“Running A Muck” by A. Dakaka

My girlfriend Phelicia Locke and I was living a life like the Joneses. Lavish vacation trips, exotic cars and two vacation homes in two different states. Living the perfect life but there was two things bothering me on the inside that I was keeping from her. I’ve came close to telling her on numberous occassions but it never seems to be the right timing. A blind man could look into her eyes and see her happiness and who am I to spoil that. I knew at some point I either had to come clean or she would hear about it in the streets. “When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: One for our enemy, and one for yourself.” Chinese Proverb

See, two years ago I lost my job to a jealous co-worker who was out to destroy my representation and character. I reported the incidents to human resources but nothing seem to come out of that to resolve the conflicts. I started to feel like I was being pushed to the my limits and I needed to defend myself from a hostile work environment. I started looking for other jobs, but no one was making me an offer with all the experience I had. I was either over qualified or my salary ranage was too high.

Oneday, I came into work early and discovered my office door was unlocked and my desktop and computer was completely unplugged. Someone had done this on purpose. I knew after thinking for a few minutes that it was that country Alabama red neck who’s been pushing my buttons. Human resources didn’t seem to care and displayed how racist and didn’t care if anyone saw the discrimnation cards they played. So, one day on my way to work early, I saw his vehicle parked at a local wafflehouse. He would normally stop there in the mornings to grab breakfast for him and his buddy the maintenance man. As I drove by, something came over me and I made a u-turn in the street. Pulled into the parking lot from the opposite end, cut my lights off and walked up to his vehicle and cut both of his brake lines. No one that I knew of saw me, so I jumped in my vehicle and drove to work; which was another ten minutes on a busy Atlanta Hwy.

I didn’t act out of the norman once i arrived at work and did my daily routine; open my office, spoke to whoever was there, went into the break room and fixed myself some coffee and checked the daily production schedule. By the time I got back to my office, the other employees were coming in by the dozen. Old redneck ass hadn’t made it in yet I see. An hour later a few other managers peep their heads in my office and asked have I seen redneck ass, so I gave them the political correct response I always do, “I didn’t know I was babysitting ignorance.” Then on the loud speaker, the CEO announced for everyone to meet in the conference room for a brief meeting. Everyone dropped what they were doing and headed up front the conference room. No one was smiling and the human resource lady had a look on her face as if she had been crying. “Shit someone is getting fired or has gotten fired” I thought to myself.

“Good morning everyone, I’m going to get straight to the point.” “I never like delivering bad news but apparently Gary Thomas was involved in a deadly car crash on his way to work this morning and was ejected from his vehicle into on coming traffic and was pronounced dead at the scene.” Everyone was shocked; except me. A few gasped for air and a few of the other redneck trump supporters eyes filled with tears. Personally I felt I had just scratched off the winning lottery ticket numbers on the inside. We were all dismissed from work that day. As I drove passed the waffle house, all I could see was me cutting his brake lines on his vehicle.

Once I got home, my girl immediately picked up on something was bothering me. I explained to her that the old fart redneck who kept harassing me was involved in a bad accident this morning and died. “See, see God don’t like ugly, his ass didn’t think karma was going to catch up with his old dusty redneck ass”, she said aggressively. I just looked away and dropped my head. I couldn’t dare tell her what I had did. The week of his funeral, the job took up money to send his wife, I didn’t, there was no need for me to pretend that I cared about him, when I hated his ass with a passion.

Months has passed, the job hasn’t gotten better, and I’ve developed this paranoid sense that everyone is watching me or the police is going to show up at the job and walk me out in handcuffs. My sleep pattern hasn’t gotten worse and I’ve started to drink a few bottles more than I use too. All I can do now is think about what if they come looking for me, I have so much to lose. For now i’m just going to pray on it and take it to my grave.