Baby’s Cry

William Kitcher 

John Fuller was a terrible man. He’d always supposed it was the truth, burying the thought as much as he could throughout his short pathetic life, but now he knew it for certain as he lay dying from the gunshot wound inflicted on him by the night watchman at the jewelry store he was attempting to rob.

He knew it was all his own fault for what he’d become. Yes, his father had been a nasty man who had often hit him, and his mother had always been indifferent toward him, but that was them, not unlike a lot of other people. He didn’t blame them. He was responsible for being a bully when he was a kid, a thief of clothes and knives as a young teenager, a carjacker, opioid dealer, and enforcer by the age of twenty, and a killer when he was twenty-five.

He didn’t know if the loss of blood was giving him clarity. He felt somewhat at peace knowing he was going to die. He’d never have to feel guilty ever again.

And so it was, he thought, for every other human who had ever lived. Oh, maybe a few stinking wealthy or unusually balanced people here and there were happy, but it couldn’t be more than a handful. Everyone else was basically unhappy, dealing with the awfulness of uncertain childhood, confusing adolescence, frustrating adulthood, unsatisfying parenthood, the infirmity and tiredness of old age.

Fuller died.

When he came to, he was crying, as all babies do when they realize they have to go through the long painful process yet again.

And the thought went out of his head permanently when he felt the warmth of his mother and had the hope that this time, things would turn out differently.

Bill’s stories, plays, and comedy sketches have been published and/or produced in Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Guernsey, Holland, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, and the U.S. His stories have appeared in Fiery Scribe Review, The Metaworker, New Contrast, The Prague Review, Once Upon A Crocodile, Spank The Carp, Little Old Lady Comedy, Yellow Mama, and many other journals. His novel, “Farewell And Goodbye, My Maltese Sleep”, will be published in 2023 by Close To The Bone Publishing.