I didn’t expect this to happen to me. I sat in this empty 8 by 10 foot room, looking broodingly at the splinter of sunlight streaming through the minute barred window. The standard issue fleece blanket did nothing to chase the cold away from this cement floor.
My life was going pretty smoothly until that day. I went into the house. Everything looked normal. Nothing was out of place. The electroconvulsive therapy seemed to be working better than the lithium prescribed by my therapist. I padded to the dimly lit state-of-the-art kitchen. Had a gulp of the refrigerated OJ, straight from the carton. Refreshing. Somehow I could feel the eerie quietness at the back of my neck. I shrugged off the feeling. “”It’s my house.” I muttered to myself and slowly climbed the glass stairs. Pretty much everything in this house was made of glass. The stairs, most parts of the walls, dining table, everything was glass. “That was not there this morning, or was it?” There was a huge scratch on the banister. Curious.
The scratch didn’t just end there. There was another scratch and a gaping hole on the floor. “What caused it?” my mind was racing to conjure the memory of yesterday or this morning even. Nothing. Absolute nothing displayed in my mind. I slowly treaded around the gaping hole to the room. Something smelled.
I was visited by my attorney today. Things were not looking up in my case. The trial would start a week from today. Next week. That was as far a future as I could fathom. No one could guarantee my wellbeing after that. Even I couldn’t.
The room reeked of something. It was so bad that I instantly gagged. In between retches, I ran to the window. That’s when I saw the source of the stench. A heap of body bag lay on the cream carpet. It looked heavy. The surrounding area of the bag was filthy brown and sticky. I darted out of the room, grabbed my blackberry and speed dialed my manager. The moment that annoying ringtone was heard in the room, particularly from inside the body bag, I knew something was wrong.
“You just don’t get it, do you? It’s over!” That was the first time I heard him yelled at me. His voice was coarse due to the amount of shouting and screaming he threw at me.
“It can’t be over! It was just a glitch, I know, we could still buy some time. I could finish the blueprint in two days.” I panicked.
“No! That’s it. You know for a fact that our lives depend on this. We are toast! I’ve been trying to help you and now I know that you are beyond help. I’m out of here! You’re on your own.” he started to storm out of the room.
Sitting in the courtroom, wearing the only decent suit I had left, I waited patiently for the trial to begin. The Supreme Judge looked intimidating with his white wig and long black robe. I was waiting for my fate. Fate that was beyond my control. Fate that was looking as bleak as the weather outside. Somehow I knew what the verdict would be. This would be the end of me. This was it. This might be the last day for me to be out in the open, to watch the rain, to see the green field or to smell the aroma of the freshly cut grass. I looked at my attorney who looked grimmer and grimmer as the time past.
I heard the commotion outside the courtroom. It was getting louder and louder as the crowd gained momentum. I heard the door banged and everyone turned around. The room was chaotic. The judge was banging his gavel, calling the court back to order. I sat there nonchalantly. I knew my last savior was in the room. My attorney had a look of relief on his face. I could even see a slight upturned smile that he was famous for plastered on his face. I knew things were definitely looking up now. I knew who just barged into the room. My therapist. My last resort. My savior. My accomplice. This definitely would not be the end of me. I smiled.
I grabbed a candelabra which conveniently stood within my grasp and knocked hard on his nape. He stumbled forward. I was in trance. It felt like there was an inner strength in me that I had never registered before. I hit him again and again with the brass candelabra as he struggled to escape. When he reached the stairs, I summoned all my strength and flung the bent candelabra. It hit his head first then fell on the floor, leaving a gaping hole. I saw him toppled down the stairs. After a sick thud, he lay quietly on the landing. His body was twisted oddly and then I knew he was gone. I silently contemplated the next course of action. Dan, my therapist used to say that I could call him whenever I needed him. I needed him now. He came, he saw, he acted, he solved my problem.
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