A Hill worth Dying On

Neil Diamond’s Solitary Man played softly in the background of the coffee house on Carondelet Street in Manhattan. Jim patiently waited at the bar to pay for the espresso he held in his hand.

Behind the counter was a multi hair colored clerk pulling up his charges on Apple Pay while the familiar noises of the coffee shop signaled normalcy. Light clinking of ceramic cups on wood, and metal surfaces filled the space as the coffee machines whined and ground to make coffee for other customers. He caught the eye of the rainbow haired clerk and put a 5 dollar bill into the tip jar earning him a brief smile.

As he inserted his credit card into the chip reader a flash of movement in the large mirror behind the counter caught his eye.  As a city bus rumbled past Jim saw him standing across the street.

Jim dropped his espresso as he grabbed at the counter in front him for balance. The cup swirled around on the stained concrete floor after the contents gushed out in one amorphous mass. He swirled around to look out the window to make sure the mirror hadn’t lied to him. The ruckus of the spill rippled like a wave through the coffee shop causing everyone not wearing ear buds to look up briefly. 

“Are you okay sir?” asked the clerk. 

He couldn’t answer because his tongue was waiting on his brain to supply words to say.

“It can’t be.” he mustered.

“Excuse me?” She said, looking confused.

The manager had made his way around the counter after he heard the sound of profits hitting the floor.

“Don’t worry sir; these things happen.” The manager said never really looking at Jim and quickly stooped to clean the mess up. “We’re going to get you a fresh cup and get you on your way, okay? I believe that was a double shot, right?” The manager motioned towards the clerk.

Jim shook himself, apologized and helped the manager clean the floor and counter. When he stood up the rainbow haired clerk was holding his order. Smiling briefly at her he took the cup, politely thanked and apologized to everyone, and quickly made his way to the bar stools at the front window facing the street. 

“How could this be?” Jim thought to himself.  “I took care of it last night, I’m sure of it, but there he stands.”

40 feet away, in the exact same spot Jim had left the man’s body on the sidewalk the night before were the same set of brilliant white teeth smiling back at him. Not only was he smiling but he was waving at Jim and everyone else that walked by just like always. The once limp body now stood proud and straight.

“How could he smile? Why would he mock Jim this way?” Jim thought with a scrunched face.

Taking up precious sidewalk space in an already cramped city was infuriating. Every where he looked in this city he saw these ridiculous people.  Hands out, attention grabbing, money wanting, trashy eyesores is what they were and he loathed them.  Every year there seemed to be more and more of them on every corner. The city was teeming with them, but this one in particular that stood outside of his coffee shop in his neighborhood was the worst. Smiling, waving and Jim abhorred him. Jim hated the thought so much he had decided to finally do something about it. He replayed the scenes from last night in his head.

At 1:30 AM Jim had left his apartment wearing a dark maroon hoodie and walked 3 blocks to the corner of Lafayette and Carondelet Streets and waited. The man usually loitered on the sidewalk across from the coffee bar.  Jim had been hopeful this habit would hold true again tonight. When he got to the corner he stopped and pretended to look at his phone for a while as he surveyed the streets around him. The man stood alone in the same spot he always did. Jim remembered being relieved that he was there, and was more relived that the street was empty. He had taken a razor sharp utility knife out of a small tool kit he had in his apartment and put it in his front right pocket. Jim grabbed the knife with a clinched fist and walked across the street to the side where the man stood. He quickened his pace as he got closer to the man, who even at this hour, stood smiling and waving. In a move as quick as lightening, Jim slashed at the man just under his wide smile cutting a huge gaping hole in his throat. Jim remembered feeling great satisfaction as a small burst of warm air came out of the man’s body and blew into Jim’s face. The man’s body fluttered and flailed in an uncontrollable way as he tried to right himself. Jim quickly followed through again and again tearing at his body with the knife dismembering the man from his usual perch. When Jim saw his airless limp body fall to the pavement he ran away from the scene as fast as he could to lose a pursuer who never followed.

Jim now sat at the bar staring across the street thinking through all of the previous night’s actions. He was positive it was not a dream and that it had actually happened. He was just as confident that this was the same man he had cut open and left on the street, but there he stood.

Jim felt mocked and ashamed. The shame turned to hate and the hate to rage as he abruptly stood. Jim left his untouched espresso on the bar and forced his way out the door and across the street ignoring oncoming cars to face the man once again.  Day light or witnesses would not keep Jim from finishing the job he had started the night before.

“It may not make a big difference, but every single one counts.” He said out loud as his walk turned into a run. “I’ll tear you apart limb from limb with my bare hands!” He screamed as he ran at the still smiling man. 

 Another wave of commotion swept through the coffee house. The manager briskly walked to the counter from the back to see what the issue was. The coffee bar customers were running to the windows with their phones, videoing the excitement outside.

The manager moved to the door and looked out across the street, and picked up his phone

“Yes I’ll hold.” The manager said into the phone.

“Isn’t that the guy that spilled the espresso?” the rainbow haired clerk asked.

“You’re right, it is.” the manager replied.

“Hi.” He said back into the phone “Can you send an officer to the self parking lot on Carondelet?  There is a mentally deranged person on the sidewalk fighting an inflatable tube man.”