Ten seconds to New Year

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Time was ticking and the new year was coming. Time was ticking and it was nearly the end of my life. I just did not know it yet. Ten seconds left. Only ten seconds. The new year meant new opportunities, new pages to write and new dreams to fulfil. That’s what it meant for most people. Not for me. At least not for the year that was coming. I did not know it yet but there was only ten seconds left for me. Tick, tock. I did not know it yet but I made a wrong choice. A wrong choice because I did not invite the right people to celebrate. It was not the first time I made a mistake. I have made many mistakes in my life. But that mistake was going to take me to my grave. I had only ten seconds left to live. Tick, tock. Time is a wonderful thing. You only realise it when you die. I could have made so much more with the ten last seconds of my life. If I had known, I would have made so much more. Tick, tock. Ten seconds and I could have hugged someone. Ten seconds and I could have drunk a last glass of gin. Ten seconds and I could have read a quote from my favourite book. I could have done so many things. Things that would have been significant to me. Things that would have revealed my personality. And when my story was told, when my last ten seconds were related, people would have said ‘yeah, this is really him, this is what he would do’. But I couldn’t do any of those things because I didn’t know.

Tick, tock. I didn’t know that I was going to die. I didn’t know that I was going to be murdered. What took hold of me when I decided to celebrate the new year with my worst enemies? Tick, tock. I was about to live the ten last seconds of my life and I didn’t know it. Dying the very second a new year begins is really a cruel thing. New year should be the definition of renewal, of new beginnings, not of life ending. But my guests had another idea of what the beginning of the new year should be for me. They had planned it all along, the very day they received my invitations by post. I should have seen it coming. I should have known they were about to shorten my life. I should have realised it, even ten seconds before the fateful moment. Tick, tock. I shouldn’t have lived my last seconds with people I hated. I hated them and I invited them. Why did I do that? You know, I probably hated them because they hated me. When someone hates you, you definitely can’t like them. People were either your friends or your enemies. They couldn’t be your friends if they didn’t return the affection you showed them. In that case, they were your enemy. Not your friend. I could have liked the people I invited to celebrate the new year, but I couldn’t like them. Tick, tock. Ten seconds and these people were going to kill me. They were going to kill me because they hated me. The reason why they hated me was going to send me straight to heaven. Heaven or somewhere else. My going to heaven was probably debatable if you take into account the reason why those people hated me.

Tick, tock. Ten seconds and I could have done something else than waiting for my death. If only I had known what they were about to do, I would have done something spectacular. What else can you do in ten seconds? I could have played the trumpet and it would have been the last time my neighbours heard me. I could have shouted through my window to tell the whole world I was going to die. I could have called the love of my life to tell her I loved her one last time. Tick, tock. Ten seconds and I could have thought of love. I could have felt something else than the feeling of being hated. If only I had known. But I should have known. These people hated me. I sent them invitations on a day when I recalled the bad things I did in my life. I invited them after an episode of remorse. Tick, tock. Ten seconds to live and it was all because of remorse. I sent them a nicely-written invitation, I had used my Underwood typewriter and I had used wax to seal the envelope. I would have loved to receive such an invitation. Not only the envelope looked fancy but also it was sent by an important man. I would have loved to be invited to celebrate the new year in a big mansion. Tick, tock. Ten seconds to live and it happened in my big mansion. The mansion that made me proud. I was proud of what I went through to become the man I was. I began at the bottom of the ladder and climbed my way to the top. I was a rich man because of the endeavours I made, because of hard work. I am aware that I was a proud man. It was probably pride that brought me there.

Tick, tock. I had then seconds left and these people murdered me. They murdered me because they hated me. They hated me because I was a proud man. They made my last ten seconds a nightmare. Tick, tock. I was talking to Clara when Gary suddenly lifted me from behind and Dennis took my feet. It took five seconds for them to tie me up, it tells you how prepared they were! It was like a choreography. Tick, tock. Then Clara pointed the barrel of a gun towards me, I heard a click and she proudly said ‘Say goodbye George’. And there it was the end. The end of me.

I had invited them because I felt remorse. If only I had never sacked them, I would never have died. I have to admit I was not the friendliest boss one can have. I liked my employees to feel inferior to me. I liked them to feel pressured. But it was a normal thing. I had been treated this way when I was nothing. What happened to Clara, Gary and Dennis was natural. They were nothing. They didn’t know how to work properly. And they didn’t want to improve themselves. I had to open their eyes. They couldn’t carry on working in my company without the urge in themselves to do better. I couldn’t accept it. So I sacked them. One by one. I took pleasure in doing it.

I had summoned Gary a week before Christmas. I think he didn’t see it coming. He probably thought I was going to give him a raise. I remember everything. The disappointment, the crying and the shouting. It was awful but I had loved that moment. A few months after Gary, it was Clara’s turn. I knew she was a young mother and she had to sustain her family. Her husband was jobless and she needed money for food. Therefore, her job was important for her but she wasn’t good at it. And she needed it to realise she wasn’t made for it. I only wanted to help her. I was less enthusiastic when firing her. Clara was not like Gary. Gary was a jerk who liked to show off when he bought a new car. Clara was sweet. But she wasn’t good at her job. The interview with her was painful. She never cried but her voice was shaky and she went on and on with the fact she needed the money. Nonetheless, I stayed proud and cold and told her it was time to go. ‘Say goodbye Clara’. I now realise how clever that girl was. She was the last person I heard in my life. It took her and her former colleagues ten seconds to tie me up and kill me. And the last thing she told me was my own quote. That was clever.

But I could have used the last moments of my life to do something else. I could have chosen to invite real friends. Dennis was a nice guy. The only problem I had with him was that he had been involved in a relationship with my daughter. I just couldn’t allow him. My daughter was too good for Dennis. It was my blood that was running in her veins. Dennis was just a little clerk. He wasn’t even literate. Of course there had been sad events after the sacking of Dennis. My daughter stopped talking to me and my wife, the love of my life, left me. She said terrible things on how I was a proud, selfish man. Both of them had been cross with me and I never had news of them again. I remembered these events the day I sent my invitations. I wanted to make amends. I wanted to show my guests that I wasn’t such a bad guy. I wanted to explain them what had pushed me to fire them. I thought that Clara and Gary would understand. I wasn’t expecting Dennis to forgive me. The very last ten seconds of my life have been horrendous but they could have lasted longer. They could have tortured me for hours. But their plan had been ready for a long time. They weren’t bad people. They were just bitter. It was all a stupid misunderstanding. I wanted to apologize, not to be killed.

Instead of inviting those people, I should have invited my wife and my daughter. They would never have killed me. I would have apologized and I am pretty sure they would have forgiven me. I would have been free from remorse. The biggest mistake I made was to invite the wrong people. It took them ten seconds. Tick, tock. The lifting. Tick, tock. The tying. Tick, tock. The barrel. Tick, tock. The clicking. Tick, tock. ‘Say goodbye George’. Tick, tock. And the new year began.