Artie

An idea that I had back when I was incarcerated, it was a good story for telling, out loud. Let's see how it reads.

 

When I was a teenager, I had a friend named Artie. I knew him from the neighborhood. He, like me, kind of hung out with a rough crowd. He was a decent guy although, not the smartest kid in the class.

Artie and I kind of went our separate ways and I often wondered in the old days, whatever happened to him.

 I was arrested in the early eighties and had forgotten about Artie for the most part.  Then after I'd been in prison a couple of years, guess who suddenly shows up on the yard one day? That’s right, my old pal, Artie.

 "Wow buddy," I exclaimed, "what the hell brings you to this God Forsaken place?" Artie just kind of hung his head real sad-like and tells me "I killed some people."

I was flabbergasted; although Artie was dumber than a stump, I always knew him to be a gentle, caring, human being. He went on to tell me the story. The story made me laugh, it made me cry, and it helped me to understand why you don’t judge a book by its cover, why you don’t judge until you've walked a mile in someone else’s shoes.

Artie had always been very close to his older brother, Eric.

Eric had a girlfriend that treated him (Eric) badly.

Artie always hated that b***h and wished Eric would dump her. Of course, up until a short time before this calamity took place, Eric was perfectly happy with his girl and just smiled at dumb old Arties opinion.

 

One day while the two brothers were talking, Eric let it slip that he was unhappy.

The reason for his unhappiness was his girl. Eric had an idea she was cheating on him. He, in fact, knew she was cheating, knew who she was cheating with and was very despondent about it. He told Artie that she was cheating with the butcher at the Safeway where she worked. He also told him that he was afraid to do anything about it because they had been together so long that if he chased her off, she'd leave with the car, the house, everything, and he didn't know what to do.

 

Artie was enraged, he hated this b***h for breaking his brother's heart and for doing it in such a fashion that Eric felt he could do nothing about it. As they continued to talk, Eric, at one point, said jokingly, "I'd hire someone to kill them both but I could only pay them a dollar." Artie took this very seriously. He told his brother, "Man, I'll kill them both for a dollar." Eric didn't really respond he just shrugged it off as being just two men talking, not really meaning anything.

 

The next morning Artie was at Safeway at 5am to await the arrival of Eric's girlfriend and the butcher. Both were scheduled to be to work at 5:30 am.

He watched them as they arrived. The butcher arrived on his motorcycle first. He opened the door with a key and relocked the door. When the girl arrived, Artie watched as the butcher came to the door and unlocked it. Then, as bold as anything he'd ever seen, they kissed, right there in front of the whole world.

 Artie saw red. He was enraged. He ran into the Safeway and grabbed the butcher by his neck and twisted until the life went out of him. All the while, the girl was screaming, "no Artie, no." He then turned on her and grabbed her by the throat and twisted, again, until there was no life left.

Both were dead.

 

I was amazed and just a bit suspect of this story. Artie looked completely serious, and very sad, though I had to ask him. "Did your brother give you a dollar?"

Artie didn't even smile; he looked at me and said "Wait here."

He returned a few minutes later with a newspaper cut-out, folded in his hand. He said, "I know you don't believe me, but here's proof.

He handed me the newspaper which I unfolded to a headline that read 'artichokes two for a dollar at Safeway.’

 

 

Reviews

[Tony]

I think it is easy and interesting to read. You spin a good yarn, and I am reminded of your bio in which you said you have something to say about just about everything. Keep em' coming!

[Dave Lounsbury]

I thought it read pretty well. The pacing was good. The story moved along at a good rate and wasn't jarring to the read. Nice work.