Alphabet Short Story
A Chance at Redemption
It was twilight and the boy waited as the sky became more nigrescent. Under the cover of darkness he clambered the fence and crept inside the house. There, he quickly and methodically searched for precious items. Before the sky became albescence he gathered his stolen goods and hurried towards the back door. In his hurry he tripped over an object in the dark. His head slammed into the alarm box setting loose a wail that made him grind his teeth. His heartbeat fluctuated as the panic set in. He reached for the doorknob. He heard a crack and light danced in front of his eyes as a piercing pain spread along his skull. Then his world went black.
A day later he was in front of a judge who was determining his sentence.
"As you are 16 and therefore underage, you're unable to go to jail. However, as a penalty you shall do community service in helping Mr. Daniels, an elderly man, for the span of three months!" The crowd vociferated their approval.
The boy who was named Johnny glowered at the judge. He always thought that the judge was like the dictator of justice. He despaired of his punishment to help this octogenarian!
The next morning Johnny set out for his first day of punishment. He groaned inwardly as he stepped up to the door. Johnny rang the doorbell and was quickly ushered in by a cowering man. Immediately he was hit by an odour of decay and disease. His eyes adjusted to the dim luminescence and he stared at the man before him. It was then, staring at the shaking frail man, that he realized that the old man was xenophobic. Johnny then went to work on the dinky home. His first task that was set before him was to dust, clear and clean all the rooms. He was amazed at all the memorabilia that littered the rooms. Among them there were heirlooms, such as a sword that was ausformed in the dark ages, and basalt from a volcanic island. It was apparent to Johnny that the old man, Daniels, was once a toreador.
As Johnny cleaned, he went into an autopilot mode. He thought back to the night of his arrest. The last thing he could remember before blacking out was a dark figure in his peripheral vision, holding a bat. After that he could not recall anything but the time he woke up his holding cell.
Suddenly he was jolted from his reverie by old man Daniels, who was iterating incomprehensible gibberish. Suddenly he snapped out of it and started talking to him. He began quizzing him about his life and supervising his cleaning. At times he would gently correct him but other times he would sharply command him.
"No, leave that picture there!"
Johnny looked at the picture, squinting past the faded glass. He was surprised to see a resplendent man next to a young, attractive woman in a flowing white wedding dress. Out of curiosity Johnny turned to him and asked about the picture. He then was given a family history lesson and was shocked to find that he and the old man are distantly cognate.
The week gradually crawled by and Johnny gradually got more and more annoyed as Henry, Mr. Daniels, kept correcting his syntax.
"No, no, it is to whom you talk to not to who you talk to" Henry corrected. To which Johnny would reply:.
"Yes Mr. Daniels", while thinking who cares?
Although sometimes he would voice his opinion and they would have a kerfuffle.
As time dragged by, things seemed to get easier and Johnny, to his surprise, struck up a comradery with Henry although they would have quibbles about his cleaning. However sometimes Johnny could not help eyeing the heirlooms scattered around the house. He kept on estimating what the price of the heirlooms would be if they were to be sold to a pawn shop.
Then one day when the old man was taking his afternoon nap, Johnny stole a few select items and hid them away.
The next day when he came into the house he was met by the sight of Mr. Daniels fallen apart and jabberwocky.
"What is wrong Mr. Daniels?"
"My precious heirlooms s-s-such as m-my Gold ancestral emblem a-are g-g-gone!" he wailed. Suddenly he snapped his head towards Johnny. He glared at him. The old man's hard steely eyes boring into Johnny's skull. Johnny shifted uncomfortably. Then Daniels spoke in a low barking growl:
"It was you! You stole them!" Thinking quickly Johnny replied:
"I-I swear I did not steal them. Maybe you have just misplaced them!" Stammering, he uttered a few more excuses. Relaxing, the old man finally gave into his excuses. Then Johnny worked in silence, however, as the day went on he felt more and more remorseful about hoaxing the frail man. He knew then that he had hoisted his own petard. He chided himself telling himself that in no time the senior will have forgotten all of this.
Over the next week however he could not shake this remorse. In the meantime, Mr. Daniels became more and more frail and dependent upon Johnny. Finally Johnny saw the light and brought back the stolen items and secretly replaced them. Time went on and Mr. Daniels never questioned the reappearance of his precious items.
As his time of doing community service grew to a close, he felt a fondness towards this old man. From him he had learned the true meaning of life. Life is not about what you do not have, but what you already have.
It was his last week doing community service and while he was cleaning the bathroom, he heard a gasp. Worried he rushed to Mr. Daniels. There he found him on his deathbed. As he watched the life gradually ebb away, Johnny was overcome with guilt and a need for forgiveness. Babbling and crying, he told Mr. Daniels what he had done. To which he replied:
"Do not worry son, it is not the crime that counts but that you undid it. You have a chance to stop being unregenerate."
"I am so sorry. Please do not die," sobbed Johnny grasping the old man's soft frail hands.
"It is best this way," rasped Mr. Daniels
"No, no, NO!"
"I forgive you," and with that last gasp, the old man settled back in his pillows and closed his eyes. After a few moments the rising and falling of his chest grew still.
From that day forward Johnny went at life with a new attitude. Part of him would always remember the old man who had offered him redemption.