1843 Revelation Street

1843 Revelations street­ at 1:21 A.M. since no event ever occurs at a convenient P.M. a spool of yellow caution take is wrapped around a nicely decorated white Victorian styled condo. It looks like a place of wealth and money with all it’s fine trimmings and perfect paint. The cops are already inside but still no one’s come out, well that’s a lie a single body has left , motionless and cold carried like a left over satchel swaying from the burden of it’s own weight. A crowd has gathered behind the yellow banner and in the midst of the sirens and lights they mutter amongst themselves. “Did you hear about the accident?”, a woman mutters to the man beside her. He scoffs and shakes his head , “I don’t think it was an accident”.  She looks at her feet , “ Amy wouldn’t have done it , she was my roommate” , a heaved breath left her as she directed a hazy green glare at him  as he spoke again . “ If it makes you feel better , I bet he had it coming if she did it”. The crowd dropped to silence as the French doors swung open , a petite blond stumbling forward with the cops at her heels.  Amy Archer had made her debut , a twenty five year old from , Richmond Virgina, dressed in stylish black  roman sandals and a pair of jean shorts with a sling of a white david bowie top.  She wasn’t a mess but she wasn’t what they expected to come from the house as the silence burst into the buzzing swarm of whispers . She didn’t look bothered  nor did she seem  phased as she looked to them all and smiled, she might have waved if her hands were cuffed. A friendly type of girl, with a brown thumb and a bakers skill in the kitchen. “Did you do it ?” The woman from the crowd yells but all she earns is a nod before dear Amy is ducked away into the car. Dear was a proper description of the tousled blond, as she didn’t seem the type for mischief but now they were at the station and the man who had hauled her in found her a little less dear then the ones who knew her best. She sat at the stainless steel tabled her cuffed hands tapping at the top as if to give her a beat. * “Miss Archer, I’m officer Clyden please tell me what happened, take it from the top. Lips curved into a side pout as she seemed to have to recall what started it all . * “The top goes a long time back officer but I assure you I did not kill that man it was the will of God, I did not aim but the bullet saw it as right and struck him down and squished him like the parasitic bug he was, squished his heart or so it looked like it “. A roll of the neck and two curt pops left her in a slouch. “ So you confess that the gun was in your hand ?” lips parting she gasped. “ my hand was gods , so I guess that’s all about how you take it , but I’d like to say it was a joint effort. Even God knows a defect when he’s gone and seen it and seen what it’s done , got himself a cleanup duty of his own right , don’t you think officer.”   The officers hat found it’s way settled  onto the table as she continued to clink the metal . * “So you confess then , was it defense? Maybe we can help you Miss if you have some good reason for all this. “  *He ran a hand through his brown spotted balding head , catches a wisp of hair here and there. “You wanted it from the top, well the top is two years ago when I met him , girl like me didn’t know a snake and God had yet to fix the problem early, so he went and sent me to try to remedy. “ She leaned forward resting her knobby elbows on the surface as she stops clinking and cups her face. “ I met Robby two years ago , he was working out in Memphis and I was there on business , thought I could know a good man when I seen him but in my lack of knowing I brought him back and we’ve been living together ever sense. I didn’t know he was so incomplete til I got him here, not even educated in the basics but the Lord willed me to fix him and I tried . I got him some education and I got him a roof but those things could not fix the manipulative nature in that mans soul. He wasn’t a cheater but those two years were the worst.” She shifted to lay her head down as she crossed her arms and he sat listening waiting for a valid excuse. “ He didn’t work , thought he could do better then he really could but I couldn’t tell him any better and before I knew it the world with him had became a bitter molasses of poison. Do you know the taste of living poison Officer Clyden?!?” A blue eyed stare lazily rose to him . “ No but perhaps you can explain it so that I can , and how is any of this relevant Miss Amy. “ He sighed growing tired of her rambling already . “It all led me to it , it was this poison that drove God to decide he could not be repaired and had to be scrapped! Living poison has a taste you will never forget, think of the loneliest you’ve ever been mixed with your biggest regret  and the inability to breath or be heard, it is a stifling taste that I wish to never partake of ever again and now I will not as my soul has been saved, even in these four walls I sit , I am saved.  That’s how all of this started , my happiness left, my friends betrayed me for him , and yet he gets to sit and smile while I am sat alone due to the ruins he has created, that was not what God intended and if it had, I would have had to fire twice, not saying that I would have since I am a God fearing woman.”

“Well since that was what started it do you think you could tell me about your salvation Miss Amy , I need every detail you can give.” She stood up slowly and paced the back of the room with a sense of purpose and vigor as she began to speak slightly murmuring at the start but growing louder * “ I was out at work since one of us needed to make some money and that scruffy mutt wasn’t about to be the one , and I was tired and my shift had finally ended. I drove home and there were cars parked in front of the driveway of my house…MY HOUSE! Selfish b*****d finds himself entitled .. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT ! I walk inside and there is , that drunken bum of a man sat with my friends now acquaintances , speaking of me the horrors that I was but he didn’t see me! I stood in the kitchen and listened as that martyr cried wolf over and over again wiping away all the truths with the lies of his existence…but as the time went on I found myself sat behind the counter just listening to the hypocrisy that was in the works , and I could not believe the words I heard as he made me out to be the wolf.  I waited ..i waited til they all left but he wasn’t complete , I’m telling you he was not complete and  I am sure that I am in the right mind to believe that this thought was blessed from God.”

 

She began to pace slower as if the words to come gave her a sense of peace as she breathed with ease never flinching at the thought of her own action . “ I didn’t think , I didn’t need to ,it was as if I was under his guidance and the good Lord pulled my strings and made of me a fine instrument of tangible justice. I’m not the type to own and a gun and I didn’t know Robby owned one but I was guided to it and I pulled it from under the raunchy magazines  in the guest room closet. I know nothing of guns but I was left with the calm that the instrument was already prepared by the divine and then I went and found that martyr. I found him as he sat on the couch in the living room and I closed my eyes and felt like a power was raising my hand steady and then my finger jerked as if it was his will and he was dead … like any good martyr should be. You don’t hear of martyrs that live  Clyden , they got no value at all. Then I felt at peace and the world was good and I was saved , the lord now will always have a place for me.”

Officer Clyden raised his hand and two officers came in taking a arm in each hand as they escorted her out to place her in a holding cell.  Cylden moved through the front of the station toward his desk where a basic report laid about details from the scene . As he lounged back into the creaky four wheeled chair that only could achieve two wheel drive due to age . “ Only one bullet in the gun and no prints on the casing …” He strangely felt a bit reverent as he read the line just as he had felt a little less disturbed then usual as he heard her story as if a force was softening the blow. He too was a man of God but only in his dreams could he hope to find his faith so profound and unwavering. The bullet from the scene had oddly enough gone far down and embedded itself in the very foundation of the house , unlike any bullet of it’s caliber should have. The case was strange and the lack of remorse from all parties left Clyden feeling a bit unsure of what had really happened that night.  He continued pushing himself into the paper work as the hours punched through, the relieving 5A.M. chime coming through as it always did . He got up from his seat and grabbed his hat and his keys but with out a second thought he found himself wandering down the hall into the holding area looking to the little woman who was curled up with a blanket on the protruding stainless steel bench . She was humming softly only to stop as she was spoken to . “ Why did you do it, I need to know..really why did you do it?” *he asked as he gripped the bars with his stretched aging hands , his head leaning to the bars.  Amy rolled off the ledge onto her feet as she moved to the bars and gingerly touched his hands * “Even God is reliant on us garbage men..” With that she quieted finding a likeness in her work to the man that stood before her, but on the faces of those two blind justices there was an understood peace for a time where a crime had never occurred at 1:21 A.M. on Revelations Street.

Reviews

[Luke Ritta]

keep up the good work....that story was really good.