Celebration of the Moment

Jack sipped his black coffee sitting in a congested cabin. A place so tiny that even the cigarette smoke was finding it hard to disappear outside. He was about to light his fourth cigarette when he heard a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” he cried.

“It’s Alison” a voice replied back.

“Come in Al”

Alison walked in; he began coughing trying to accustom him to the suffocation inside.

“So Mr. Sheriff, What do we have with us?” Jake took a puff of the cigarette he had just lit.

“Evidence, sir, something that will feed our curiosities as we have lunch” Alison sat down, kept his hat on the table cluttered with files and hefty registers.  On the untidy table, a small monitor screen was kept. Jake looked at Alison tidying up the table as he patiently puffed out his cigarette. Finally enough space was made that would facilitate two people to have a comfortable meal.

“Alright sir. Are we ready?” Alison sat down.

“Yes indeed” Jake picked up the phone and placed his order.

Once the eateries arrived on the table, Alison inserted a small cassette into the cassette player. The small TV screen on the table blinked in response, showing a close up of a young man’s face. With his tongue popped out, one could make out from his unseen hand gestures that he was trying to adjust the camera.

After unknowingly giving funny expressions he finally stopped, “Oh! It’s on!’ he cried.

Minutes later this man who called himself Teeber started talking about his wife who had left him and how gravely it saddened him. He called the lonely nights, “Disturbingly haunting” and the days, “Lifelessly redundant”. He talked about his son Little Timmy who had referred to him as a “bad man” and how he had left with his mommy on that Sunday morning. He went on talking about working in a factory and a meager wage.

“Mommy! Only you know how Teeber feels like” he looked up. His cries began subsiding, giving way to sobs. “Get up Teeber! Mommy’s watching you. She’s asking you to get up on your feet” Teeber mumbled with his hands cupping his face.

“I don’t need reasons to rejoice!”  Teeber suddenly stood up as if something had taken control of him. Within no time he had lined up bottles on the table. After drinking three back-to-back, he turned on the music system and started dancing like a high voltage current was trying to sustain itself in his body.

Every now and then Teeber would come near the camera screaming and howling with a repeated claim, “I’ve won over everything!”

The time at the bottom of the screen read 3:11 am. “It’s almost time” Alison looked away from the screen and saw Jake with glimmering eyes.

At 3.16 am Teeber’s celebration was interrupted by vibrations around him. The camera fell down and was displaced to an odd angle which showed the roof of the place. A mass of concrete came down and the video went blank.

Jake wiped his eyes, “This unfortunate catastrophe might’ve not killed his spirit” he said.

They both sat there, observing a silent prayer.  After a while Alison put his hat and walked off.