Chapter 1 - Continue

Anyhow, I set the binoculars down, took a long swig of beer, leaving an inch reserve in the darkly tinted brown bottle, and picked up the second piece of reading material I’d brought along. It was a hardback novel entitled, Eight in October. The much anticipated book was a true-crime thriller based on a string of murders that occurred throughout Maine in October of the past year.

I turned the book over in my hands. The majority of the cover was monopolized by one of Maine’s eminent firs, each of the tree’s leaves visually changing from emerald green, to saffron yellow, and finally cranberry red, giving off the impression of an iridescent autumn in overdrive. From each of the leaves fell a droplet of blood, forging a puddle at the base of the tree.

I peeled opened the front cover gingerly, as if the words might fall out if I hastened. I found the dedication page and regarded the dedication: To the eight women who lost their lives. I didn’t read the names. I didn’t have to. I knew them all by heart.

I clapped the book shut and had the fleeting thought to chuck Eight in October into the pickled abyss. The book belonged beneath the sediment at the ocean’s floor. The last thing this community needed was a fifteen-ounce relic from a fifteen-day nightmare. I was pissed off at the author, some swine named Alex Tooms, who had decided to turn a buck at the mercy of these eight women. I was curious as to this Tooms’ countenance, but it seems he didn’t have the fiber to put his picture on the book jacket. This decision may have been impacted by the letter I sent him detailing a collection of ways I planned to end his life should I ever recognize him in public. If my letter had swayed his decision, the point was moot; the prick had a book signing coming up on October 1st, or more notably, the anniversary of the first woman’s murder.

What a classy guy. I hope someone writes a book about how he was beaten to death, with his own book, at his own book signing. I’d buy it.

I put the book down. Baby steps.