Now You See It

It was just another day. Samuel Elliott Johnson was just another man. He was on his way to just another job. His routine had been the same as every other morning, as well as the route he took to work. He was thinking about the simplicity of life, and how simple it could be to just float through if you had a routine to follow – then everything changed.

         As Samuel was strolling down the sidewalk, he glanced through the shop windows. Just as he was passing the butcher shop, he heard a scream. This, of course, stopped him in his tracks. Morning was usually quiet here in his little town. He peeked in the direction of the butcher shop window, and caught his breath. It appeared at a glance the butcher was murdering a customer. 

         Samuel must have stared through that window for a full thirty seconds before he found his feet and began to run. At that sudden movement, the butcher looked up and saw a figure of a man running away. He looked down at the slab of meat in front of him and hoped that the person he had seen was just running late for something.

         As soon as Samuel reached an open business, he dashed inside and began begging them to call the police. He stated that he had witnessed a murder and he needed to report it immediately. The cashier behind the counter at the Buy & Save took off her glasses and cleaned them on her stiff, red store apron. She then blew a large, pink bubble and sucked it back in to chew some more. Finally, she lifted the receiver to dial. She wouldn’t have done it at all, but she was afraid the guy would have a heart attack or something and she didn’t want to deal with that on her shift. Let the cops deal with him.

         She made the call, and told the man that the cops were on their way. He stood at the window, watching for them to arrive. When the car pulled up, about half an hour later, with no lights or sirens, Samuel felt very underwhelmed. 

         As the police officers got out of the car, Samuel dashed out the door. 

         “I called to report a murder! A murder – not jaywalking or some other petty crime,” he blurted out at them. 

         “Sir, you will have to calm down. We are here now, that’s what’s important. Now, we need to get some information from you. To start with, what’s your name and address?”

         Samuel was furious. He couldn’t believe this. These guys weren’t the least bit concerned about the murder. They wanted his information – his.

         “What are you going to do about the bloody murder?” he asked.

         “Can’t do anything until we fill out this report.”

         They stood there for another twenty minutes filling out all of his information and gathering his statement. Finally, they told him to wait where he was and they would go check out his complaint.

         As the officers headed to the butcher shop, Samuel stood there watching them go. He couldn’t believe it when they emerged from the shop, just as calm as when they went in – and without the butcher, no less.

         As they approached Samuel, he began asking questions. He wanted to know why they hadn’t arrested the butcher, who was the victim, where was the body, was there anything he could do to help?

         The officers told him that, although they could understand what he thought he saw, the butcher wasn’t guilty of murder, unless he considered the butchering of a cow murder.

         Samuel was absolutely bewildered. He knew, just knew, that he had seen a body, and heard a scream. He couldn’t understand how such a mistake could have been made on his part. He headed on to work, now extremely late. 

         When he arrived at work, he explained to his boss why he was late. He told the entire story, from begin wrenched from his thoughts by a scream to the police telling him that what he had seen was a cow. His boss told him to take the rest of the day off.

         Trudging back home, Samuel had a thought. He decided that he would stop by the butcher shop and apologize to the butcher. Yes, that was exactly what he would do. As he neared the Buy & Save, he stopped in to apologize to the cashier. She waved him off, telling him that it was no biggie.

         As he approached the butcher shop, a frightening thought occurred to him. What if it had been a body, but the butcher had hidden it before the cops arrived? No, he told himself, you are being silly. You made a mistake.

         He stopped at the window of the butcher shop and took a deep breath before going in. He suddenly had a thought. Maybe he should go around back of the butcher shop. As he passed the door and turned into the alley, every fiber of his being told him to go back. This wasn’t something that he needed to be doing. Even if he had seen a body this morning, he had done his part.

         He completed his journey down the alley and decided to look in the trash cans. There was a woman’s blouse in one of them! It had what appeared to be blood on it. Just then, the back door opened. It was the butcher!

         “Can I help you with something?” the butcher asked.

         “N – n – no, thank you,” Samuel stammered. “I was just, um, just, uh,”

         “Dude, I don’t throw scraps out ‘til trash day, which is today, but they don’t run ‘til after closing.”

         “Oh, no, I wasn’t looking for scraps. I was, um, just throwing something away.”

         “Alright, well get outta here, then. I don’t like people hanging out back here.”

         Samuel left quickly, but not before the butcher headed inside. He could have sworn that he saw a glimpse of blonde hair as the door was closing. 

         The next morning was Saturday, so Samuel didn’t have work. Normally, he would have stayed home, taken it easy, mow the lawn, that sort of thing. Today, he decided he was going to grill, but gosh darn it, he didn’t have any grilling meat. It was a nice stroll to the butcher shop.

         He strolled in and the butcher came out of the back. The butcher asked him if he was buying or just browsing again. He said he was buying, and placed an order. 

         As the butcher was getting his order together, Samuel told him that he had a funny story to tell. He told the butcher what he thought he had seen the morning before. He told him that he was the one that had sent the police. He also told him about the blonde hair and the bloody blouse.

         On Monday, when Samuel didn’t show up for work, or even call, the boss sent someone to his house to check on him. There was no answer at the door. The BBQ pit was standing at the ready, but hadn’t been used. 

         As he left Samuel’s house, the co-worker decided to stop at the butcher shop and grab some meat to grill after work. Seeing that pit ready had made him hungry for BBQ.

         He stepped into the shop, and the butcher came out of the back. The man made his order, and asked if the meat was fresh. 

         “Oh, yeah,” the butcher responded, “I just got in about one hundred ninety two pounds of fresh meat on Saturday.” He grinned as he handed Samuel’s co-worker his order.