Sunset Creeps

The room was dark. It was cold too. I had nothing to keep me warm but the grey overall that I had worn. The fact that it was raining cats and dogs outside could have had something to do with the dull mood but I think the somber circumstances surrounding my life were playing a bigger role at that particular time. I was hungry. The supper I ate was barely enough. You would have thought by now I would’ve gotten used to it, but I hadn’t.

It was an accident. It was not meant to go down like that. I am a good man, I have always been. But the turn of events on that fateful day changed my life forever. And who would have known things would have ended up like this? If I had the slightest inkling of this life I am currently living, I would have never left my bed that Monday morning two years ago. Instead, I could have just spent the day with my beautiful wife and the baby we were expecting that summer.

I can still remember her pretty face as I prepared to leave for work that morning. To say she was gorgeous would be understatement. The pregnancy was good to her. Five months into it and she was still energetic and vibrant. She was glowing. We had recently tied the knot so were not over those ‘little things that love birds do’. She was sad when I kissed her goodbye.
She begged me to stay and spend the day with her. But I had a really important deal to close at work. With a baby on the way, I had to jump on any chance to make a few extra dollars. We were not badly off financially, but one can never have too much money.

She escorted me to my car and handed me my briefcase. And as I drove away from the house, she stood by the porch waving goodbye. I watched her smiling image get smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror as I sped away. I smiled back not knowing that that would have been the last time I saw it.

I didn’t even know whether we had a boy or a girl. We had decided to learn of the gender at the time of birth. But I really hoped it was a girl, so that she could take after her mother. Anyone who could have told me the whereabouts of my wife and child was not allowed to see me. You see, I was in solitary confinement and they wouldn’t let me have any visitors. So the 4 by 4 ashy grey prison walls with chalk scribbles of ‘I was here’ was all I had seen for the past 757 days and 17 hours of my life.

They slipped food to me through the opening on my door. The space was barely enough to allow the tray to comfortably slide in. I didn’t even know who guarded my prison door but I knew someone was always there. I could hear them whisper as they exchanged shifts. A small crack on one of the walls is what made me know what time of day it was as some sun rays could at least make their way through. But to be honest, I stopped caring. Night and day were all the same to me. What I was certain about is that every rising and setting of the sun brought me closer to my last day on this earth.

I cannot even remember the last time I slept soundly at night. Every time I tried to close my eyes the events of that inauspicious day play out like some sort of box office movie starring the famous Chuck Norris and produced by Steven Spielberg.

There was to be a meeting between the company partners, myself included. Shares were to be bought, contracts were to be signed and a little later on, champagne was to be popped to celebrate the new acquisitions. That was how it should have gone. But instead a disagreement sparked, tempers flared, blows were exchanged and shots were fired. The complete opposite of what I had envisioned that day to be.

It was an accident. It was self-defense. I didn’t mean to do it. I had never even handled a firearm before. But there were witnesses and my prints were all over the pistol. According to the jury, I had a motive. When the guilty verdict was read, the sentence given and gavel slammed, I knew it was over. I knew the sunset was creeping! Dusk was neigh.

My wife wasn’t present during my hearing. The hustle of being a new mother was probably weighing her down. She shouldn’t have been going through that alone. I should have been by her side and it hurt me deeply every moment I thought of her doing everything by herself.

So the D day was finally here. The day I was to face the chair that was mentioned in my sentence. I was mentally prepared for it but physically, not so much. I was trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. I did manage to write letters to my wife and kid though. Letters that I hoped would get to them safely. Letters that I hoped would explain why daddy was not around. Letters that would say I was sorry. Letters that proved I loved them.

My last steps on this earth were in shackles. I was being escorted to the vehicle that would take me to my punishment. A punishment that I thought was too harsh for what I had done. But what did I expect? The man whose life I took was powerful. And he came from an equally powerful family. They would not have settled for anything other than this. I had to pay with my life.

There were so many journalists with cameras and microphones. So many protesters with placards were chanting as well. Some thought I deserved it, others were telling me to be strong. Everyone wanted a glimpse of me, the murderer.

Out in the crowd, I saw her. She was carrying a baby in her hand. When she saw that I had seen her, the tears she was trying so hard to hold onto broke their banks. I stood rooted to the ground as I watched her try to make her way through the multitudes of people and get closer to where I was. She was still as beautiful as I remembered.

Before she could get any closer, the guards prompted me to move. They led me to the back of the van and shut the doors locking the world outside. As we began to move, I looked outside the small frosted window and saw her face disappear into the crowd. It was almost like what had happed that Monday morning, two years ago, only that this time her eyes were full of tears.

As they strapped me to the chair and begun counting down, I couldn’t help but recall one specific thing. It was purple. The shawl wrapped around the baby was purple. We had bought purple for a girl and blue for a boy. It was purple. We had a girl. It was a beautiful baby girl!

“Three, two, one . . .”

That was a story I wrote some time ago, I just thought I should share. Hope you liked it :)

Have a nice weekend. See you in December.

#happydays