The hum.

A Story by Lmartini

a story about that annoying hum that you sometimes hear for no reason.

I talk to myself, I take too many pain killers, I make bad decisions. I continue on like this, day after day, week after week. Leo Putz wrote in his Diary, Leo felt like this was just another day. Wake up, eat, shower, work, go home, eat, sleep. Leo wrote down his shortcomings that he would strive to overcome for the day. Not being sure of yourself was what he was good at, and second guessing came as second nature to him. So as any other day Leo set out towards work on his bicycle, traffic was light and no one veered or swerved towards him today, which was nice. Leo opened the door to the little drug store he worked at and thought about the shoplifter in the store last night, and he hoped that he wouldn't return today, not that he could do anything about it if he did, at the thought of this his stomach started to form a little ball of knots that pained him. He thought it might be stomach cancer, but at 52 years old and still alone, he didn't know if stomach cancer would be the worst way to go, but it certainly sounded like one of them. Thinking in his own little world, Leo stood at the checkout lane, a 52 year old checkout boy, he didn't think it was that bad, it could have been worse. He looked out the panoramic window full of vinyl ad decals, and could just see the top of a tree, its leaves starting to turn a bronze color. He stood daydreaming, all the while ignoring customers, and the several transactions he had, occasionally throwing in some Idle comment or tidbit of information.

"Hey" he mumbled into a plastic bag.

"Tuna is two for one" he said as he stared vacantly down aisle one.

"Have a nice day" he said, and genuinely meant.

Leo was going nowhere fast, and he felt it. Leo had watched the 1980'S come and go, with out ever getting laid, so how could Leo hope to start coming out of his shell now, at 52 Leo was a model citizen, if not a tad bit odd. He never called out of work, he never did anything illegal, he picked up the litter people left outside of his house, and the dog s**t. sometimes Leo wondered why they couldn't do it themselves. But he never got out of line, he never even took chances, as previously mentioned he never drank, smoked or had any bit of erstwhile fun. he in fact had been a square his whole life and was proud of it. Leo himself was not religious, but he was raised in a strict catholic household, he didn't remember almost any of the bible verses that his Grandma would make him recite, but he knew the general gist of them, and to keep his nose clean for fear of gods wrath and what not. Leo didn't spend his time with women, or alcoholics, or with religious zealots, because he chose not to, and for no other reason.

The thought of still being alone stung at him occasionally, but he would fend off the starving hunger of loneliness by diving head first into his work of keeping the till, stocking the first three shelves, and keeping a record of who walks out of the door with liquor without paying. The most excitement that Leo ever got was two shoplifters in one day.

Leo stared at the clock hoping the hours had gone by quickly and it was already three O'clock and it was time for him to go home. It was only nine fifty. The same shoplifter came in, a real piece of work, no hat, no face mask no nothing, he would just walk in, walk to the liquor aisle, and steal as many bottles as he could carry out. Leo even got momentarily lost in a daydream about this particular vagabond appearing heroic to his Hobo friends as he triumphantly pilfered several liter bottles of drug store brand vodka with the flavor profile of bleach. Leo chuckled to himself as he thought of this. What else could he do? in California? The cops wouldn't show up for several hours if at all for something as minor as shoplifting, the 90's were also shaping up to be as disappointing as the 80's for Leo. Leo gripped the phone contemplating whether to bother calling or just marking down as best as he could what the thief stole and letting his manager know later. he continued to grip the phone.

Leo felt a jolt through his entire body, His legs started shaking in place and his hands started convulsing uncontrollably, he started to feel the flesh on his spine stand up as though he were being electrocuted. He became resigned to the fact that this was it. there would be no more anything, he felt the light flash out of his eyes, his neck and head went into convulsions, as he felt the searing pain of death ringing in his ears. Or something, he didn't know what was happening now, his skin continued to crawl, but Leo neither lost consciousness or fell to the ground dead. He heard a sound, a sound that felt like it was blocking all thought in his mind. Leo went through all of the things in his childhood that could have lent any sort of information to what was happening to him he went through several layers of panic within seconds. It could be a stroke, myocardial infarction, mental breakdown, cluster headache, delusion, alien laser beam, leaking gas pipe, he didn't know what it was, but it wouldn't stop, it was piercing, like a hot needle deep into his brain. Leos hand trembled as he clenched the phone, he clenched his jaw so hard his mouth and gums turned white and started to bleed, his teeth ached, all of the things that he felt before, staying in line, waiting his turn, being a good boy, started to quickly melt away as the sound tore at his conscious mind, he was being broken down and debased to the deepest darkest places of his sub-conscious mind, he tried to hide from the searing pain of that high pitched scream from hell. But it was no use, Leo felt himself compelled to movement, he didn't have any control over his body anymore, it felt like to him someone else was in the driver seat. The shoplifter sauntered past Leo as he stood there struck by what felt like the hand of god. Then suddenly, without warning; Leo leapt onto the Shoplifter, lunging from behind the till in a sudden single motion landing on top of the shoplifter. Without an ounce of hesitation or remorse Leo grabbed the liquor bottle and smashed it into the face of the would be shoplifter. Over and over again Leo swung downward, smashing the hobos face into a fine pulp, Leo stood up, the man on the ground barely breathing, the ringing in his ears starting to subside. Retail smock covered in blood Leo lurched forward feeling like he was going to vomit, he saw what he had done, but felt as though it had been another daydream. He looked down on the man with the broken face and felt like it was something from a scene in a movie, or a very distant memory of the past. Had he done this? He couldn't have. The sound in his head subsided as he heard sirens in the distance heading for him.

Should he run? no that would just make him seem more guilty. Leo adjusted his glasses and turned his head, just in time to see it, in the parking lot people looked as though they were waking up from drunken stupor, some people pulling themselves off of others, and some getting up from writhing on the ground in pain. Leo didn't know what had just happened or how many it affected, but he felt cleansed. somehow renewed. Another customer in the store had called the police, but it seemed they were preoccupied with the multiple acts of violence around the city. Leo took off his smock and left the store, walking with a certain lightness of heart and clarity that halted his dread. He started to ride home, But Leo would never make it home, on his way to his apartment a man in an SUV who had seen Leo, and had been cut off by him in the past, took the opportunity during all of the chaos going on around the city to run him over. Leo died not knowing what had happened or why. But something he heard that day had changed everything. As his consciousness drifted off from this reality, he wondered if things would ever go back to the way they were.