Life Game

A Story by Ewerton_Cuco

Hi guys, so this is not the full thing yet, this is like a first chapter. Since it's the first thing I ever write I just wanna know what you guys think of it.

John Weber could still remember last night’s meeting at his work place located in , something that would unhelpfully change the course of his private life in an unexpected way. He was a 42 year old man, financially satisfied although he always thought that it could be more impressive than what he was making, his hair was beginning to show signs of graying, just to remind him that he wasn't a boy any more. Not at all, for the contrary, the age was catching up to him.

His life was somewhat boring , sometimes he wondered, all right he might have a life that everyone would want, nice house, dream car, beautiful wife and wonderful kids. Sound familiar? Well, the main problem was that everything can become repetitive over time, almost like a repeated documentary on a cable TV channel, a channel you might still want to watch, but you change station sometimes, much too often actually.

Now, he hoped, this turn in his life could make his life less likely to bore him and stop him from looking outside of the ring. The thought that didn't leave his mind was “Is that really going to help?” He only wished he could answer that question, because that was something only time could do.

But the thought that he started desperately trying to make his life something more remarkable, to him at least, might have been a big excuse to the real motive. Was it really? How could he ever affirm that? He himself wasn't sure what to think anymore. He hated loving this full of hatred life turn.

It all started 4 long months ago probably one of the biggest mistakes he ever committed. Tonight it was a cold night in Derry, Maine, he roared his 98 Chevy Suburban’s V8 engine to life and set to a drive. Having no idea where to go, he’d go out just for a drive after patiently, or not that much, waiting for his wife and kids to go to sleep, it took a while longer than usual ever since it was Saturday.

He slipped through the house making as little noise as possible, feeling he just needed to get out of there, feeling like he was at the bottom of a well crying for help, but there simply wasn’t anyone listening, no one at all.

He drove for over half an hour like a disoriented bug around town, perhaps trying to make things different from the usual evil, an evil he tried running away from but with no success. He ended up at Briar’s dinner, thinking that maybe drinking would shut his crazy, sick brain up. It wouldn’t, even if he wanted to, it would never; it’s not something that’s up for him to decide.

He got out of his Suburban, felt the cold wind chill on his face announcing winter wasn’t exactly far away. He walked inside, sat by the counter and said:

“Night Alan, how’s it hanging tonight?” said he.

“Ain’t much, ain’t much at all. You’re looking like a ghost there. What the hell is going on?” He asked.

“Whatever man, like I told you a thousand f*****g times, it’s not something you would ever understand. Do you even get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, Yeah angry boy, not gonna be asking around anymore, just don’t make a fool of yourself, for crying out loud! You seem different as hell , and that ain’t something I like, you know I consider you a big friend of mine.”

“Thanks my man, I appreciate that. Now get me a strong one.”

“What kind of strong one?”

“I don’t care what kind; I just want it to be strong, surprise me”

“Right then, I’ll do just that.”

Alan Marshy then feeling confused and at the same time angry about the whole situation, went on to prepare something that contains so much alcohol that it could power an ethanol engine, something that a doctor would slap you in the face for drinking. But he wasn’t going to stop our good friend though, it’s not a very pleasant site to see him getting mad. In fact, even though he liked him a lot, he feared him sometimes and he was sure it wasn’t something coming right from the deepest places in his subconscious.

He then took the highly dangerous drink to John, he considered the drink dangerous not only for the fact that it contains alcohol and can cause damage in several ways if drank in quantities that are way higher than what people often consider safe but also for how much it can make people commit mistakes and do things they might not be responsible for. Might not because they had no idea of what he was doing.

“Where the hell is my damn drink you stupid retard?” John shouted.

Alan looked at him with a suspicious look in his face: “Firstly I am not a retard, secondly I want to know why you’re acting like a jerk, it’s almost like you’re not your damn self”.

“Sorry but I’m not in the best mood today, you should’ve realized that by now.”

“I did realize that, it ain’t something that hard to get, I just wanna know exactly what’s happening to you, I know you do get outta a place when you’re drank and that isn’t something you can deny, but today you’re just different.”

“I’m not telling you.” John said not looking into his eyes and in such a low tone he almost didn’t hear it.

“Come on, I’m not some stranger, we know each other for quite some time now. You don’t have to hide anything from me. “He shrugged.

“Then why don’t you just give me a f*****g reason.”

“Oh man, look, If you want my help you know you can count on me now if you’re going to keep lying to yourself and trying to hide from your friends then there’s nothing, absolutely nothing I can do for you.”

John didn’t reply to that, he was to occupied thinking to himself, everything that’s been happening to him in the past months. It was like looking at your car burning while you’re tied up and stopped from doing anything. Except the car in this situation was his family, after his wife and kids found out ‘bout his lil’ secret they had threatened to leave him forever after all, they didn’t want a big liar in their family. “We’re living a lie here, John”. He had to find a way to stop with this, and quick there was no denying.

“A’right then my dog, but not in here, it’s kinda secretive.

Not knowing whether this is something right or not, he after waiting his good and old, perhaps even useful friend, to finish his choirs at his bar, invited him into his truck and they went for a drive. It was late at night, way past the time that both of them had to have gone to sleep and certainly should not be lurking around in a Chevrolet Suburban, they didn’t have a destination, they were just driving on. One fact that scared Alan was that John was slightly drunk, oh well maybe after drinking so much in his life it’d take a lot a fuel to burn him up, but that was a fact the guys at the Police didn’t care much about, and you know how cops get when they spot a drunk behind the wheel.

He pulled up after having driven 2 or maybe 3 miles outta town, looked deeply into Alan’s eyes perhaps wanting to know why he had gotten this far.

“So, well I know that It might not be a big deal at all, but the fact that I’ve gotten into some criminal activity has destroyed my personal life.”

“Oh, really? So you’re telling me that you think criminal life is something potentially hazardous to your life? Congrats, Mr. Captain Obvious.

“It wasn’t my fault, man!” He lied obviously knowing that you don’t just do something like that because somebody told you so, you do it out of free will.

“So, c’mon tell me exactly in what kind of thing you have got yourself into, you can trust me.”

“Boosting cars, there’s just way too much cash in it man, you have no idea.”

“Don’t be stupid you moron, crime doesn’t compensate and the money is not worth it! Even if you make any kind of cash, some way or another you might end up in prison and I don’t need to tell you how absolutely hard that can be, it would ruin your life.”

“I know it would, but the story it’s longer than just that, you know?” He breathed deeply knowing he should not be saying any of this, in fact he shouldn’t even be thinking it just to make sure, top secret stuff.” The police are in it, you think those guys don’t like some of that green thing?”

“Oh my god!!”

“I don’t need to tell you that if you mention this to anyone your life may be in serious danger.”

“A ‘right my dude. I already told ya I got ya! One thing I don’t understand though. You say you’ve been doing this for a couple months now, and in a couple months I haven’t seen you so upturned the way you are tonight! Something wrong has to have happened. Am I right?”

He looked at his friend: at this moment he felt the cold hit him, he felt the cold wind involving him and the silence of the night making his thoughts race with fear. Cold sweat, just to remember last night, those words that came down on him like knives. So he looked up right into Alan’s eyes and said: “In a .40 right now there’s a bullet reserved for me. It has to do with the car boosting and you’re right this kind of life only does enough to ruin someone’s life. As of right now I don’t know whether my life will go on for much longer.”

“What did you do?”. Alan said not processing the word he had just heard right.

“I’ll explain, but right now we need to get the f**k outta here. You see that black civic parked at 9 o’clock over there that you might not have noticed yet?”

“Yeah, now I see it, what about it?” He was perhaps a tad scared.

“That’s the bad guy.”