something made me. Something inside me, made me take out something from my pocket that I did not know I had, a knife. It was a knife. I went out, took a woman by her throat, and slit her throat. I kneeled down and stabbed her again and again and again. I couldn’t stop. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. What was this taking hold of me? When the police came, they saw that I was stabbing the ground beneath her body, through a hole, in her body. The police took me and asked me why I did this. I told them, I wanted to cause him the same pain he caused me. They did not understand. No one understood. But you understand…right?