Out of Character

(For a newer draft of this story, click here.)

Nothing about Bernard Calloway's appearance was sinister. Halfway through his life, he was six feet tall with medium length thinning blond hair, and grey-blue eyes. He was slimly built and featured a well-groomed mustache that he had been growing for over fifteen years. His voice was unassuming, slightly above the average man's pitch. Air from his lungs would scrape against the bottom of his top teeth, giving his s's a breathy quality when he spoke.

Despite appearances and sounds, anyone who knew Bernard judged him to be an exceptionally evil man. In the workplace, he never returned the greetings of his peers. Neighbors loathed his habitual practice of parking over the left-line of the condominium's parking spots. When he went out to eat, he never left tips. When he walked down the street, he would turn around and accost anyone who brushed against him. As a manager, he was cut-throat. As a son, he was inconsiderate. He was a friend to none. When he was a child he enjoyed dumping his food onto the floor. As an adolescent, he enjoyed shooting cats with his pellet gun. In high school, rumor had it that he was to blame for the fire set in the boy's dormitory. He made right turns on red lights when he should not have. As a teenager, he made a game of seducing young women. As a man, he made a game of seducing married women.

For all of his misdeeds, Bernard had an uncanny way of benefiting from situations. He was ever mindful of avenues for advancement. He took credit for returning a dog that had been reunited with the owner's anonymously, earning him $50 in reward money when he was 10. Bernard cheated his way through college. He took many pennies throughout his life, and left none. Years ago as he was making his start, he would "rent" items from stores--buying them, using them temporarily, and returning them for full refunds. He forged the signature of his ailing father on a check in order to procure the funds necessary for a down payment on his first car. He pilfered the jewelry of his ailing mother years later to pay for three new Calvin Klein suits. He caught the eye of all of his superiors by making his coworkers look poorly. He once blackmailed a vice president of a rival company into giving him insider information that, when acted upon, earned him his first vacation home. Even after amassing a small fortune, Bernard would not hesitate to relieve a lost wallet of its cash. It's what they deserve for being so careless.

Virtues became vices in Bernard's heart. Normally, to have egalitarian leanings is commendable. In his case, it was despicable. Bernard loathed nearly all people equally. Being a highly competitive person, he viewed everyone as a rival for the world's limited resources. He justified his maniacal behavior as being natural. We are all struggling to survive. My way of struggling is more efficient than average. I not only keep myself going, but hinder others along the way. Bravery is employed on both sides of a war, and Bernard was proof that it took bravery to fight for evil as well. He risked being caught and ruined in order to win the greater rewards of underhandedness.

He maintained his ways at home and abroad. He relished the anonymity that traveling afforded him. It is preferable to take advantage of a person you would never see again--there's less mess. On a business trip during his fifty-second year, Bernard acted out of character. He had packed his belongings into his overnight bag, complained while checking out of the smell of smoke in his non-smoking room (which he had put there by smoking a cigar upon his arrival), received a free breakfast and a discount on the room, and made his way to the street. A mob of people was clamoring for a taxi and Bernard opted to move eastward to catch a westbound car earlier. Two blocks down, passing under emerald awnings and by rod iron patio furniture, he stopped in front of an apartment complex.

A flustered woman with a small wheeled black suitcase in tow descended the concrete steps and stood next to Bernard. She pulled at the ends of her shirtsleeves and ran her fingers through her hair. Exhaling loudly, she smiled at Bernard and said, "Some morning, huh? Something always comes up when you're in a hurry."

"That's the way it goes," Bernard responded as he turned his attention back to the busy avenue. He stepped off the curb and hailed the approaching cab. It decelerated and turned towards the customers-to-be.

"I'm sorry, but do you mind? I'm terribly late already. Could you, please?" In the cloud filtered morning light, the twinkle in her eye she used to flash men was hardly noticeable. It was enough to disorient Bernard. Unlike the strangers he usually wronged, her humanity was foisted upon him by the delicacy of her voice. Unlike the people that knew him, she had not assumed the worst of him. She simply and humbly asked him for a favor after recognizing her need for assistance. It would be good to let her go first. She is in more of a rush than I am. My flight doesn't leave for another three hours.

Bernard stepped back. The woman opened the back door, slid her bag in, and followed after it. He watched the cab weave through the congested street until, after a right turn, it left his field of vision. He walked down another three blocks to a corner where a car with the white sign reading "Taxi" glowed, idled. Bernard cut off a man approaching it with a number of bags in his arms. As Bernard climbed in and shut the door, he heard the muffled string of expletives flowing from the burdened man outside the window. He stared back at him coldly.

"LaGuardia," Bernard commanded the driver.

Aversion

(For a newer draft of this story, click here.)

The body has a curious, involuntary response to a disagreeable situation. In the creation of taste aversions, the body associates two contemporaneously (rather than causally) related events. When one eats a bowl of mint chip ice cream and shortly thereafter vomits and breaks out in a cold sweat, the body draws the conclusion that the mint chip ice cream to blame. Every subsequent time a person so much as smells mint chip ice cream, one feels a tide of nausea rise inside her and wishes to exit the setting. Though the stomach flu was the real culprit, the mint ice cream is judged guilty by association. The creamy, clean sweetness has the same taste as it always did, but it's examined through a different lens.

The mind has an analogous, though admittedly less document, response. Emiline Sortiere developed an aversion to her husband of 26 years somewhere in the second year. Emiline Schlager was married to Lloyd Sortiere in the fall of 1928. Both were admittedly desperate as the number thirty swiftly pursued them. In accordance with their yearnings, the two of them were blind to the premonitions of discord.

Lloyd was deceptive, though admittedly without trying to be. A man of few words and simple pleasures, he often gave the impression of being a sage. In truth, he was little more than an old--often sad--child. During their courtship, Emiline admired his emotional consistency and Lloyd admired her talent in the kitchen.

Emiline was inconsistent to a fault. On a drive in his Chevrolet in the spring of 1927, Emiline vented at how "crusty" Bach's "Organ Fugue in G Major" sounded. When asked for clarification, she answered, "I think organs are simply dreadful instruments. So abrasive!" In the winter of 1927 when the same fugue flowed in over the dining room radio, Emiline pleaded with Lloyd to buy her a record of that "wonderful music."

The marriage began as a symbiotic relationship. Emiline would tend to all things domestic; Lloyd would provide for all things in general. So long as he kept her company and she kept him fed and properly dressed, all was well. She could imagine that he wanted to be with her in a way the romantics wrote of in their poems. He could imagine that she wanted to nurture him in a way his alcoholic mother never managed to do.

All self-loathing people have disdain for their own company. Some self-loathing people have greater disdain for the company of others. Though neither understood it, only Lloyd belonged in the second camp. It was for this reason that he could stomach his dull, tedious work-life, and she was given to fits of depression in their dull, tedious home-life.

On a foggy early summer morning in 1930, the mind of Emiline Sortiere created an aversion to Lloyd that would cast a pall over the rest of her life and sour what little sweetness was available in his. Lloyd had for the past month been putting in long hours at the office. Emiline initially tried to take advantage of the superabundance of time. She marked several items of off the "rainy-day list," including sewing a different set of curtains for the guest bedroom (canary yellow with little green star bursts throughout) and repairing a pocket in her favorite winter coat (long, black and red tartan). The diversions were insufficient to keep a nagging sense of disappointment at bay. This is not how marriage is supposed to be.

Emiline had been anticipating a pleasant Saturday and dropping hints about going on a picnic. Unfortunately for her, Lloyd had a major deadline and a compassionless boss looming. Early Saturday morning after he covertly crept out of bedroom, Lloyd wrote a brief apologetic note and promised to return in time for dinner. Infuriated upon discovery of the note, Emiline resolved to make a picnic lunch for herself and to go to the city park without him. Not thinking clearly about how far off lunchtime was, Emiline took to making a sandwich and introspecting. Wondering how it was the idyllic marriage she had waited for all her life had eluded her finally despite the bold-faced fact that she was now finally married, Emiline sliced through the tip of her left index finger as well as the heirloom tomato. Shades of red mingled together on the wooden cutting board as she shrieked. Gripping her hand tightly with the other, she cried to release the torrent of pain and commiserate the ruination of her once beautiful hands.

The pointer is the most important finger! It will be so ugly now! Damn! Damn! Damn! It's all his fault! If he would have stayed with me today, I wouldn't be so maimed! Oooooo! If he would have come home a decent hour a few times during the workweek, maybe I wouldn't have needed to go on a picnic so damned much! Am I to be blamed for being lonely? A woman can't keep herself company--her husband is supposed to. People aren't supposed to be alone! He was so much more caring before we married!

Gripping the finger tightly within an increasingly bloody white dishrag, Emiline collected herself and walked next door. She proceeded to ask her neighbor to take her to the hospital, where she received a topical anesthetic, stitches, and a bandage. Later that evening, she refused to explain to Lloyd the reason for the gauze on her finger. Her fingertip scarred over as did her heart.

Ever since, the mention of Lloyd's name prompted Emiline's blood pressure to rise. A nearly imperceptible grimace darted across her face whenever she heard his voice. Seeing the initials "LS" on the backs of certain models of automobiles made her left eye twitch with rage. Emaline blamed Lloyd for everything wrong with her life, except for her red hair--whose fault was her fair-skinned father's. Doors squeaking, nails chipping, boredom pervading, breasts drooping, paint fading--all were the products of Lloyd Sortiere. In their subsequent interactions, Emiline would vacillate between yelling at Lloyd and ignoring him. Lloyd stayed loyal to her because through it all, she never stopped making dinner.

In Character

(For a newer draft of this story, click here.)

Brandon Hayes was a man without airs. When he spoke, his voice was hardly audible. When he walked, his arms swayed slightly more than usual. In the privacy of his own apartment, Brandon often used his finger to scrape out the last contents of his favorite dishes. He owned more books than he could read and read more than he should.

As a child, Brandon was petrified of authority figures. He would cower when adults raised their voices around him. He had a guilty conscience that cast a pall over most of his childhood thoughts. In kindergarten, one of his few releases was on the playground. He loved to slosh around the pebble-filled surface, running, jumping, and sliding to a stop. He would fall to his knees, grip the rocks, and let them tumble out between his fingers. He would dig down four inches to the muddy bottom of the pit in search for treasure. Once, he zealously flung the rocks between his legs like a dog. A young passer-by was struck by a number of the tiny rocks. Unfortunately for Brandon, one rock made its way into her empty mouth. Shortly after tasting the salty chalkiness, the girl wailed in the direction of the recess monitor. Mrs. Flareghety, the sloth in the midst of badgers, slowly digested the girl's frantic explanation. Dumbfounded, Brandon stared at the interaction. Mrs. Flareghty called him to her side. Looking down at him with stern eyes, she said, "Did you throw rocks at Rachel?" Brandon was scared and willing to admit anything the monitor wanted him to if only he could be out of the situation. After he answered in the affirmative, a phone call was made to his parents. He was suspended for a day of class and grounded for a month. In his sparse room, he did not allow himself the pleasure of playing with the few toys he had. He laid on his bed, usually thinking confused thoughts about his own cruel motivations.

Time at home was not a treat for Brandon. When removing adhesive-coated bandages or strips of wax-coated paper from one's self, everyone knows the key to it is quickness. "Get it done quick." It is as though there is a sliding scale of pain that begins at 10 units say. You can feel 10 units for 1 minute or prolong the duration to 10 minutes and feel 5 units all the while. One might as well feel them all at once and move on.

If you pull slowly, you just feel it longer.

Sometimes in life, a circumstance sticks itself on us. Some bandages or strips of paper we cannot grasp. The hand of time slowly tugs at an even rate. Hair is pulled; skin is stretched. Never enough that the end will be reached, that we will become unstuck. No, it just tugs and tugs and only prompts pain.

Brandon Hayes's family was a slowly pulled bandage. His mother and father always fought and it always hurt him. It never changed. Brandon grew and they incorporated more topics to war with each other over. As a baby, they argued about who's turn it was to change his diapers. As a toddler, they argued about leaving windows open. As a child, they argued about credit card bills. As an adolescent, they argued about methods of laundering (Mr. Hayes thought Bounce sheets were frivolous). By the time he was a teenager, they could bicker about anything and Brandon overheard nearly all of it. He had a knack for blaming himself and entertained thoughts of his own demise in the hopes that it would allay his parent's mutual consternation. Oddly enough, the thought of him being spoken ill of after the fact kept him from every carrying any nebulous plans out.

The yellow and brown house he grew up in was not always a setting for sadness. His mother would let him lick the beaters after preparing baked desserts. His father would play catch with him now and again in the street in front of their house despite the fact that his own father never taught him how to throw. In the winter months, he would build an igloo every chance he got with the discarded snow that had previously covered the driveway. His mother was always boiling water for hot chocolate and Brandon was always burning his anxious tongue.

It was from this source of self-loathing and simple pleasures that he grew into the soft-spoken man his co-workers thought of as aloof. On a mild summer afternoon during his twentieth year, Brandon was walking home from his desk job twelve blocks away from his house. He passed under a series of fading awnings and crossed two quiet streets, when a peculiar sound reached his ears. A little boy was sitting down on the steps of a duplex, sobbing into his backpack. After scanning the area for other signs of life, Brandon approached the child.

"What's the matter?" Brandon asked softly after squatting to the boy's eye level.
The boys red-tinged brown eyes looked at him distrustfully. "Nothing."
"Come on now, there must be something wrong. Boys don't cry like that for nothing."
"None of your business," the boy quipped between sniffles.
The corners of Brandon's mouth fell. Stubborn child.