The Beginning of the End

“You’re going to need these. You know you will.”

“No thank you.”

“You will, You don’t know it yet but you will.”

This encounter is what had been keeping me up all night. Why would I need those pliers? Why was he so insistent that I should be the one to take it? All these unanswered questions and I was still drawn to go back, to find out more. I decided at that moment that the next morning I would go back, my curiosity was too much for me to endure.

So the next day I headed out towards the stand. I can’t explain why, but I have a feeling that I am missing something, there’s more to this story.

“You’re going to need these. You know you will.”

“Why, what are these for?”

“They’re for you.”

Suddenly the man thrust a bag into my hand and, of course, sticking out were the pliers I had seen the day before. I tried to hand them back to him, and he rejected them.

“They’re for you.”

His stiff demeanor made me uncertain about what to do, but just to get him off my back I took them home and started rummaging through the bag.

I sat in the middle of my living room floor. The door to the balcony provided the main source of light in my small dimly lit apartment. I sat in the middle of the floor, somewhere between my living room and kitchen and I peered into the bag. A wafting scent of mold hit my face as I slowly opened the bag.

“Huh?”

Inside the bag were seemingly strange and unrelated items. When opening I found, of course, the giant pliers, but there was also a bouncy ball. The kind you could win at a small town arcade. There was one glove, it was silk. It felt cool to the touch and had a soft feel to it. I wondered why there was only one, but while pondering I caught a glimpse of the last item. There in the bag was some sort of hard drive, it was misshapen and looked as though someone had thrown it up against a wall.

With excitement, I ran to my computer to see what would come of it. However, the hard drive didn’t fit into my computer. My computer was an old worn-down one, I bought it on eBay two years ago. It was worn down and now barely used since I graduated college and started a new job at the local corner store.

I sat and pondered what could be on the hard drive, in hindsight it was probably a good thing it didn’t fit into my computer. I didn’t know what was on it and I could have gotten an endless amount of viruses, and the last thing I needed was to buy another computer I couldn’t afford. In any case, it didn’t fit. I finally decided that the next day on my way to work I would take all this stuff to the public library and see what I could find on the hard drive.

I never made it to the library that day.

I started out early in the morning hoping to get a jump on the morning traffic. As I ruffled through the old cloth bag full of all the random items trying to find my library card, I dropped something. The rubber bouncy ball rolled right out of the bag and was bouncing down the street. I followed, and every couple of minutes reached down to grab the ball, and it was always just out of my reach. Finally, it slowed down enough for me to grab it. That’s when I realized I had no idea where I was.

I glanced around. The place was cold and still. There were brick walls on either side of me. Then in front of me, I noticed two big boots.

I still don’t know how I didn’t hear him approach those big work boots or how I was so oblivious to them standing right in front of me.

I slowly peered up and saw a big man, he was probably 6”5 and muscular. He had broad shoulders and a sinister look on his face.

Suddenly it hit me.

“Aaron Goldman?”

Aaron Goldman is the wealthiest man in town. He is known as a local hero due to his great generosity. He gave to many organizations and is often seen on the front page of the paper helping homeless or lost puppies of some sort. He often came into the corner store, he would generously tip us workers. He was always my favorite customer not only for the money, although it was a nice bonus, but for his generally cheery attitude. This brought me great relief in knowing that all of my fear that I had built up a minute ago was now for nothing.

“Mr. Goldman! What a delight it is to see you! What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

He looked at me for a moment with a cold and unmoving face.

“Why are you here?”

This rapid avoidance of the question seemed off-putting to me but I responded honestly.

“Well sir, I was headed to the library when my ball slipped out of my hand. So I chased after it and well honestly I don’t really know where I am.”

With that, he started to walk towards me. His face was still and cold, not a muscle moving in his face.

“Mr. Goldman?”

He had no response he just kept creeping towards me. Slowly, without breaking eye contact he reached down and grabbed the pliers right out of the bag. Petrified, I turned to realize I had hit a wall, a dead end.

“Mr. Goldman! Mr. Goldman!”

He continued closer, not moving a muscle.

“AARON?!”

He lifted the pliers, and as he slowly opened them I started to sweat. Tears running down my eyes I became speechless. I was frozen with fear. Then as the pliers finally opened it clicked that I was truly in trouble. Suddenly with a rapid movement, he lunges for me. I luckily was able to duck but he did chop off my left hand. Bleeding profusely I pounced towards him. With my right hand, I grabbed the pliers swiftly and hit him with all my force on his leg. He fell to the floor with a small gasp, but nothing more. His face still has the same cold look.

I started to hear sirens and I thought someone must have seen it and had called for help. Looking around I saw him standing there. The man from the street. With the same cold unmoving expression I realized that I had been set up.

As the police rounded the corner I saw Aaron’s face change. Suddenly he was back to normal.

“Help!”

He was screaming in agony. As the police apprehended me I watched Aaron, hoping he would just tell the truth. Instead, he just mouths,

“Sorry.”

I am now sitting in my jail cell reading the paper. I know everyone has painted me as the villain, how could I hurt the poor Aaron Goldman, the town’s beloved? I was set up. Mr. Goldman goes on and on in the paper.

“I don’t know what got into him, it shows how fast a true friend can turn on you.”

As I look at the picture they have painted of me on the paper. A cartoon-like figure was standing, in one hand a big pliers and the other with just a silk glove covering my stub. I had a mean expression and was shown as an evil man. I knew deep down that if I was to seek revenge I would become this picture. However, I don’t care, I’ll seek my revenge. They were the ones that made me the villain, not the other way around.

I found out 20 years later, when I got released from that damp, dark jail, that it was all an elaborate plan. When they gave me all my personal items upon leaving I saw the hard drive, the one that I had been thinking about for years. I ran to the library and quickly plugged it into the public computer. As I clicked on the file that popped up, all that was on that plain white doc was,

“You needed this. I knew you did.”