Category : Books-Non-Fiction

Sub Category : Biography

 (A Tie-in with my Memoir)

      He squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds from surprising jab of temporary blindness caused by a flash of light that had appeared in his hand. The reflection of the Texas summer sun grew more intense on the silver key continuously being polished with sweat and grime from his convulsing fingers. Beads of sweat flew around as his body shook like a wet dog from the nonstop earthquake roaring through his veins. 
      After a set of forced blinks, gold numbers appeared on the apartment as his vision came back into focus. His left hand sprang out from inside his wrinkled shirt grabbing the door handle, which made it easier to insert the key held in his right. But as the tip of the key could feel the warmth permeated from the burning handle, its keeper had yanked it away and placed back into a pocket. If a doorknob could feel teased, it had deserved it from its false illusion. The knob twisted all the way. They left the door unlocked. In any other instance, alarms would blare telling him to get the hell out of there. Not this time. He knew exactly where the sole resident was at. 
      Time beams forgotten from the intruder altogether, though he did as a SWAT team would and rushed the door. There was a reason for doing this and in his head it had to be done. 
      something cut his quick breach short as it stopped him dead in the middle of the living room. An unknown force had cut off the adrenaline that had pumped and pumped before, which had devised the whole mission off. Instead, that invisible entity was quickly replacing it with something else. Something he couldn’t handle anymore of. 
      Paintings and magazine cutouts covered the walls in a collage of what used to be bright, vibrant colors. While he scanned the room up and down, a loud yelp became lodged in his throat before it could make its escape. The color wasn’t there; almost as if he had stepped into the same room only years later. A single thought broke through eerie Twilight Zone in his head, You can feel later, this must be done Now!
      As if answering with a shake of his head, he swallowed that sobering lump in his throat and kept going into the next room. 
      In the single bedroom, his hand dug into his pant pocket and returned from the dark with a crumpled zip-lock bag. While holding the outside of the bag, he concentrated while dumping out its contents, careful not to touch the displeasing items. Both items slid onto the beside table. With fingers in his shirt, he grabbed one, taking it to the bathroom. Behind the small vanity mirror were four thin shelves littered with orange prescription bottles. Without using his hands, he leaned in and slid a bottle over with his nose then sat the second item in place. 
      Back at the door, a wave of panic flooded any feeling of a job almost complete. He had left the door cracked open in case he forgot to use his shirt to open the door. He was in fact riding on a cloud of pure euphoric apathy. With one eye peering through the crack, he saw nobody else around. With a nudge of his knee the door crept open and in flew a thick waft of heat into his face. Like opening a preheated oven door and sticking one’s entire body inside, he walked onto the surface of the sun and headed for the stairs unseen. 
      There was only one last task to complete the self-assigned mission, and he was ready for it. With his phone in hand, his now calm finger took its time pressing down the two keys that made up 9-1-1.