New Year, New Life

They say that humanity is striving towards a better society, whether they work together or separately. All I wanted though was to make my little corner of the world a little easier to deal with. I can’t say I’ve been trying real hard to make that happen. With the lockdowns and the riots it’s hard to even keep track of the time, let alone what I do to better society. I usually have a couple drinks after work to take the edge off. It helps when I’m falling asleep to the dread that I still have to go back to work the next day. I think even if someone did something they loved to do, life can get a little stressful sometimes. I wish I could just wake up one day and just start over. I dream of the day this is going to be a distant memory. 

I was at a New Years Eve party with a neighbor who had just moved into the building from out of town. From the looks of his expensive clothes, I figured he was some big shot at one of the agencies on Madison avenue. He invited me and the rest of the building over and offered a rapid covid test to everyone who showed up. When I went out into the hall on his floor, I could hear the music playing and what smelled like some of my favorite pasta dishes.

When I walked inside the decadent apartment with a tasteful decor, I was greeted by my new neighbor with open arms. He thanked me for coming by and told me he’s been dying to just meet some new people other than his co-workers. I'm guessing he was from some small town though, since he invited all the lunatics who lived on our floor. I was hesitant about staying once I got there, but after I was handed a drink and a couple hors d'oeuvres, I figured it would be rude to leave now. Besides, after working the same dead end job for six months, I figured at least it could be an opportunity to network with a few people. 

Even in a pandemic, New York is always full of possibilities. You never know how any one person you meet could change your life. 

It was right after a toast to finally leaving behind the madness that was 2020. We all agreed how great it would be if we could just forget it all. I was drinking enough to at least forget a few months of it myself. 

At about half past one, I figured I had one too many and decided to go back to my apartment to crash. I made it to the couch, and dozed off hanging halfway off of it. I knew that tomorrow I was going to call a couple people back, and take a turn for the better with my life, but I was still a degenerate drinker at least for this night.

It was strange, I knew I had closed my door behind me, but right before I was zonked out completely, I thought I had heard the handle being turned. It must have one of the neighbors thinking it was their apartment. The last thing I remember was yelling out at the door, “Wrong room!”

When I came to, I was in handcuffs digging into my wrist being led down a hallway of pale yellow walls with the paint peeling off, dimly lit by dying fluorescent lights. There were these large windows with metal bars on the outside of them spaced out every few feet. Two prison guards were escorting me down to the gray door at the end of the descent with a small thick window at head level. It smelled like bleach and dust, and the only sounds I could hear came from the guard’s boots marching against the off-white tiled floor. 

We got up to the door, the guard to my right pulled out his key attached to his belt by a chain, and unlocked the handle. Inside was a six by six square foot room with a metal table, a pitcher of water, two cups, and two silver metal chairs. One of them was already occupied by a short balding man with a briefcase in front of him, his hand patting his forehead with a couple thick bleached paper towels. The guards sat me in the chair opposite from him, and attached my handcuffs to a chain that was drilled into the table. 

“Where are his glasses?” asked the man in the room. 

“They were confiscated as evidence of the murder weapon.” Replied the guard to my right. 

“Fair enough. Thank you officer, you can leave us now.” Said the lawyer while opening the briefcase on the table. The guards went out the door, and locked it from the outside. 

“Murder?” I blurted out after I heard the lock to the door click. 

The man didn’t say anything for a minute and just continued to pull out papers out of his briefcase and place them on the table. 

“I didn’t murder anybody.” I said.

“That’s not really important mister... “ he glanced down at a file, ”Yo-No. That’s an interesting name.”

“It’s Spanish” I sighed.

The lawyer looked at me in the eye, “Mr. Yo-No, I’m not here to decide if you're innocent, that’s the jury’s job. But if it will let you breathe a little easier, I’ve dealt with plenty of murder cases like yours. I’ve only lost one or two. Both of which looked a lot worse than yours. So trust me, you’re in good hands.” He smiled, and then turned back to pulling out more papers out of his briefcase.

“Now, Mr. Yo-No, the police report says that you were arrested last tuesday at approximately 4 am on 58th street at a warehouse by the bmw dealership. It says when you were obtained standing next to the body of one Marie Seraño, which had been determined deceased for about 12 hours prior to your arrest according to the coroner's report. The report also says that you were holding a pair of glasses with blood on it. This lead the officers to believe that the glasses were in fact a murder weapon…”

“I don’t wear glasses.” I softly interrupted. 

“Sorry?” He responded.

I cleared my throat, “I said I don’t wear glasses.”

“Let me just get through the report first before we start going over the details.” He chuckled.

“I don’t want to hear anything else.” I said.

“Well, I think it would help both of us to go over…”

I slid my chair back and stood up. “I said I don’t want to hear anything else. I didn’t ask you or anybody else to represent me. I didn’t murder anybody! I don’t even know how I got here! All I know is that last night I went to bed in my apartment, and I woke up being taken to some broom closet with some guy who claims to be a lawyer. I haven’t seen any of your credentials, and you look nothing like my lawyer that I actually use. Now you start telling me about some murder that I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m going to guess this is some kind of elaborate prank, and I’m done being a part of it. So if you can just get these handcuffs off me…”

The lawyer took out photos and a copy of a police report out of his briefcase and slid it across the table. “Nobody is pulling a prank on you Mr. Yo-No. As you can see, this is a very real incident that has happened. As for me being here instead of your normal lawyer, I was hired by the gentleman who owns the warehouse where the deceased was found along with you holding a supposed murder weapon. To be fair, we are still waiting to hear back on the DNA results to see if the blood on the glasses matches that of Miss Seraño. It doesn’t look good though. You’re telling me though that you are not aware of what happened on the night of the incident?” He asked.

I stood still. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the pictures of a woman. She was obviously a victim of something horrible. I wasn’t the detective here though. She seemed familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I would’ve met her. I just wanted this to be over though.  “I’ve never seen her before. I know there’s a BMW dealership I pass on my way to work that way, but I’ve never seen a warehouse. Look, I honestly don’t know anything. All I know is that I went to bed last night, like I always do, alone in my room. I’ve never killed anybody in my life, and I doubt that I started last night with a pair of glasses. I don’t know what happened, but you seem like a good enough lawyer, you can figure out a good enough defense for me. Say whatever you want, I just want to move on with my life. As long as I don’t see my name in the paper, or have to hear about this if I have a job interview.”

The lawyer emptied the pitcher into one of the cups and offered it to me. I sat down and drank. It tasted strange though. I should’ve figured, it would be tap water. The lawyer started to put the papers and the photos back into his briefcase.

 “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about any job interviews in the future mister Yo-No. I am however truly sorry that you have to deal with this. These cases are never easy. I’m happy to hear that you want to move on from all this though. Trust me, this makes my job here today much easier than having to sell you on the idea to take the blame for the murder of Miss Seraño. The only thing I have to worry about, now is how to explain how my client’s glasses came into your possession when you have such perfect eyesight.”  I started to feel sick. It felt like something was burning me from my insides, and I was having a hard time keeping awake again.

 “As far as this interaction goes mister Yo-No, I’m glad you don’t care to know how we will make you become the fall guy for my client’s fatal interaction with Miss Seraño. We appreciate your sacrifice very much. If it’s any consolation to you, you shouldn’t have to deal with this whole murder trial for very long either. The acid poison in the water you just drank should finish its effects by the time the guards bring you back to your cell. I’m assuming that you may want to tell them about what just happened, but the poison actually has already burned through your vocal cords and should burn through the rest of your insides by the time they bring you back. You seem like the kind of man who’s good at accepting the reality of situations and moving on from them though, so this shouldn’t take much effort from you either.” I wanted to yell out, but my mouth felt hallowed out as if my tongue wasn’t inside of it anymore. 

I wanted to let the guards know that I was just poisoned by this man, but I was in so much pain all I could do was clench my fist against my stomach as I felt the acid eating away at my insides. The lawyer was right, I wanted to just wake up from this nightmare. I didn’t want to think about how my insides were being burned away, or how I was going to forever be known as being arrested for murder and never be able to defend myself after I die in prison. I didn’t want to think about how I was taken so easily from my apartment, or who would have been stalking me out and planning for me to be falsely accused for such a heinous crime. I just couldn't think about anything other than the pain. 

“Well it’s been a pleasure mister Yo-No. I hope you enjoy your death. I doubt that you will, but you never know what a positive mindset can do for someone even in your situation. Goodbye." The lawyer got up, knocked on the door. The guards let him out and came in afterwards to take me back to my cell. "By the way mister Yo-No, great party last night."