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Justice served
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Justice served |
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brian madden Member Elite
since 2000-05-06
Posts 4374ireland 
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"And the mercy seat is waiting And I think my head is burning And in a way I'm yearning To be done with all this measuring of truth. An eye for an eye A tooth for a tooth And anyway I told the truth And I'm not afraid to die". Nick Cave === "Carl Grusso, sentenced to death for the murder of Sarah Lawson on the 3rd of July 1943. Have you any last words son." His voice was sharp and cold; I was a guilty man in his eyes and one that deserved to die. They tightened the constraints and the wires, sweat poured from my temple. Inside I was screaming my innocence begging for them to see the truth. But I was condemned from the moment they came and dragged me to the cell, the trial was a dance, a little play just make everything all proper and legal. They held the trial in the city, on account of it been murder, nobody I knew came. Even after awhile they must have believed I did it. The preacher's voice murmured in the background, he was asking God to have mercy upon my soul. I wonder if a man is damned in hell for crimes that he is sentenced to on earth even if he is innocent. "Carl my boy, all the evil in the world in some way sorts itself out. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. That don't mean you strike a man that strikes you first. Nee, you let the big Boy up the clouds do his thing it will all work out." These words that my Papa once spoke to me sometime after he had been beaten and robbed came flooding back in my mind. Still they did not offer comfort. I always had faith in my Papa's words but they ain't no way out of this one. My eyes searched the room for one last time, before they placed the gag in my mouth and the hood over my face. I stared through the glass window in front of me at the group of people who had come to watch me depart from this earth to make sure the job was really done. Most of them were the girl's family. I did not understand would my death ease their hurt and grief? It just don't seem right for them to be here. I took my last breath before the end when my eyes rested on a familiar face one I had seen but where…. at the trial. I saw him in the gallery through my two-day trial, I wondered why he a stranger was there. He seemed to have no dealings with the girl's family. I gazed into his eyes they were as black as coal, narrow and empty. He shuffled uneasy in his seat, smiling nervously there was a serpent lurking beneath his skin. "Justice will be served the guilty will pay" I bellowed, jerking as though a demon had possessed me, I don't know where the words came maybe from somewhere deep inside. They caught me by surprise, I had given in to my faith when this promise came from my mouth like a mule kicking and bucking. They crowded around and gagged me and then it all went black. A fire surged through my body every muscle tightened until I though I would explode into a burning bloody piece of fried meat. Then just when the pain reached its peak there no more only peace then a light the most beautiful one I had ever seen. It drew me in like a moth to candle light. As I reached the edge only to fall fast tumbling towards the pits of hell. Even God thought I was guilty maybe I was then. ************* I opened my eyes, shaking praying that it was all dream and it seemed it was for there I stood in morning light in the wood on the door step of my own home. I gazed around as the trees shed the last of their leaves. They covered the ground, in a sea of gold and brown. I took in a deep breath, still puzzled as to how I got out of the house. I opened the door its hinges creaked on its wooden frame. I walked through the cabin's kitchen and into the bedroom to make the bed only to find to my great surprise that there was a body beneath my blankets. I pulled the blanket back slowly and dropped it staggering back in fright. Lord I was looking down at myself sound asleep. I pinched my own arm to see if it was a dream, and felt nothing. I pinched harder and again nothing. I gripped the shoulders of body in the bed to wake myself and get my bearings when his eyes opened and he yawned lazily. Still I did not vanish. I watched him rise from the bed and gaze right through me as if I were a ghost or not even there at all. He scanned the room wearily just starting to shake the sleep from his eyes. He reeled back in the bed in surprise, "Where the hell am I?" His heart beat as he again scanned the strange room. He spotted a wash basin in the corner of the room and leapt from the bed. He turned on the tap and splashed water upon his face grabbed the towel and dried his face, breathing more easily. He stood hunched over the basin, sorting out things in his mind. I stood beside waiting for this make sense as well. Who was this man that looked like me? He stared lost into thought into the mirror. He wiped it clean with his hands revealing a reflection that sent him falling backwards in fright. He turned to the mirror again to make sure that his eyes were not playing tricks. He stared in shock at his hands then touched his face again. He cursed, "I am a nigger?" He approached the mirror again cautiously. "OH GOD Christ it can't be…" his heart beat faster as he recognised the face he was now wearing. "Jesus, you are dead. I watched you die. NO…NO " he screamed. He flung the mirror from the wall onto the ground and ran out of the cabin in a panic. I walked over the shards of glass and looked down at the pieces and saw nothing looking back up at me. It was then it dawned on me, the words Papa had said to me," never judge a man 'till you walk in his shoes." The man, whose crime I was condemned for, the one whose hands were stained with my death as well as the death of the girl, the stranger from my trial and execution was facing trial for his actions from a higher power. He had become the man that he allowed die in order save his skin. He had become me. ************* I followed him as he ran through the woods, frightened by the unfamiliar surroundings. His thoughts flowed through me, his every word or fear I knew and shared. For he was but a stranger trapped in my flesh, I was still my own soul. His heart pounded against his belly. He ran till it hurt then slowed down. He finally came across a dirt path that would lead onto a road. He was heading towards the city on a meeting with destiny. He passed Old Amos on his way to the mill. "Heh Carl, where are you heading? The mill is the other way" Amos was one of the senior workers at the mill, he was a good man and one of the few mill workers I had any great dealings with. My other self looked at Amos as though he were a stranger, "What day is it?" Amos looked at him equally puzzled. "'Tis 25th of June and time you should be making your way towards the mill." Without saying anything else myself began to run towards the main village. All the while as he ran thoughts swirled in his head, it was the 25th the day that as himself he was to murder that girl and I was to take the fall for it. But things had changed he was now me and either way he was to be damned by his actions. The truck dropped him off in the city. The bell tolled eleven. Its ring was heavy and menacing. Time was short, in another few hours a young woman would be murdered in the woods and placed near the cabin of young black man; a harmless man who kept mainly to himself. He walked along Main Street; cold shadows fell upon his face. The building loomed as heavy weights upon his conscience, the bustling streets were a wave of chaos. All eyes seem to burn into his soul. Every time he passed a window he caught sight of that strange reflection and yet it seemed impossible to believe that any of it was real. We finally reached a bank. He walked through the doors and sighed just happy to be on familiar ground. "Excuse me, can I help you. You can't go in there" a worker called after him as he pushed his way towards his office. He looked at the sign on the frame of the door. "Leonard Tennison. Vice President of Finance." He opened the door to what he knew as his office, hoping that everything would become apparent or sort itself out once he was back on home ground. He stood there watching a man he knew to be himself talking to a young lady. She was also familiar then I remembered I found her lying in a pool of blood near my cabin shortly before the men came and took me away. Leonard touched her shoulder calmly and smiled it was the same hands that would bring a rock down her head, and rob her life. He stared up at the stranger who stood at the doorway "May I help you?" he asked nervously, " I am sorry these are private offices." "I…it can't be" my other self muttered his words trailing off into stunned disbelief. He had come face to face with himself. Who was the man in his office if he himself was another man? Leonard pushed pass the security guard out into the street. He collapsed on the ground tears flowing from his face. Leonard again gazed at his hands; they were not his own white polished hands but Carl Grusso's large black hands. He had yet to understand that the man in the office was himself or just a part of him. It was the cold, emotionless part that would kill Sarah Lawson after she had recently discovered that Leonard had for years been stealing money from the bank. She would take the secret to the grave. The man who at the moment was in my body, he was also Leonard but he was the frightened, guilt ridden Leonard, the one who now realised the consequences of his actions and who repent for them. ************* A cold breeze shook the branches of the bare trees. Leonard Tennison lay hidden in some wild overgrowth, he peered out through the branches waiting close to the place where Sarah Lawson was to be murdered. He heard voices and footsteps rustling on the brittle leaves. Leonard Tennison gripped a rock in his hands. It was the only weapon he could find. He slowly crept closer towards the couple. "You are a very beautiful woman Sarah," he smiled staring into her eyes. She knew not of his intentions to murder her or that he had discovered that she knew about his secret. He touched her on the cheek kissed her lips, then kneeled down. His hands moved through the darkness, she watched him slightly tipsy. "It is so lonely out here I want you to take me home" her voice was filled with anxiety and fear. "I will my love, " he stood slowly up her mouth dropped open her eyes filled with fear as he raised the rock. "NO" she uttered shaking. "Yes" he smiled. "NO" a third voice howled. Leonard turned to face a large black figure lunging towards him. They fell to the ground struggling. "You can not do this, " the stranger said. Both men stared into each other's eyes. One saw darkness and greed the other saw a soul tortured by his own greed. Both saw a man condemned paying for his crimes. Leonard raised the rock and brought down hard upon his face until the body stopped struggling. He dropped the blooded rock and gazed down at his own hands and laughed. They were white not black. He had done it, redeemed himself. He smiled his conscience clear and his misdeeds corrected. He stared down upon the body that lay at his feet, "no it can't be," Sarah Lawson lay on the ground in a pool of blood. He fell to his knees, shaking. "It is all a bad dream." He could still drag the body to my cabin, leave her bloody clothes in my kitchen and call police, tipped off and give them a trail to my door. He could arrange for witnesses to place me with Sarah Lawson. It could all work out. Not this time… Shadows fell upon him, he turned slowly around to find two men standing over him. "Stay where you are, County Sheriff." ************* He struggled in the constraints, jerking wildly. Tears poured from his frightened eyes as the attached the wires. "May God have mercy on my soul" he wept. His eyes stared up and there sitting in the seat where he would have sat was Carl Grusso. Then he understood that regardless of his actions he was damned to pay for his sins, but before he could he had to walk in shoes of the man he himself condemned. He closed his eyes as the hood fell over his face. I got up and left the room, I don't think a person should watch another die in this way. I saw all I needed to see. My life had been spared the mercy seat, the Heaven's had intervened upon the folly of man. I was to return to my humble existence. Nobody but me noticed that justice had been served. "I've been too honest with myself I should have lied like everybody else" faster-Manic street preachers. |
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| © Copyright 2000 brian madden - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Brian, I could not stop reading this! I liked the southern tone of it all, as well as the linking of souls, and the twilight zone feel, mixing the present, past and present again. I know this is not critical analysis...but it needs a little editing..."tweaking" as I call it... Otherwise...good job! Sunny ~~~Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. Helen Keller ~~~ When you want to be loved, look within...KRJ |
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demoninlove Member
since 2000-02-11
Posts 211Dehradun |
Wonderfully told. Yes - this story has an etherial feel about it. Deepak Menon |
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brian madden Member Elite
since 2000-05-06
Posts 4374ireland |
Sunshine, thank you for reading this piece. It has been knocking around in my head for the whole week. I know that it needs to be worked on as this is really my first draft but I am just to get the story on screen and will return to it. I am also glad that the southern tone worked. I was worried not having muck knowledge of America specially the south whether it would work or not. I know it is said that you should write from your own experiences so I went out on a limb with this on. Anyway thank you for your wonderful comments. demoninlove, thank you for your wonderful comments. "Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built Out of longing great wonders have been willed They're only little tears, darling, let them spill" Nick |
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
I will like to read it again once you have had an opportunity to revise it... Sunny ~~~Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. Helen Keller ~~~ When you want to be loved, look within...KRJ |
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Janet Marie Member Laureate
since 2000-01-22
Posts 18554 |
where do you come up with this "stuff"... once again... me needs me tylenol LOL excellent Bri... creative and unique... perfect imagery and detail later-prose-gator jm There are places inside our souls - that have never been touched. There are places inside our hearts - that need to be loved this much. ~jm~ |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
Brian, thanks for gracing us with this inventive piece. I don't know about the "southern" feel, but since I'm a definite "northerner" I wouldn't know!  I have to agree on a bit of tweaking, but especially in the area of paragraph breaks! Remember that it's so much more important to hit enter twice at the end of each paragraph, so we can have an easier time reading it!!! Christopher |
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dgvarner Member Elite
since 2000-05-13
Posts 3552High Springs, Florida |
brian--apparently you need not have "much knowledge" of the american south..youve done a fine job with this! there are places where i, (being a southerner LOL), could help you with the consistancy on southern dialect  but all the same, i think you did a terrific job with this!enjoyed the read  dg"Half of what i say is meaningless; but i say it so that the other half may reach you." -Kahlil Gibran |
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