The Growth

A cool breeze whistled through the aperture of Mrs. Eugenia Wendel’s living room window; she had forgotten to check that one. She had been increasingly forgetful ever since her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. A widow without children, Mrs. Wendel made an ideal target for Gary Thompson.

The window’s tune was stifled by the shadow that appeared outside. The shadow delicately slid open the upper casement so as not to make a sound. With the grace of a cat, the shadow had mounted and dismounted the windowsill — an inveterate talent honed only by career criminals such as Gary.

The light from the television set was absorbed by the black ski mask Gary wore for his work; Gary used this light to navigate his route of thievery around the room.

He was placing the final piece of loot into his gym bag when he heard the creaking of floorboards; Mrs. Wendel was descending the stairs at an incredible rate for someone of feeble mind and body.

The window was on the other side of the room from Gary; he would have been caught had he made a break for it. However, despite the perplexing situation in which Gary found himself, he remained calm, as he had studied Mrs. Wendel’s nightly routine throughout the preceding week; this was Gary’s modus operandi.

Gary knew that Mrs. Wendel would be coming into the living room at approximately this time to turn off the television. Then, she would go to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water, which she would then take with her to bed. All Gary had to do was remain in the shadows for the next couple of minutes before making off with the valuables.

But what Gary didn’t know was the extent of Mrs. Wendel’s cognitive decline. She entered the living room and turned off the television, as expected. Gary stood up from behind the sofa as soon as she left the room — only for Mrs. Wendel to return. She was heading for the television again, having forgotten that she had just turned it off.

Upon spotting him, her eyes focused on his outline, which was illuminated by the streetlights. What menacing form Gary Thompson adopted in the decaying mind of poor Mrs. Wendel, we will never know, but it engendered such fear in her that the scream of a banshee peeled from her lungs.

Gary clambered out the window before Mrs. Wendel had finished screaming. Neighbours’ porch lights switched on and curtains flung open as Gary sprinted across the front yard. He had parked his car around the block and planned to pass through backyards to get to it — a feat sure to be noticed by his growing audience.

Left with no other choice but to achieve a swift getaway, Gary dropped the gym bag before taking his first leap over a backyard fence. After several fences, his car was within sight. Gary hopped in and drove away at a leisurely speed, hoping to quell suspicions of law enforcement that were sure to appear in the area at any moment.

Gary had no clue that he had sealed his fate when he decided to drop his gym bag. At one point, he really had used it for its intended purpose; his sweaty gymwear imbued plenty of his DNA into the very fabric of the bag — a fact that struck Gary on the drive home — only to be put at ease by the rational conclusion that the police generally don’t go to such lengths when investigating burglaries, but they do for murder.

Exactly 2 weeks later, Gary’s home was raided by the police. He was placed under arrest for the murder of Eugenia Wendel.

During his trial, Gary would come to find out that once he had left Mrs. Wendel, she — in her state of terror and confusion — had stumbled backward and cracked her skull on the fireplace mantel; she died before help could arrive.

In the courtroom, Gary felt the stares of the judge and the jury cut through him as he sat with his head down, wondering how his life had hit such a low. The more he wondered, the more he realized that he deserved to be in his current predicament; he was scum, and he knew it.

When the judge sentenced Gary to 25 years in prison for murder in the second degree, he thought it was a just sentence; at precisely that moment, Gary felt a dull pain on his side.

Continued in part two.