Friday, August 29, 2014

#FridayFlash - Wages of Sin


Mark blew on his coffee and stared through the plated glass window, watching as two men made a hit on his car. It had to happen sooner or later, he knew; there were too many reports—about this store, this location—to suggest otherwise. Still, he let it happen, watching as the two men stood on either side of the car, acting as if it belonged to them.

The odd thing, as far as Mark was concerned, was that they didn’t recognize his vehicle from before, when they stole some fairly valuable items—items that were later used to inflict more misery and pain upon his life. Maybe they had seen too many vehicles in their so-called career. What was one red, but old, Honda compared to another? Of course, it was probably that they did in fact recognized his car, but didn’t care. Maybe they thought he was the idiot. Some people never learn, right?

Mark was different, though.

He watched them grab the bags he conspicuously placed in the back seat. In less than a minute they had opened up his car, grabbed the stash, and were walking away. Amazing. And the funny thing, almost poetic when he thought about it, was that they actually locked it up for him. He knew this because the lights winked twice as the punks shut the doors.

Thirty seconds after hitting his car, the men had climbed into their own car, a Cadillac of all things, and were now pulling out of the shopping mall parking lot, acting as if they had just spent an exhausting day walking around.

He gave them a minute, just enough to make sure they were a mile down the road. He set his coffee down on the bookstore table, and then reached into his pocket. With a few quick keystrokes, Mark hit the SEND button. Ten seconds later, the concussion of the car bomb sent ripples through the remainder of his coffee. All around the bookstore, people looked at each other, not sure what they just felt. Was that an earthquake? Out here?

Mark smiled. “The wages of sin,” he said.

12 comments:

  1. had a feeling that was going to happen. But then I felt good that it happened!

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  2. True, this was more direct in it's approach. In a cathartic way, it's what I wish could happen to punks who break into other people's cars (or homes or whatever) to steal.

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  3. Poetic justice. A few incidents like this and the crime rate will just plummet as lessons are learned by the scumbags.

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    1. That is an interesting phenomena, Steve. Here in the States, people have an aversion to guns, but if you listen to the advocates for "conceiled carry" they'll tell you that it actually lowers the crime rate. I don't know personally. It's just what they say. Still, I agree. A few cases like this would certainly give the thugs a little pause.

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  4. Oh sweet revenge, oh poetic justice! His calmness during the process is frightening, but then again I too felt good about what he did, about his whole plan and what it grew out to be. I guess everyone would be in this situation...

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    1. Being a recent victim of theft, I felt good, if only in a vicarious way. :-) That's about all I have.

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  5. Ah there is nothing like sweet revenge! Nice short story Stephen. ^_^

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  6. I like it. There is something to be said about the liberal use of explosives. Of course they never look in the bag, do they. You would think that by now people would look in the bags.

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    1. True, Jon. Here's another thought I recently had: why not package up a zip-locked bag of backyard goodies left behind by my dog? That and a nice little message that reads, "Ha! Ha! You got S---!" I just hope they wouldn't break my window to get at it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

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  7. Haha, justice! Kind of reminds me of the "trunk monkey" commercial from a couple years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geynA-JYDHE

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  8. At least he let them get far enough away that hopefully no innocent bystanders got caught up.

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