A Past Me

A Man meets a boy whilst robbing a bank.

A past me

A man comes barging in to the small room, and swings a gun around looking for anyone who try’s to resist.

 

Man: This is a f*****g robbery!

 

(He lowers his gun confused. He looks around the room, its filled with pictures of the mans life up until this point, and a small child is standing in the corner.  He turns around to leave but the door is gone. )

 

Man: Who the f**k are you?

 

Boy: Mummy Sais that it is bad to swear.  One time I called her a b***h, and she made me put a sock in my mouth. She put the sock in vinegar first though. It wasn’t very nice.

 

 The man becomes increasingly distressed with his situation, and continues to wave his gun around.

 

Man:  (shouting) How do you know that?

 

Boy: What happened to you? I want to be a fireman, but you don’t look like a fireman.

 

Man: Look kid. You don’t know me. You don’t f*****g understand.

 

(The man looks around the room again, turning on the spot. When he gets around fully, he sees the boy has grown a few years)

 

Boy: I’m top of my class you know. I got a-

 

Man: Where did the other kid go?

 

Boy: I got an A for history, and an A* in math’s.

 

Man: Listen to me kid. (Grabbing him by the collar) You tell me how to get out of this f*****g room right now or I swear-

 

(The boy grows once again, and is now about 15)

 

Boy: Chill out man. You don’t have a light by any chance! (He pulls out a cigarette)

 

Man: You shouldn’t be f*****g doing that, how old even are you. (He pushes the boy to the ground.)

 

Boy: F**k you man.

 

(The boy props himself up against a wall, now about 18. The man remains the standing and starts banging on the wall.)

Boy: If you want to leave, just open the door.

 

Man: (shouting in his face) There is no f*****g door.

 

(The boy grows to about 23; he looks as if he’s homeless)

 

Boy: Mum kicked me out. F*****g b***h. She just doesn’t get me.  (Putting on a female voice) ‘Get out, get out, get out. I want you, your drugs and your w***e of a girl friend out of this f*****g house’ To be fair to her, she was a w***e.

 

Man: How the f**k are you doing that. Get out of my f*****g head.

 

(The boy merges into an exact copy of the man)

 

Boy: Why you doing it? You’re better than this.

 

Man: It’s none of your f*****g business!

 

(The man raises his gun, points it directly at the boy, he fires his gun repeatedly until there are no bullets left, and even then he continues for a couple more seconds. The boy remains fine. A single shot then enters the back of the man’s back, and he cripples over. The boy picks up the bullet, which passed straight through the man, looked at it, and then placed it in his pocket. He then gets out a lighter, and starts smoking.)

 

Author's Note

How do you interpret this piece?

Reviews

[BobM]

So- I understand that the boy represents flashbacks the man is having, as his psyche tries to convince him not to rob the bank. However, the point in which the man dies sort of hangs me up. I'm guessing- which, I suppose, I did for the part involving his inner debate, as well- that he convinces himself not to do it. Then, his self as the morally corrupt person is destroyed, and the alternate version(who is either less corrupt or just one that does not rob the bank) takes his place. OR, maybe while he is having these flashbacks, he is literally shot. Then he dies, and only the past version of himself exists, in a non-physical way, I guess.

I also noticed that by the time the man had become 18, there was no "door" out to escape his failing life.

Seriously, it's the end that gets me. Why does the boy put the bullet in his pocket? Has the man become the boy, who was killed- so the bullet is now part of his life-event-memory? But why then, would the boy not share the bullet-wound? Perhaps if the man had not literally died, his psyche had converged into the boy's, wherein the man decides not to rob the bank. Then the bullet would be part of his deep-memory as a reminder of what he once was, and must never be again.

Or maybe I'm wrong entirely, and his life is already over, and his life is flashing before his eyes. I have difficulty with this, because there is a relatively large amount of time between his entering the bank, and a realistic outside response, in the form of a gunshot.

I prefer to believe that he only metaphorically dies, and that the bullet is kept in his memory to remind him of his near-mistake. However, this still brings up the problem of how he escapes the bank after entering with a gun. Maybe he had never gone to the bank? And he was only thinking about robbing it? I find either argument hard to stomach.

So what do you think, did I get it at all? Am I not seeing something?

[T.Langham]

Well yeh, you got the first bit entirely right. The ending I deliberately left open for interpretation however In my view, the man gets shot by the police as he is indeed in the bank, and has just fired his gun. The non-physical version of himself then picks up the bullet and looks upon it, and this to me represents the mans fight with death. He then puts it in his pocket. Wether he dies or not, is up to you. The fact that the boy doesn't disappear could suggest he doesn't, but the fact he puts the bullet in his pocket also suggests that the death became apart of his life, or him giving up the fight to survive. Anyway, what do you think of he concept? Should i leave it how it is or make it more obvious to how it concludes? Thanks for the comment.
T.Langham

[BobM]

I think artsy people would probably revel in that sort of thing, though I'm not sure I can appreciate an ending that vague. I do like some ambiguity, but there's too much of it here for me. Regardless, it's another interesting concept.