To know it all

http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2k70dx/wp_a_man_is_granted_his_wish_for_unlimited/

John woke up still hazy minded. He took long, deep breathes. His eyes searched the bedroom for signs of female underwear and traces of red lipstick. He searched his phone for text messages. The sun was just below the horizon, and birds sung outside. As John tried to erase the images from a supposed dream, memories of ancient lives flooded reality.

There was a man drinking from a bucket full of fruits over the balcony of John’s kitchen. A woman was inserting hot coal in a iron box by John’s unfolded shirts. Opening the refrigerator, looking for something to drink, John saw a kid cleaning a thin line of vomit with his sleeve while holding a bottle of soda.

Hastily leaving his front door behind, John could hear a pig being slaughtered in his backyard. Under the billboards, black men shouted news about economic depression. In front of a gas station, there were horses being fed with meat from what appeared to be other horses.

John walked to work and found it funny that he knew his way around the city. A draft of wind blew from an alley. John decided to go that way for a shortcut. For a second, he missed the scent of urine. John had always thought those walls ought to smell bad. But there were only memories of green apples and lemon drifting from the laundry hanging on a clothesline.

A red nightgown swung away from the other garments. It got hooked by an invisible rod in the middle of the air. Or it just decided to dance like a scarlet mistress.

Behind a store window, John saw an old merchant selling his daughter. John saw a house full of women waiting for their husbands to come back from war. Across the street, on an advertising for a TV series, he saw a queen sitting on the throne while her king commanded a beheading.

A woman passed by. She limped just enough. She tried not to make eye contact with John, but she didn’t succeed. By her side, the boyfriend was showing her to his car. He had a bite mark on his lower lip, a bulge under his left arm, and wasn’t wearing a belt. She protected her belly when the boyfriend made her sit on the passenger seat, and she flinched when he closed the door. John felt the memory of a kick in the stomach and a strange taste in his mouth. Right then, he knew what it was.

He grabbed the phone. “273D on-going. 417. License plate Alpha-Tango-Charlie”. As he pronounced the name of the street, he realized the police station was two minutes away. Two minutes too long.

“Hey, man. Whatcha-doing?” The ugly boyfriend had one foot out of the car. John was just standing there, phone still on. “Get outta there. I will run you over.”

“Nice accent. Where are you from?” John noticed the buzz-cut. Homemade. The chinese tattoo on the man’s right hand was backwards. It was supposed to mean “strength”. His ring from some law school was too big for his finger. His golden watch was full of scratches. The left shoe had abrasion marks on its outter side that the right one hadn’t.

“Shut up, man.” He looked at his girlfriend. She wouldn’t make any eye contact. The boyfriend bit some ugly words with beautiful aligned teeth.

John kicked him away. The man tried to support his weight on his weak leg and fell down. The gun went off against the pavement. A police car cut the corner with the sirens on.

John saw two cops approaching. A man and a woman. The male cop had a smurk on his face. His buzz-cut was even and clean. His ears were pierced, but he wasn’t wearing earrings. There was a discoloration under his left sleeve. The female cop jumped off the car with her hand on the gun. She assumed a well-trained relaxed position in front of John as he made the boyfriend stand up.

“Is this the guy, sir?”

“The guy?” He bitted the air like a dog and smiled at the female officer’s breast. She had her hand on the gun again and stepped forward just once. The male cop said “It’s alright, hon. You just take care of the paperwork. And you. You shouldn’t be playing hero. Let the real heroes do that.”

“How did you know?”, the woman asked and hugged him. He thanked her when she didn’t expect the answer. John faked a smile while holding a deep breath. While the male officer shove the guy’s head through the backdoor of the police vehicle, the female officer was just waiting. Her face was red. A vein popping from the right side of her neck. The button over her chest stood just as still as she did. When it started to move, it followed the rhythm of a defeat.

People who weren’t there to help minutes before begun to appear. First on windows across the street. Then on the sidewalk, yelling their opinion on something they didn’t know anything about.

Men cursed the boyfriend for being stupid. Women asked “what did she do?”. Only eight people from the sixty-three standing around the freshly tied cop line understood sillently what was happening. She was one in 2 million. “Come with us, ma’am. I need to ask you a few questions.” She laid her hands on her belly as she walked away. She wasn’t alone.

The cellphone rang inside John’s pocket. He answered it not having to look at the screen.

“I am sorry, my love. I really am.”