Title: Youth of the Nation… Chapter 3 – To Take a Life
NOTE: Gat = gun
(3/4)
Thursday before 3:00 pm
We are, We are, the youth of the nation
We are, We are, the youth of the nation
Johnny Adams, age 21, NYU
Johnny boy always played the fool
He broke all the rules
So you would think he was cool
"Yo Johnaay."
"Yo Marco." Johnny smiled.
"I can't believe you did that man. That was one crazy mother stunt you pulled on the professor back there. I mean damn boy I thought for sure he was gonna toss yo ass outta there." Marco laughed.
"Yeah man I thought for sure you were toast."
"No sweat Carl." Johnny smiled. "That old man never knew what hit him." Johnny boasted.
"Yeah like all the times before that huh."
"Yeah man just like that." Johnny laughed as his friends.
"Yo man you on for tonight or what?" Marco asked Carl. "Gonna be lots of hot chicks there waitin' to get it on!" He laughed.
"Yeah maybe even some virgins." Carl laughed.
Johnny just looked at his 'so-called' friends with a sad smile. Why don't they ever invite me? "Can I come?"
"What you never come with us?"
"We didn't think you liked girls!"
"What?" Johnny asked with a puzzled look. "Course I like em."
"Well okay then." Marco smiled. "I'll call ya later with the details."
"Yeah later." Johnny said as he rushed off to his lonely dorm. He rushed inside and locked the door. He angrily threw his books to the floor and started to pace in front of his mirror. "Why'd you do that today? Huh? What's the matter with your head takin' on the professor like you did? You'll just be put on warning again. And it's the third time, next time you'll be expelled!" He shouted at his reflection. "And why don't they think I like girls? I mean they laugh at my jokes, hang with me during class and act like my friends. So why not hang with me when it counts? Why not invite me to their parties? Maybe they just pretend to like me. Maybe they don't really." He concluded sadly as he sat down on his bed.
He was never really one of the guys
No matter how hard he tried
Often thought of suicide
"Why don't they remember to include me in their parties? It's like I'm here but not really. Why can't they see the real me? I mean I'm not all just jokes and the class clown. I like sports, music and writing. Can't they see that? Can't they see the real me? Why can't they look past my comic exterior and see my interior? What do I have to do to make them respect me? I mean I'm almost graduating and I haven't been nominated for anything. And yet I have my picture in a lot of the school events, my name mentioned at rally's but still I get no real respect." He sighed heavily as he wrapped up his one-man conversation. "What do I have to do to get some respect and recognition around here?"
"But then I guess I should ask myself if they are my real friends? I mean they act like it, but if it came down to the wire would they risk their lives for me? Would they stand up for me when I need them the most? Hell I couldn't even find one that wanted to room with me. How's that for friendship. I got no real friends. They're just pretending." He said sadly.
It's kind of hard when you ain't got no friends
He put his life to an end
They might remember him then
"How can I make them remember me? What do I have to do?" He asked sadly as he walked over to his closet and pulled out the small revolver he stole from his father some time back. "I used to think this was the easy way out. But is it really? I mean they'd remember me then right? They would be forced to give me some recognition, would they?"
********
Sometime after 3:00 pm.
"Hey Bosco move your ass." Faith moaned as she stood beside the car.
"Yeah yeah." Bosco mumbled angrily as he stormed to the car. "Can you believe that ass! I mean he was speeding. He deserved the ticket and yet he yelled at me."
"You yelled at him first." Faith said.
"No I didn't." Bosco said.
"Yes you did." Faith countered.
"No…I…didn't." Bosco said slowly.
"Bosco," Faith said directly, "you yelled first." She sighed as they got in the car.
"He deserved it." Bosco mumbled.
"Shesh." Faith sighed. "So much for a quiet day."
********
"So you buy your tickets yet or what?" Davis asked.
"My what?" Sully asked a bit preoccupied.
"Your o..p..e..r..a.. tickets." Davis said sarcastically.
"Yeah funny. No um I haven't had the chance yet." Sully sighed. "Tatiana is going to be pissed at me. I promised her you know."
"Why not stop and get them now?" Davis suggested.
"Yeah? You sure?"
"Yeah no problem." Davis smiled.
"Okay." Sully smiled.
********
^^All units, all units, we have a report of a 10-32 at the Kappa Delta dorm at NYU. All available units please respond.^^
********
"10-32? At NYU?" Faith asked in surprise.
"Central this is 55-David can you repeat 10-32?" Bosco said.
"Report of a student holed up in his dorm room with a gun."
"Kappa Delta dorm, 10-4 central." Bosco sighed.
"A student with a gun." Faith sighed. "This has literally been the week from hell."
"Yeah and it ain't even over yet." Bosco sighed.
********
"55-Charlie, 10-4 central." Davis sighed. "Think he'll do it?" Davis asked as they flipped the lights and sped towards the University.
"Ah kids today are messed up Davis. I mean if you have a problem you take the easy way out. In my day suicide was just a word whispered in movies. Now it's like a popularity thing."
"Come again?" Davis asked.
"Think about it. The guy has problems. How does he end them and still be remembered?"
"It's stupid man." Davis said.
"Yeah but it's life." Sully sighed. "So much for the opera tickets." He said quietly.
********
"I hate these calls." Kim sighed as they sped towards the University also."
"Yeah no kidding." Alex said firmly. "I mean can't they see how precious life really is? Didn't September 11th teach them anything?"
"I guess not." Kim sighed. "The part I hate the most is that Joey is now at the age of understanding. He knows what it means when a person commits suicide. How do I constantly teach him that it's not the easy way or the right way out? How do I show him that things are never that bad, that you have to end it all by taking your own life?"
"I don't know Kim. But I wonder if this kid is asking himself the same things?"
********
"Why would anyone just about to graduate want to shoot someone or himself?" Carlos asked as they followed behind Kim and Alex.
"Don't know man, but this whole system sucks." Doc moaned.
"System?"
"Yeah. The parental system, educational system, even the medical system." He finished with a smirk. "I mean kids are taught they can be safe and loved and taught at home. But most kids grow up in divided households, single parent families or no families at all. They think they'll come to school to learn but the teachers say it's up to the parents to teach their own kids. Then when they need help the medical institutions say they need an education to pay for their hospital bills." Doc sighed heavily.
"Yeah the whole system sucks." Carlos agreed.
********
"These high school gigs give me the creeps." Jimmy sighed as they helped direct the university students away from the dorm.
"Yeah me too." Sam sighed. "Why the hell would a guy his age want to kill someone, let alone himself?" He asked in disbelief.
"Sadly he probably doesn't even know himself." Jimmy sighed as they heard the familiar sound of the cops and paramedics arriving. "But I know one thing is for sure. I'm glad I don't have to go in there and try to talk him out of it or disarm him."
"Yeah me too." Sam sighed again.
********
"Well at least he's by himself." Sully sighed.
"Yeah that makes it better." Faith said bitterly.
"Faith you and Bosco take the north stairs with Kim and Alex and we'll take the south with Doc and Carlos." Sully said firmly.
"Okay." She said.
"Lets try to end this one peacefully." Sully said looking at Bosco.
"Hey why are you looking at me for? Some punk ass wants to end it I say go ahead." Bosco said in a huff.
"Bosco." Faith moaned as she grabbed her partner by the arm and pulled him towards the door.
"What Faith? I was just saying what I thought."
"Yeah like usual." She sighed.
********
"They just don't understand." Johnny sighed as he held the gun in his hands and looked at it. He had heard all the noise and commotion outside and knew the cops had gotten all the kids out of the building. "Well at least I have the whole place to myself." He mused.
********
Faith and Bosco quietly made their way up the stairs with their guns drawn while Sully and Davis did the same at the opposite end. They both reached the top and stopped. Faith and Sully looked at each other and nodded. It was time to move in, slowly.
"Johnny Adams?" Faith said softly as she stood on one side of the door.
********
"Cops are here." Johnny said looking up. "They don't really care. They are just here doing their job. And that's cool, but they really don't understand. And they really don't care." He said as he continued to stare at his exit, fixed firmly in his hands. "But people will care after today. They will know who I am and what I really was."
He thought about that last statement as the cops continued to talk to him through the door. "Who am I really? What will people remember?" He asked himself.
********
"I say we rush him." Bosco said quietly.
"Don't even think it Boscorelli." Faith warned.
"Shesh. Sorry." Bosco said looking at her. "I just meant if we did then he'd be distracted and not try to kill himself." He added quickly.
"No one is rushing anyone." Faith said firmly. "We can wait this out. He'll get tired of the game and give up." She said trying to convince herself she was right.
"And if he doesn't?" Bosco asked.
"Then we all lose." Faith said sadly.
********
"Johnny Adams?" Sully tried.
"Man I wish he would at least say something." Davis moaned.
"Yeah I know. If he would only acknowledge us then it would at least give us something to go on." Sully sighed.
"Why didn't they bring in someone to negotiate with him?" Doc asked.
"In the case of one person with a gun who has locked himself away someplace they use us. If there were other lives then a hostage negotiator would be called in."
"Lucky you." Doc said sarcastically.
Yeah, lucky us, Sully sighed inside.
********
"I just can't take it anymore." Johnny sighed. "Besides this is not the end for me, only the beginning. Isn't that right? I mean I'll go to a better place right?" He smiled at the gun in his hands not focusing on reality any longer. His sense and reason had fled his brain long ago, leaving only pity and self-doubt. Johnny stood up and looked at himself in the mirror and smiled.
"Here is to remembrance and a hero's exit!" He shouted as he cocked the trigger and pulled.
********
In the silence all four officers heard the trigger cock and looked at each other in horror as they charged towards Johnny's door, hoping to stop him from making the biggest mistake in his life.
He put his life to an end
They might remember him then
BANG!
You cross the line and there's no turning back
Told the world how he felt
With the sound of a gat
"No." Faith whispered.
"Oh man." Bosco sighed.
"Damn it." Sully cursed angrily.
"What a waste." Davis said quietly.
********
The four officers stood there in silence while the four paramedics behind them rushed in to see what they could do.
"I'm sorry." Doc said quietly as he looked up at them from his dead lifeless body.
Faith looked around at the blood splattered on the mirror and felt sick. "What was he thinking?" She asked quietly.
"He wasn't." Sully said softly as the stood and watched the EMS teams clean up the body to take outside.
********
"Oh man." Jimmy said sadly as he and Sam stood by and watched the body being wheeled outside. "You okay?" Jimmy Kim as he noticed the look on her face.
She turned to him with watery eyes and said softly, "not really."
********
The entire team watched as the coroner zipped up the dead body of Johnny Adams. As they all stood around and wondered what would posses a young man to take his life, they heard the unsympathetic comments from students passing by them, carrying on their lives as if this was but a small interruption.
********
"Who just killed himself?" Asked one.
"Johnny Adams." Answered one.
"Who's that?" Asked another.
"Some guy who lived there I guess." Answered another.
"I knew him sort of." Marko said.
"Yeah me too." Carl offered.
"What did you know about him?" Asked one.
"Um well…" Marko started searching for an answer. He turned to Carl.
"He uh…" Carl tried but found nothing.
It's kind of hard when you ain't got no friends
He put his life to an end
They might remember him then
"Well he was just one of those guys that was there." Someone said. "But no one really knew him."
********
Faith turned to the group and posed the question, "what made him do it?"
No answers were heard, for no one knew the real reason that Johnny Adams decided to take his life. And if they knew they didn't want to answer. For in this case the truth was worse than a lie.
Whatever it was
I know it's because
We are, We are, the youth of the nation
We are, We are, the youth of the nation