The First Thing You See
*Whoop Whoop* Those were the sirens of the police coming down the block. Robert ran as fast as he could, but with his vision starting to fade, he tripped with some garbage sticking out. Robert is slow to get up, he fell on to his knee causing him to start limping.
“Freeze! Put your hands where I could see them!” The Police Officer yells as Robert turns at the end of the block.
Robert is taken into the precinct, given an opportunity to come clean and tell the officer everything that happened that night at the bar.
“What happened to your knee? You look badly hurt, are you okay?” asks the officer.
Robert sits there, not saying a single word. Not acknowledging the fact he has been taken to the precinct, not the fact that he is in the process of being interrogated in a squared room painted in grey that could be anybody’s basement, and neither the fact that he is speaking to a police officer.
“Son, you need to tell me everything that you know, details are crucial at very moment. I’ll have you know that if you do not tell me everything then you will be facing 35 years in prison. Sitting there, looking like a damn fool won’t help you solve your problems. You are in some fucked up shit, this can really turn your life upside down.”
Robert at this one picture frame sitting in the corner of the officer’s desk. Officer Walker notices staring, and he looks over at the frame.
“You’re staring at this? Yea, this is one of my pals, my best pal actually. He has saved me from a lot of trouble in the past.”
Robert sighs, “Okay, I’ll tell you.”
Robert is an honest, very outgoing person, somebody that always speaks his mind. Although he was a great person to be around, somebody that one might not think has any flaws, he struggled deeply with alcoholism. As a teenager Robert would drink a lot due to family issues, issues that he never spoke to anybody about. But the fact that he would drink as much as he did, did not change the fact that he was the smile of the neighborhood. Robert made sure that everybody was good before he gets the opportunity to check on himself.
Fast forward a few years to his early twenties, Robert found himself having a bunch of friends, but not being that same person as he was during his teenage years. He would make himself his top priority, instead of making sure that everyone else is good. Growing up drinking and being surrounded by alcohol, Robert developed a problem that whenever he would drink, his memory would fade. After having a few drinks, Robert would not be able to control his thoughts, neither his actions, leading up to the point of memory loss.
May 5th, 2018
Robert hears a sudden knock on the door, as he gets up the couch and looks through the window, it is his best friend, Ronald.
“Hey man, long time no see! I freaking missed you dude how you been?” says Ronald in full excitement.
“I’ve been pretty good my man, you know, just have been chilling at the crib. What brings you around?” Robert replies.
“I wanted you to be the first one to hear this, coming from me. I got a job as a broker in Wall Street!”
“You lying!”
“On my mama, brother!”
“You totally deserve it man, congratulations. This is honestly a big step for your goals. You gotta teach me.”
“What do you mean? Teach you what?” Asks Ronald in total confusion.
“Teach me how to do it, you know, get your life together and do good things with your life. I can’t seem to really know how to do that, and sometimes… it can be…tough.” Replies Robert very timidly for some reason.
“Why are you being like this man? You know very well why. You need to go outside, leave this house and go form connections. You never leave the house, you can’t expect opportunities to come to you without you reaching out to them first.”
It hit Robert home. It did not feel that he’s been staying home, every day, for the past 5 years. Nobody knowing what he has been up to.
“You know what? I can take you to this bar, a bunch of hard working businessmen go there. Maybe there you could meet somebody and if you are really lucky, then maybe he could get you something.”
Robert loved this idea, not only he finally had an excuse to go out, but he could probably change his life forever. After his parents passed away, Robert felt into deep loneliness. His parents were the only people he really looked up, the only people who would guide him to where he needs to be. Once all of that was gone, he felt like his life has no purpose, that he had no use showing his face to anyone. So for five years, he has been staying home eating, watching tv, playing video games, and sleeping.
May 9th, 2018
Robert, Ronald, Randy, and Rey all head out to the bar in queens on a Friday night. The bar was popping, a lot of businessmen were in attendance, having a few drinks.
“This place isn’t usually this packed, looks like they got a deal done.” Says Rey. “Good for them.”
Ronald grabs Robert and says, “this, this is what I was talking about, Robert! All of these men, I bet you they all know each other somehow!”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s have a couple of drinks!” claims Randy.
“I think I’m good man, I actually have started trying to quit.” Replies Robert.
“What do you mean trying to quit, stop trying to be funny man haha. Robert, the man that drank every single alcoholic drink, mixed with anything, and you are trying to quit?” says Ronald. “An alcoholic once in a while won’t hurt you.”
An alcoholic once in a while, it won’t hurt you, they say…
“EVERYONE’S DRINKS ARE ON ME!!” a drunk businessmen yells out. The bar starts going crazy. When one person decides to pay for everyone’s drink, it is music to their ear. People start ordering every drink they could, sometimes to take it home and save it for some other day.
Rey comes to the table with 12 bottles of beer and puts it all on the table, “Everyone! Cheers for a good time and a good life!” says Rey.
Everyone starts drinking, even Robert. Thirty minutes go by and Rey, Randy, Ronald, and even Robert are all drunk. Robert, however, was able to chug 7 bottles before everyone else were able to reach their 4th one. This is what Robert didn’t want to happen, to lose control of his way of drinking. Robert knows that once he gets to a certain point once he starts drinking, that he cannot control his actions and he can do some unpredictable things. That is something that he kept mostly to himself and did not want anybody to know that toxic trait about him. He feels like it would just scare people away.
“Yo Robert, you should go up to that businessmen right there, he probably could get you a job or sum.” Says Ronald as he is pointing to a man sitting by himself at the bartender’s table on the other side of the bar. “This should be an easy one for you.”
Robert stands up, and goes up to the businessmen and sits next to him. Robert calls the bartender and asks for a shot, it is pretty unusual for him to do that since it is his first day drinking again. Robert looks over at the businessmen,
“What’s up, my name is Robert, how are you?”
The businessmen looks over at Robert, takes a quick look at him. A drunk, man with a crazy look just trying his best to spit some words at him, then he looks away.
“Hey, I am talking to you.”
Businessmen ignores him.
“I was wondering if you could possibly connect me to a couple of people, maybe let me know if there is a place where I am possibly needed. Do you know anywhere I could look for a job, maybe?”
Businessmen keeps on ignoring him.
Robert gets up his seat and softly slaps the businessmen in the arm. The businessmen looks up to Robert and just stares at him.
“What is your problem dude, are you ever going to talk?”
The businessmen looked away.
“Bring me the check.” Says the businessmen to the bartender.
“Oh you’re not going anywhere.” Says Robert as he spills his drink at the businessmen.
“Fuck is wrong with..” says the businessmen as he gets punched in the face by Robert.
Robert begins beating up the businessmen, pretty badly, with heavy punches hitting everywhere. Randy, Ronald, and Rey did not have eyes on Robert, so they were not able to witness the fight go down. The bartender tried to stop the fight before it got worse, but he was stopped by small group of drunk businessmen that wanted the fight to go down.
The fight continues, the crowd gets bigger, more people are forming in a circle around Robert and the businessmen. Robert keeps on beating the crap out of the businessmen.
“All. Of. This. Could. Have. Been. Avoided.” Said Robert in between every punch he gave the businessmen. The businessmen, not having a chance to talk, he knocks conscious to the floor, not breathing, with no heartbeat. All of Robert friends run to the fighting scene.
“Robert, what in the actual hell are you doing?” yells out Ronald.
“THE COPS ARE COMING!” yells out one of the businessmen that was in the bar.
Everyone rushes out the door, back door, windows, anything they could find in order to escape. Robert goes out on his own. Even though he can’t remember or know where he currently is, he is just running. *Whoop Whoop* Those were the sirens of the police coming down the block. Robert as he tripped with some garbage sticking out. Robert is slow to get up, he fell on to his knee causing him to start limping.
“Freeze! Put your hands where I could see them!” The Police Officer yells as Robert turns at the end of the block.
“What do we have here Walker?” asks Officer Stanley.
“Robert. 22 years of age, he killed somebody at a bar fight. Apparently killed his own parents as well.
Reflection
For this fiction piece, it wasn’t very much difficult to write about because I was influenced by one of our in-class prompts. I forgot what the specific prompt we had, but I just elaborated more on the story and made sure to add more details. In fact, I had fun writing the piece. Every time I get to be funny, I make sure that I am because I feel like as a reader, I would like to laugh while reading the story.
When it was the day that the class would critique this piece, I was nervous at first. I was starting to have second thoughts about me writing a poor quality piece after being so confident it was going to be good and everyone was going to love it when I handed it in. But after feeling pretty nervous about me doing a poor job, but the class made me feel better with all the comments I received.
