Undermind: Nine Stories

by Edward M Wolfe

  The judge sighed and turned to face another monitor. “Will the State hear an explanation and consider a sentence less than life in prison?”

  A small picture appeared in the corner of the wall display, featuring the District Attorney Janet Callaway. “The State will hear the explanation.”

  “You may proceed,” the judge said, looking into the camera perched above his desk display.

  “Thank you, Your Honor.” Sheldon looked down at the papers in his lap, then back up at the camera. “My client is from an era when coffee was in common usage and sold in every establishment. He grew up in a household where coffee was served every morning with breakfast. It was—“

  “Mr. Knight. The court is aware of what life was like before the Anti-Stimulant Act of 2039. Your client admits his guilt. If there are no extenuating circumstances beyond the accused’s childhood when the laws were different, then we can proceed with sentencing.”

  “I understand, Your Honor, and I apologize. I just want to speak to my client’s motivations in breaking the law. To his way of seeing it, he wasn’t doing any harm, and there were no victims who suffered as a result of his actions.”

  Janet Callaway interrupted. “Society is the victim here, Counselor. Mr. Brown cannot take it upon himself to decide which laws benefit the people. The people themselves have already decided that.”

  “You’re correct, Ms. Callaway. I just want to point out that my client is 67 years old and has a clean record. His only crime, in all his life was to ingest a stimulant that he had ingested his entire life with no harm to any other being besides himself. I ask that the court consider my client’s intention – that being, to do that which he had always done without running afoul of the law. Granted, he failed to change his daily routine when the laws changed, and he continued—“

  “Mr. Knight, your client did not only continue to drink coffee in blatant disregard for this nation’s laws, presumably for the last three years, but he also took it upon himself to enable others to do the same. He engendered a spirit of anarchy and rebellion, thumbing his nose at authority, and the People. The State is showing plenty of leniency already in only seeking a life sentence.”

  “We appreciate that, Ms. Callaway, and don’t deny his guilt and his debt to society for what he’s done, and for which, he’s prepared to pay. I thought it might help to show that my client was a law-abiding citizen his entire life. He, himself never changed in his nature or intentions, and unfortunately, neither did his habits and routines change. One day he was a pillar of the community, and then the next, he was an outlaw – but only because the laws changed and made coffee an illegal substance. My client is the same law-abiding citizen he was four years ago, but for the criminalization of coffee, coffee grounds, and caffeine.”

  “Are you finished, Mr. Knight?” the D.A. asked, not at all impressed by the defense attorney’s proffer of an explanation for his client’s guilt.

  “Yes, Ms. Callaway. My client asks the State and the Court for mercy in its wisdom in handing down his sentence.”

  “Does the State have anything to add, Ms. Callaway?”

  “The State rests and asks the Court to not be swayed by the defendant’s explanation. We still seek life imprisonment.” The picture within a picture at the corner of the screen winked out and the judge’s face filled the entire wall display, then zoomed out to show the United States flag hanging behind him.

  “In the matter of the People versus Walter Brown, the Court accepts the guilty plea but does not feel the Explanation provides any mitigating circumstances or considerable reason to sentence the defendant to less than the minimum sentence that the State has leniently requested.

  “All through this nation’s history substances have gone from legal to illegal, and vice versa. There was a time when families enjoyed beverages that included such vile substances as cocaine. And they did so in family restaurants and other places where respectable people gathered for meals – not in dark alleys and seedy motels, as they do today. People ingested morphine to ease their pain. Marijuana was grown and used in many ways in competition with the cotton industry, as well as ingested to alter one’s consciousness. The fact is, Mr. Brown, society decides what is okay to consume, and what is not. The people make the laws by way of their representatives and their votes. When the people have spoken, the people must also obey. To state that there are no victims to the crimes you’ve committed is to say that the voice of the nation as a whole is irrelevant to you. That you can decide what is right and wrong, despite what hundreds of millions of your countrymen have decreed to be wrong.

  “Our society has determined that no substance shall be ingested that accelerates the natural functioning of the central nervous system. Stimulants are illegal in this country in all of their manifestations – regardless of how you were raised. The laws have been passed. And you’ve admitted your guilt in violating them. The Court hereby sentences you to remain in custody for the remainder of your natural life.”

  The judge banged his gavel one time then set it down.

  “Court is adjourned.”

  The screen in Brown’s cell wall turned black. Knight grabbed his papers and put them in his briefcase, then stood and grabbed his folding chair with his free hand.

  “I’m sorry, Walter. I did my best.” He looked at his client, chagrined. “If there’s anything I can do for you…”

  “I appreciate it, Sheldon. I just don’t know how I’m going to make it in here. I’ve never been in jail before. I’m so stressed, I feel like I’m going to have a heart-attack.”

  “I’ll ask the guard to bring you some heroin. It’ll help you relax, Walter.”

  ###

  Halloween Bully

  It started on Halloween night.

  Daniel was at a party that he didn’t really feel like being at, but it seemed foolish to turn down going to a party on a holiday. What would he do instead—sit at home and watch TV, by himself? He told himself there was zero chance of meeting a woman at home. But then he argued, he could meet someone escorting her kids door to door. Right. Like that’s what he wanted, someone who already had kids. The party offered better chances of ending his single streak.

  After sticking around for nearly two hours, thoroughly not enjoying himself and not seeing any dating prospects since none of the single women interested him, he slowly worked his way toward the door. He tipped his red, plastic Solo cup all the way up, finishing off his beer and took one last look around to see if anything could possibly make him change his mind. There was nothing.

  Twelve minutes later, Daniel was driving slowly through his neighborhood, careful to avoid hitting any miniature witches or goblins that might come running out into the street from between parked cars. As he drove, he looked around at the houses that were made up for the holiday; white streaming gauze hanging from a tree, plastic jack-o-lanterns glowing with electric light, a few real pumpkins that were carved and lit with candles.

  He thought back to the last time he had gone out dressed up as a kid on Halloween. He had grown up poor and frequently had to wear a homemade costume. When he was very young, he didn’t know the difference between homemade and bought in a store. But the older he got, the more he noticed how fancy and professional the other kids’ costumes looked compared to his and his sister’s.

  It was still easy enough to put out of his mind though as he enjoyed the night and harvested sweets that would last him for months. One day, everything changed. He was old enough to escort his sister around without parental supervision. He had reached the magic age of twelve and his parents no longer required him to have a babysitter. On Halloween that year, he argued that no babysitter at home should equal no babysitter while trick-or-treating. His parents relented and allowed him and his sister to go out alone after a brief lecture about safety, looking both ways before crossing streets, and so on.

  Daniel was waiting for the two standard warnings that they couldn’t possibly include in the speech: Come home when it gets dark, a
nd don’t take candy from strangers. He thought it was funny that they weren’t going out until it was dark, and they were to do nothing but take candy from strangers. But he didn’t voice those thoughts. This was a milestone event that he didn’t want to risk having rescinded.

  The night had gone perfectly. He and Rebecca had nearly full bags of candy and were heading home, not even stopping at any more houses along the way because they had so much candy already, and both of them had aching feet from walking far more than they were accustomed. If they followed the streets back home, it would take them twice as long as it would if they cut through the local park, so Daniel headed toward the park.

  His family lived in a middle-class suburban neighborhood, and it was as safe as any normal neighborhood could be that was gated or walled off with security guards blocking entrances like Daniel had seen when they drove around looking a Christmas lights last year.

  Half-way through the park, there were several picnic tables under a slatted roof. Daniel saw two dark figures standing next to one of the Hibachi grills near one of the tables. Instinctively, he steered his sister on a wide path away from the strangers. One of them left the darkness of the roofed area and began heading his way. Daniel started walking faster and took his sister’s hand to make her keep up with him.

  “Hey! Come here for a minute.”

  Daniel knew the voice without even turning around to see who it was. There was no mistaking Billy the Bastard and his fat, mean voice.

  “Keep walking,” Daniel commanded.

  Rebecca trotted to keep up with her big brother. She sensed from the tone in his voice and their increased pace that something was wrong. But she wasn’t scared. Daniel wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her.

  They were crossing into the darkest part of the park, halfway between the light pole near the grills and the nearest streetlight by the sidewalk where Daniel and Rebecca would turn to head toward their street only one block away. They just had to keep walking and ignore Billy. Maybe he’d give up and go back to where he came from.

  Daniel wondered later how a fat kid who was so out of shape could come up behind them without a sound. One second he was walking through the grass, and the next, he was face down with the wind knocked out of him. He struggled to breathe, but it seemed impossible. Just when he sucked in what felt like a lifesaving breath, it was knocked out of him again by Billy stomping on his back and laughing like a stupid, fat demon.

  He turned to see if his sister was okay. She was lying beside him, facing him with her mouth open in a silent cry. She couldn’t make a sound because she was also trying to breathe as her body tried to cry. Daniel was filled with rage. How dare he hurt a little girl? What kind of person could do that? He would gladly take whatever Billy had to dish out if he would just leave Rebecca alone.

  As soon as his diaphragm stopped its spasm, Daniel sucked in a deep breath and screamed, “Leave her alone! She’s just a little kid!” His voice came out way higher than normal, but he didn’t think about that at the time. He was scared to death of Billy, but he was also so angry with him, he’d be willing to fight him (and lose) if he could just get up from under his big fat foot.

  “What are you gonna do about it, ya little baby? Are you gonna cry all over me?”

  Daniel hated knowing that it was true; he was crying. He wasn’t making any sounds, but hot tears were running down his cheek and dripping into the grass. He tried to toughen up inside and make his tears stop, and make his voice sound bolder than he felt.

  “I just think you should pick on someone your own size, instead of a little girl.”

  “Greg! Danny boy just admitted he’s a little girl! You gotta hear this.”

  “I wasn’t talking about me, you fat bastard!”

  Daniel and Rebecca screamed in unison as Billy jumped up several inches and then landed on them where he had been standing on them before. Their breath whooshed out of them and for the third time, Daniel couldn’t breathe. As he waited for his breath to come back, he grabbed fistfuls of grass and raged internally. He shouldn’t have said anything. His sister would pay just as much as he would for anything he said or did that angered Billy. That was unacceptable.

  The only way he could offer her any protection at all was to completely give in to Billy. To be a good big brother, he had to humiliate himself and not be her hero. He hoped she’d understand later that it was all he could do. He hated Billy even more now than ever before. Taking away his sister’s admiration of him was crueler than simply beating him up. He swore he’d get revenge somehow, some day.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Just tell me what you want.”

  “That’s more like it. Now say you’re nothing but a little girl.”

  Daniel clenched his teeth. Please don’t make me look like nothing in front of my sister.

  “Go on! Say it!”

  He knew if he didn’t, Rebecca would get hurt again. She was crying now and her voice was tearing him up inside. He needed to get her away from here.

  “I’m nothing but a little girl.”

  Billy laughed his stupid laugh again. Daniel could tell it wasn’t even a real laugh. That’s part of what made it sound so stupid. Ah ha ha. Ah ha ha. He wanted to punch Billy in his fat face.

  “Will you please let us up now?”

  Billy tried to think of how else he could take advantage of the situation, but he was distracted by the two overloaded bags of candy lying in the grass. He couldn’t wait to see what was in them.

  “After you say it again. Say you’re a little girl. And a fag!”

  Daniel almost blurted out how stupid that was. It didn’t even make sense. But Rebecca’s crying kept him focused.

  “I’m a little girl, and a fag.”

  This struck Billy as genuinely funny and this time he laughed for real.

  “Oh gawd, Greg. You just missed the funniest thing.”

  He stepped off of the prone kids and gathered up their Halloween bags, still laughing.

  Daniel was relieved to feel the pressure come off his back and that he could breathe much easier. He knew he had made things better for himself and for Rebecca by degrading himself for the amusement of that fat moron. He stayed down, unsure if getting up would cause Billy to resume his assault. But he didn’t want to further embarrass himself by asking Billy for permission to get up.

  He couldn’t tell if Billy was walking away or not. Somehow, he was very quiet in the grass. He craned his head around to look behind him and saw two figures next to the grill the way they were when he had first entered the park.

  He got up quickly and pulled his sister up.

  “Come on!” he said, and they ran together toward the light.

  When they reached their street, Daniel slowed to a stop and bent over to catch his breath. He looked at his sister, feeling shame and guilt.

  “I’m sorry, Rebecca. I had to let him take our candy so he’d leave us alone. And I couldn’t fight him because he had a friend there and it would’ve ended up being two against one.”

  Rebecca looked into his eyes, biting her bottom lip. Her left cheek had dirt and grass stains on it. The front of her mummy costume was wet. He picked off blades of grass and asked, “Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?”

  “My back hurts,” she said in her sweet little voice, and she sniffed, trying not to cry.

  Daniel pulled her close and hugged her. He cried silent tears, thinking of how he had failed to protect her. She was so small and innocent and didn’t deserve to ever have anything bad happen to her.

  “You’ll feel better in a little while. I promise.”

  But she didn’t. The pain got progressively worse until a few days later their parents took her to the hospital. Daniel was taken to stay with an aunt for a few days.

  Daniel peripherally saw a small light moving rapidly in a short arc. It was a glow-stick coming toward him in a kid’s hand from ahead on the left. If it hadn’t been for that, he probably wouldn’t have even seen what happened next.
There was a kid running along on a collision course with a little Cinderella and her mother just off to his left. The mother and daughter looked like they were done trick-or-treating and were either walking home or to a parked car.

  The kid with the glow-stick was carrying a pillow-case burdened with a tremendous amount of candy. Daniel thought it was a good thing he was running because the kid could stand to burn a few calories. He looked about fourteen years old. Dark blonde buzz cut. At least twenty-five pounds overweight, and a look on his face that Daniel was sure he’d seen many times before. It was the look of a self-centered bully who had no regard for anyone else in the world but himself and his own cruel desires. He could practically be Billy’s kid, all these years later.

  Daniel lightly braked his Dodge Durango to a crawl and watched the boy as he ran right up behind the little blonde girl. The kid extended one of his arms toward the girl’s back as he slowed down, but still impacted it with enough force to send the girl flying forward and down onto the asphalt that she and her mother had just stepped onto.

  The next few seconds occurred quickly and mindlessly for Daniel, like a montage of sights and sounds. He saw the girl’s face lift up from the street with blood running down from one of her eyes – he stopped the Durango and slammed the gear lever into park – the boy picked up the girl’s plastic orange pumpkin and in one motion tilted it into his open pillow case – Daniel reached for his door handle - the mother quickly went toward her daughter with her mouth open in shock and fear – Daniel opened his door and stepped out – and the montage slowed down as he focused his attention on the boy.

  The kid dropped the pumpkin and cinched his pillowcase, holding the top end with one hand while sliding the other down to the bulk of the candy several inches below and began to spin the pillowcase around.

  Daniel yelled, “Hey!” as loud as he could, intending to emote a sense of force and authority. He could hear both the mother and daughter crying behind him and that fueled his rage; a rage that had burned for fifteen years.