Ride the Lightning

Bernie sat in the bar, on his fifth glass of cheap whiskey and it looked as if he would be ready for his next one very soon. Bernie Woods wasn’t much to look at and in fact wasn’t much to talk to either. His life had been one mistake and one bad decision after another.

It had started when he was seven years old, he and Anthony Williams had stolen a pair of candy bars from the local store. Within a few weeks they were making a regular practice of stealing from the store, that was until they got caught, or more accurately he got caught.

Anthony used Bernie as the “Mule”, stashing the bars down his pants to make sure they had a better chance of getting away. Anthony got away all right leaving Bernie to face the music, his mother had beat him with a belt and he had to agree to pay for the other bars he had stolen.

When he was fifteen, Amos Jones had talked him into going for a ride in his “New” car, within an hour of cruising around town they had been pulled over and Amos convinced Bernie to sit in the driver’s seat claiming that if he did that they would both walk away, because Bernie hadn’t been in trouble before. That’s when Bernie found out the car was stolen and Amos was going to walk away while Bernie spent the next year in Juvie.

His whole life had been like that, people realized he wasn’t very bright and they had used him, time and again. And what was sad was by the time he was twenty five he had begun to realize that even the court system knew he was an idiot.

“Now let me understand this, your friend came running out of the store with a wad of cash in one hand and ask you to hold it for him while he pulled the car around and when the owner came out chasing your “friend” you thought the store owner was trying to rob him”? The Judge asked in an incredulous voice.

He was sentenced to three years and his friend was never caught. It was during this hitch in jail that he met a very strange man, named Weller Jones; Weller was something of a freak everyone left Weller alone unless Weller wanted something. His face was very memorable because of the scar a very fine scar that ran from his right ear to the bottom on his jaw

Weller took a liking to Bernie and kept the others from doing bad things to him while he was in jail, Bernie felt a sense of debt and faithfulness to Weller that he never had felt before. If anyone fucked with Bernie they would have to deal with Weller, and nobody wanted to do that.

Bernie was nearing the end of his sentence when Weller let Bernie know that one day he would ask Bernie for a favor, that day might be a long time off, but on that day he expected Bernie to grant that favor.

Bernie was only too happy to agree, he owed Weller big and everyone else had always used him so when Weller produced a piece of parchment and poked his hand with a shank and made him sign it with his own blood he thought Weller was just a little strange but not a bad guy all in all.

Bernie never thought much about the strange interaction until years later. Bernie saw Weller on the news, he had been arrested for killing three people, after breaking into their house he had raped the wife and then set fire to the house killing all but the father who had managed to escape.

The trial made national news and no one was surprised when the death sentence was handed down, Weller was interviewed and he claimed that he would never “ride the lighting”. Referring to the term death row convicts used to describe the last seat they took in the chair right before the switch was flipped send the electricity thru their body.

More time passed, appeals were denied and an execution date was set, when the day finally arrived very few people protested the event because Weller was just a bad man and the world was better off without him.

Bernie went to his favorite bar on that day, having managed for several years to stay out of any kind of trouble he had even managed to get a job that allowed him to live a meager but acceptable lifestyle. Most people thought Weller was a bad man but Bernie owed him a drink and a passing thought at least for his protection in while he had been in jail.

So he sat drinking his cheap whiskey and watching the TV reporting on the upcoming execution, when a sudden strange sensation came over his body he doubled over from the intense pain. The bar tender notice Bernie bend over, he was a regular and a descent guy if not very bright.

“Bernie, you okay man? You had a funny look on your face”. The bartender couldn’t see him very well the shadows were playing tricks in the bar and he seemed to be blurry and faded somehow.

The bar tender stepped back the surprise clear on his face, it wasn’t Bernie at all, but a ugly brute with a fine scar on his face, one that ran from his ear to his jaw.

“You want another drink fella”? The bar tender ask slowly.

“You bet, this guy is gonna ride the lightning in a second and I wanna watch”. The wolfish smile scared the bartender who quickly stepped away to get the man his drink.


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