Wonderful Short Stories Read online

  Christopher was always very particular about his car. He loved it and treated it as he would a woman with a great deal of tender loving care. Every day, he would make certain it was free from dust, ensure that the windows were sparkling, top up the engine with oil, brush the seats until they looked like new, and be sure that everything else was in apple-pie order. Indeed, he always took great care to ensure that all the door locks were secured to prevent anyone from breaking into it. Yet, suddenly, as they passed Ghost Tree, a voice spoke to him from the rear of the vehicle. Christopher swerved violently in the road as the voice came across clearly and he glanced quickly over his shoulder to see the figure. A man of about sixty years of age was sitting on the back seat on the passenger’s side. He was dressed in a shabby black suit and carried a trilby hat on his lap. His face was pallid, his hair quite grey, he boasted a narrow moustache, while his sharp brown eyes had a distinct red rim around the lids.

  ‘How the hell did you get in here?’ he demanded angrily. They had been travelling at fifty-five miles an hour and he hadn’t stopped... not even for a second. So how did the stranger manage to get into the vehicle?

  ‘It’s not terribly far to Carmel,’ stated the man in a low gruff voice. ‘It’s my destination too. Thanks for the ride.’

  Christopher’s foot slammed hard on the brakes causing him to plough to a stop at a gap near the side of the road. ‘How the hell did you get in here?’ he demanded furiously.

  The passenger ignored his question and stared firmly out of the window. ‘It’s such a beautiful view from here, isn’t it?’ he said calmly, as though butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. ‘Look at that wonderful expanse of sea. It’s fantastic. Oh, don’t stop for me. Please drive on.’

  ‘No way!’ yelled the driver, staring hard at his girlfriend as though she had something to do with it.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ asked Jodie, trying to catch her breath. ‘You swerved violently, started talking to yourself, and now you’ve stopped. What’s going on?’

  ‘I locked all the doors before I started,’ he ranted. ‘I checked them all. So how did he get in here?’

  ‘Who?’ she riposted. ‘Who got in here?’

  He ignored her questions and turned to the man angrily. ‘I ask you once more before I throw you out. How the hell did you get into this car?’

  ‘Please don’t become alarmed at my presence,’ exclaimed the man. ‘It doesn’t help to lose one’s temper. It never does.’

  Christopher turned towards his girlfriend and stared at her face directly. ‘Did I miss something here, Jodie?’ he asked. ‘Did I stop somewhere along the route? Because, for the hell of me, if I did, I don’t remember when or where.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she responded, staring at him with a strange expression on her face.

  ‘You stopped at Ghost Tree to look at the Monterey Cypress,’ related the passenger in terms of an explanation. ‘I was waiting there for you. I asked for a lift and you agreed.’

  The young man’s face puckered into a frown. He didn’t remember stopping the car. Why should he? They were on a mission to Carmel where he had family business to attend to. There was no reason for him to stop. And, anyway, he always refused to give hitch-hikers a lift. He had seen movies where such travellers made life hell for the driver of the vehicle ... sometimes even resorting to murder. No, it was against his better judgement as well as his principles. ‘What are you talking about? How come you were waiting there for me?’ he enquired inquisitively. ‘How did you know I was coming?’

  ‘Because that’s the way it has to be. I waited there for a car to take me to Carmel and you came along. You stopped and I asked whether you’d take me and you agreed.’

  ‘Who are you talking to?’ demanded Jodie uneasily. ‘Have you lost your mind? You’re scaring me. Do you know that?’

  Christopher inhaled deeply before shrugging his shoulders and starting the car to drive off slowly down the seventeen mile highway. He felt extremely uncomfortable at having a stranger for a passenger in the back seat but there was nothing he could really do about it without resorting to force.

  ‘I see that you’re going to see your uncle in Carmel, aren’t you?’ claimed the man dolefully.

  ‘How could you possibly know that?’ asked the driver.

  ‘Because it’s in your mind. I have telepathic ability and I can sometimes read minds, although it doesn’t work every time.’

  ‘Well, if you must know,’ declared Christopher, ‘we’re going to visit my uncle. But that’s none of your business!’

  ‘Of course it isn’t,’ returned the man softly. ‘It’s the reason you want to see him that’s most important. You need to borrow money from him, don’t you? However, you have a definite aim in mind if he doesn’t let you have fifty thousand dollars.’

  Christopher pulled slowly to the side of the road and stopped the car. He turned to the man with a dire expression on his face. ‘Okay,’ he began with an ugly expression on his face, ‘who are you? Who told you about my financial situation? How do you know about it?’

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Jodie was getting to the end of her tether. ‘Why have you pulled up now?’

  ‘It’s written all over your face, young man,’ riposted the passenger. ‘I can see it there in black and white. And, in addition, it’s reflected by the fact that you’re carrying a loaded pistol in your pocket.’

  ‘How the hell did you know that?’

  ‘It’s obvious,’ retorted the man casually.

  ‘Who are you talking to?’ asked Jodie starting to become quite tearful by her boyfriend’s erratic actions. ‘All right!’ snapped Christopher turning to the man angrily. ‘I’ve had enough of this! You have two choices!’ he snapped. ‘Either you keep your mouth shut and mind your own business or you get out of the car and walk to Carmel! It’s up to you!’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ retorted the passenger calmly, clutching his trilby hat all the more tighter. ‘I’ll keep quiet but you won’t like it. You definitely won’t like it.’

  ‘And why not may I ask? What are you going to do?’

  ‘Nothing. I’m going to do nothing... but you wait and see. Just you wait and see.’

  Jodie took her boyfriend’s arm affectionately. ‘I think you need help,’ she said slowly. ‘The problems with those shares you bought has tipped you over the edge. There’s a hospital at Carmel. Just drive on. We’ll soon be there.’

  Christopher huffed and puffed for a while and then he began to calm down before starting the engine once more. There was just one thing on his mind. The faster they got there, the quicker he could get rid of their passenger. But what did the man mean when he said that he would do nothing... ’but you wait and see’. What did he mean? He stared hard at the road ahead. The sun was in his eyes yet, despite that, everything began to look misty. Then, incredulously, within a whisker of a moment, he found himself standing in the lounge of his uncle’s house facing him.

  ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ said Ben after offering him a drink. ‘There’s sump’n important I have to tell yuh.’

  ‘I’d appreciate it if you let me go first, Ben,’ he cut in sharply. He had always called his uncle by his first name since he had been a child.

  ‘Well ah think what ah have to say is most important.’

  ‘No, uncle, I think you need to give way to me. Let me speak my piece first! Please!’

  ‘Yuh sound as though it’s urgent,’ returned his uncle sharply, wondering what his nephew was going to tell him.

  ‘It is, Ben. You see, I need fifty thousand dollars,’ he told him quickly, as though saying it fast made the amount sound far smaller than it really was. ‘I need it very badly.’

  ‘What for? Why do yuh need so much? Are yuh buying a place to live in or sump’n.’

&n
bsp; Christopher looked down at the floor before staring up into his uncle’s face. ‘I’ve been a bit of a fool. I’ve bought some shares on the Stock Market in the expectation they would be taken over. Instead, they fell like a stone and I haven’t the money to cover the deal. I’m in real financial trouble.’

  His uncle stared at him with a wry expression on his face. ‘Now yuh know ah promised your folks ah’d look after yuh before they died but there are limits to how much one can do in such a situation. Yuh see, if ah lent yuh the money to let you off the hook, yuh’d do the same thing an’ get your fingers burned again, for sure.’

  ‘Are you saying you won’t let me have it?’ Christopher’s voice was filled with concern.

  ‘If yuh wuz buyin’ a place to live in there’d be no problem. But ah can’t lend yuh money for stocks and shares where yuh’ve already lost most of the value anyway.’

  ‘Come on, Ben. You can do this for me! I promise you it won’t happen again. I swear it!’

  ‘It makes no difference to me if yuh swear it or not. Yuh ‘aint gettin’ the money for stocks and shares.’ His nephew went red in the face and he took the loaded pistol from him pocket which he pointed at his uncle’s heart. ‘That don’t mean nuthin’, son. Mah advice is for yuh to put down that gun. It won’t do yuh any good.’

  Christopher thought about it for a moment and then, without remorse, he squeezed the trigger. The gun went off and his uncle collapsed in a heap with a bullet in his heart. As the sound of the shot reverberated around the house, a woman opened the door and entered the room.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ demanded Christopher sharply.

  ‘I’m Ben’s wife,’ she declared leaning down over her husband’s body to try to help him. ‘You’ve killed him,’ she cried when she realised he was dead. ‘You shot him through the heart. Damn you! Who are you?’

  ‘I’m Christopher, his nephew. But how come you’re his wife? I’ve never seen or heard of you before.’

  ‘We only got married yesterday. Didn’t he tell you?’

  ‘I didn’t know that,’ he responded in shock. ‘He said he had something important to say to me.’

  ‘Why did you kill him?’ Tears began to stream down her face. ‘He was such a nice man. He would never hurt anyone. Why did you do it?’

  ‘I have my reasons but now I’ll also have to kill you because you’re the only witness.’

  She raised her hand as if to speak but, before she could utter a word, he aimed the pistol at her head and shot her dead. However, little did he realise that his problems were only just beginning because the door opened again and two of his cousins, Charlie and Rita, appeared. They were staying at his uncle’s house to celebrate the wedding. In his mind, however, they were more witnesses to his criminal activities. He fired the gun again, killing Charlie as he entered the room, and he cursed loudly as Rita appeared and the pistol jammed, failing to work again. Drawing a knife from a sheath around his belt, he grabbed her from behind and, without hesitation, quickly slit her throat. He was now a murderer killer who had slaughtered most of his family. The police would shortly be on his trail and he would probably be sent to the electric chair to pay for his misdeeds. Why couldn’t Ben have acceded to his simple request? He had previously told Christopher that all his estate would go to him and he had written a Will to that effect. However, now that he had married again, the Will was negated and everything would be inherited by his new wife. It was a bitter pill to swallow. As he stood thinking about his dilemma, the sound of the siren of a police car could be heard outside. Someone had no doubt had heard the shots and they had contacted the authorities. And here he stood, covered in his cousin’s blood, waiting to be captured by them.

  ‘Face the wall and place your hands behind your back!’ ordered the first policeman when he entered the house and saw the four bodies laying on the floor. He held a gun in his hand which he pointed directly at the killer’s head. Then, almost as quickly as it had appeared, the mist cleared in front of his eyes and Christopher found himself still driving the Porche along the highway.

  ‘Hey! What the hell happened there?’ he muttered staring at Jodie as though she was able to provide an adequate answer.

  ‘Happened where?’ she asked, looking at him with great concern. In his present state of mind he might do something to endanger both their lives. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I was standing in the lounge of my uncle’s home and I... never mind!’ He decided it was wiser to keep the course of events a secret. She had no idea what he really had in mind. In fact she would have refused to have come with him on the trip had she known he was going to kill his uncle if Ben didn’t lend him the money. Then he would inherit the estate which was worth about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Not only would he be in the clear but he would have a large amount of capital at his disposal. However, as he had observed in the brief scene a few moments earlier, the police would come at the end and arrest him for murdering four people. If that was going to happen, there was no point in going to his uncle’s house. Not now that the man had remarried.

  ‘Did you know my uncle married again?’ he told her suddenly as if the news had just been passed to him. ‘Yesterday.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ she demanded. ‘He didn’t telephone you. How do you come by that information?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted frankly. ‘It just came into my mind. It was like a dream... ’ his voice faded as he decided to retain his secret. If he told her what he had seen, she would think he had lost his mind.

  ‘I’m having second thoughts about visiting my uncle,’ he said a short distance later. ‘He’s bound to refuse me a loan now that he’s remarried. There’s no point in going there.’

  ‘You baffle me,’ she told him bluntly. ‘For the last three days you’ve talked about nothing else but to borrow the money from your uncle. Now, without any reason, you’ve changed your mind. Tell me, how are you going to repay the stock-broker?’

  ‘We’re going to rob a bank,’ he said. ‘It’s the only way.’

  She stared at him in disbelief. This time he had really flipped. ‘You mean, like Bonnie and Clyde. I don’t think so.’

  ‘Not the two of us, you dope! I’m going to do it on my own. There’s a bank at Carmel. I think I can pull it off.’

  ‘You’re joking, of course!’ she chided.

  ‘No, I’m really serious. I’m going to rob the bank.’ He glanced at the passenger in the rear seat but the man had ostensibly fallen asleep and was totally unaware of the conversation in the front of the vehicle. ‘It’s the only way I can get fifty thousand dollars in the time left available.’

  ‘You’ll never get away with it,’ she told him with alarm sounding in her voice. A red light triggered at the back of her mind warning her that he actually intended to carry out the plan. At first she had believed he was joking, now she realised he was in earnest. He really meant to carry out the deed. ‘The idea’s completely nuts! I really think you ought to reconsider your situation. The problem’s getting to you, causing you to think crazy?’

  ‘Not at all,’ he told her calmly. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. It’s the simplest way.’

  ‘How are you going to do it, Chris?’

  ‘I have a gun,’ he admitted. ‘It’s in my pocket.’

  ‘You have a gun?’ she repeated in astonishment. ‘Why?’

  ‘I brought it along just in case,’ he told her calmly.

  ‘I presume you do have a conscience, Chris,’ she said pointlessly. ‘I mean, people could get killed.’

  ‘No one’s going to get killed. I’ll take out the bullets first. No one will be in danger.’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ she reproached with alarm.

  He started to plan the assault on the bank, visualising the entry, the teller, and the customers
. He could hide his identity from the video camera by wearing a balaclava he had stored in the boot of the car to wear during the cold weather. He stared at the road ahead. Yes, that’s what he would do. He would rob the bank. Suddenly, the mist appeared again and he found himself on the outside steps of the bank. He entered closing the door firmly behind him. There were eight customers in the banking hall and they turned to look at him in confusion because he was wearing the balaclava and waving a gun in the air. He hit the security guard hard on the head with the butt and fired one shot into the ceiling before racing towards the back of the hall.

  ‘Everybody lay down on the floor and no one will get hurt!’ he ordered at the top of his voice. The customers obeyed him without question and he turned his attention to the teller behind the counter. ‘Okay,’ he told the woman. ‘I don’t want half a million or a hundred thousand. I want fifty thousand dollars in cash.’

  In total fear, she opened her cash-register and took out a wad of money. ‘That’s all I have in the till,’ she told him, wishing that the floor would open up beneath her feet to devour her as she stared directly at the nozzle of the gun.