A Sudden Explosion of Emotion

A Story by Alejandro Manuel Espinoza

I left the hotel quickly, my shoulders swinging quite efficiently and strongly, butting past the crowd outside and failing for every misdemeanor. I knocked a little girl to the ground as I strutted past, screaming on my cell phone. Her parents scuttled over to pick her up, and shouted after me.

“You damned bastard.”

The tails of my leather coat waved goodbye and symbolized my ignorance. I squeezed the grip of my pistol – and threatened them to touch me without eye contact. Pacing over to a red Volvo, I took the butt of my gun and shattered the glass on the driver’s side. I felt a shard of glass – no bigger than a thumb tac – jam into the base side of my hand. I unlocked the door and sat on the pile of glass in the seat. The gun flung from my grip as I tossed it against the passenger side door and dug out my keys. The car whimpered and I stepped on the gas pedal as hard as I could. Maybe there was a spider on the pedal, because I sure as hell stepped on something like I wanted it to die. The rocky start had me smashing into the car I parallel parked behind – and I saw the couple gasp as they ran into their slick but now smashed ride, and I laughed at the destruction of something they held dear.

“How long has the dude been at my house?!”

“I don’t know man, maybe like fifteen minutes.”

“Alright John, I’ll talk to you later, I’m going to tell her not to piss in my toilet after she’s done screwing him.”

“Dude come on, don-”

I hung up the phone and began passionately smashing it against the dash board – the circuits flew and bounced off of every hard surface in the car – and when I had my fill I tossed the little cadaver out the window.

I pulled up in my driveway, diving out of the car as I abruptly shifted it to park. I stumbled and caught myself as I fell onto the soft golf course grass I spent thousands of dollars on.

“Walk on my grass,”

I said, breathing heavily.

“You must be crazy.”

I threw myself at the glass door, and it was almost as if my heart thrust itself forwards too, as I saw the remnants and scraps of lingerie clothing amongst shards of broken glass. I slid across the wood floor, stopping as friction took over. In the split second of my inaction, I heard the two whispering in the other room. As I rose, the glass slid off my shoulders like the most elegant waterfall – and then I saw her shuffling in her rosy colored pajamas, hands in the air – waving them.

“Oh. Christ – stop it!”

I grabbed her by the wrist and tossed her into the room she stood in front of. She twirled, almost like a dancer for a split second, on the axis of unbalance, and tumbled across the bed and onto the hard floor. I enjoyed seeing her tremble as she tried to get up from her lowly position on the hard floor.

“Screw you Sean!!”

She screamed.

“Shut up.”

I screamed, glancing around, looking for the guy.

“You shouldn’t be saying anything right now!”

“Sean, get out! Get the f--!!”

I swung my leg back with as much force as I could muster – from the years of good memories turned sour – and kicked her in the face as she screamed in mid-sentence. She flipped over on her side and cringed into the fetal position, holding her face with delicate hands.

“You shouldn’t be saying anything right now!”

I repeated. I looked at the closet door and swung it open, and saw her, naked, tiny, and trembling, my daughter. The grown man sitting behind her was equally unvarnished – I felt my hands drop to my sides. I had seen movies with no soundtrack – and movies with no sound at all. I heard nothing – the adrenaline pumping through my ears silenced my unintelligible yells. I grabbed the man’s hair – it was long – and dragged him out of the closet. He didn’t move – as if he had given up and realized he was caught – but then I realized he was already dead. My head spun as I looked at his naked corpse.

“DAMN IT, WOMAN!”

The night was so entirely quiet, and cold March wind blew in from an open window.

“Oh, Jesus Christ.”

I backed away from the body and sat on the bed. My little daughter sat in the closet, rocking back and forth, holding her teddy bear. And I screamed.