Suburbia

It was a typical Monday morning in Suburbia. The birds were chirping just outside of the window, and the sunlight was shining through the bedroom blinds. Ron began to stir in bed, turning over from his right side to his back. His sleep is suddenly disturbed by the alarm on his phone, which gradually gets louder. Ron reaches over and grabs his phone. He briefly checks the time and then hits the snooze button on his alarm.

“I really hate Mondays”, muttered Ron.

He walks downstairs and enters the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets for something to eat for breakfast. The other side of the kitchen table is littered with mail from the past few weeks. Most of them are past due bills. He takes his phone and checks his bank account balance. He scoffs and sighs once the available balance is shown. He makes sure that he has all his personal belongings and takes out his keys from his pocket. He walks to the front door and leaves the house, locking the door behind him. He begins walking to his car, a silver Nissan. He gets into his car, backs down the driveway, and heads down the street towards the main part of town.

Ron enters the main square of the town, which has a clock around the center garden. Ron takes a right-hand turn and pulls down a side street. He parks along the right side of the road and looks over at the sign for McGregor’s Market. He walks up to the main sidewalk and enters inside the grocery store. He begins walking down the aisles, placing items in his shopping cart. He looks up to see Kate, a younger woman that he had previously taken out on a date.

“Hey, stranger,” said Kate.

“Hey, you. What’s going on? How’ve you been?” asked Ron.

“Nothing much. Same old. Staying busy with my designs. What about you? You never called me after our date, so I just assumed that you didn’t want to see me again,” replies Kate.

“Not true. I’ve just been really busy. I was going to call you. Honest,” justified Ron.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure,” says Kate.

Kate peers into Ron’s cart and notices the packages of cookies and baked goods.

“All that junk food? Not good for the diet,” said Kate.

“It’s been a long couple of weeks, so I’m entitled to a few cheat nights,” replied Ron.

“You still going to Powerhouse Gym?” asked Kate.

“When I feel up to it. I try to work out from home as much as I can,” replies Ron

“Well, I just got a membership there. Maybe I’ll see you around. I usually have Thursday nights free, if you ever want to hang out again,” says Kate.

“I might just take you up on that. I’ve been meaning to try out that Seafood place on Crenshaw. Myrons? I heard the Lobster Bisque is amazing,” replied Ron.

“It’s really good. I think you’d enjoy it,” mentioned Kate.

“All right. I’m sold. I’ll call you this week. We can set something up,” says Ron.

“You promise? You’re not going to blow me off?” mentions Kate.

“I promise. You have my word. Besides, you always know where you find me,” replied Ron.

“What can I say? You’re just too predictable,” replies Kate.

“Maybe I am. We’ll see,” quips Ron.

“Well, don’t stay in here too long. If there’s one thing that I hate, it’s grocery shopping,” laughs Kate.

“I’m right there with you,” replied Ron.

“It was nice seeing you again. Call me,” says Kate.

“Same here, Kate. Enjoy your day,” smiled Ron.

Kate begins walking away, flashing a smile at Ron. He returns the gaze as he marvels at her physique and tight figure. He laughs to himself, and then pushes the cart away to finish his shopping.

Ron exits the market, pushing the cart down the sidewalk towards his car. He opens the back door and begins placing the bags into the back seat. Before he closes the door, he is distracted by something. He focuses his gaze on a dumpster that is next to a construction site. As he gets closer, he notices the sliding door is partially ajar, and there is a brown paper bag leaning out. Now standing in front of it, he notices patches of green that are showing through some holes in the bag. He opens the top of the bag and confirms the numerous stacks of twenty-dollar bills, each with the bands still on them.

“What the hell?” exclaims Ron.

He looks puzzled and confused as to why someone would leave cash in a dumpster like this.

“Must be a mistake or something,” said Ron.

After deliberating for a moment, he observes his surroundings and begins walking back to his car. About halfway to the car, he stops dead in his tracks. He reflects on his recent financial troubles and knows that he needs a good amount of money to fix it. He begins walking back to the dumpster. Ron surveys the area, watching people along the main street walk back and forth. There is no one in the immediate vicinity. He checks for cameras on the nearby buildings but does not see any. He quickly walks over to the dumpster and grabs the bag, folding and crinkling the top down. He tries to conceal it in his hand as he walks back to the car. He enters the car and places the bag in the glove compartment. He pulls out of the side street, heading in the direction of his house.

Ron is sitting at his kitchen table, with the bag of money sitting in front of him. He takes the bag and begins taking out the stacks of money, placing them on the table. He begins to count out the stacks and place them to the side in piles.

“Twenty Grand. Who the hell would just throw this out?!”, said Ron.

A smile emanates across his face as he stares at the money in front of him. He notices that there is something else at the bottom of the bag and dumps it onto the table. A black, leather bound notebook is now in front of him.

“The hell is this for?”, asked Ron.

He picks up the notebook and begins to turn the first few pages. He realizes that the notebook serves as a journal as well as a personal planner. He visually scrolls through random dates, times, events, and locations. Towards the middle of the book, he reads through one of the journal entries, dated several months ago.

“Weird,” said Ron.

He closes the notebook and gets up from the table, leaving the money behind.

Later that night, Ron is watching an action movie in his living room. The windy weather outside catches his attention as a tree limb scrapes against one of the front windows. He laughs as an action sequence from the movie redirects his attention. He suddenly hears a faint knocking from the front door. He mutes the television to listen. There is nothing but silence. He puts the movie volume back up, only to hear the knocking sound again. He looks out through the window and confirms that there is no one there. He looks through the peep hole in the front door as well.

“Must be hearing things,” said Ron.

He decides to head into the kitchen to get a fresh beer from the refrigerator. The money stacks are neatly piled on top of one another towards the corner of the table. The black notebook is to the right of the money. Ron opens up the door and reaches towards the back of the main shelf to retrieve another beer. As he closes the refrigerator door, he is jolted by the presence of three armed men directly behind him. The center man is wearing a blue collared shirt, suit jacket, black pants, and black shoes. His presence was ominous, with the other men subservient to him.

“Hi, Ron. Looks like we have some unfinished business,” said the Man.

Before Ron can react, he is approached from the rear by two different men, entering from the rear of the house. One of men places a Chloroformed rag over his mouth, suffocating him and dragging him backwards. Ron tries to fight back, but is eventually subdued and closes his eyes.

Ron awakens to an eerie silence and a shroud of darkness. He attempts to lift his head, but he smacks it on a metal ceiling. He realizes that his hands and legs are not bound, but he can’t rise up from his position. It finally dawns on him that he has been placed in a coffin. Ron begins to panic and squirm. His right leg hits something next to him. He picks up a flashlight and turns it on. He begins to examine the inside of the coffin and notices a few things. Besides the flashlight, there is a Walkie Talkie and the black, leather bound notebook that he originally found in the brown, paper bag. He is jolted by someone’s voice coming through the Walkie device. It is the same voice as the man that came into his house earlier that night.

“Hi, Ron. Glad we could reconnect. I thought long and hard and decided that a prolonged death is more suitable. Right now, you have about ten feet of dirt on top of you. The Oxygen will run out within the hour. The coffin is reinforced with metal and custom Mahogany,” says the Man.

Ron is holding the Walkie in his shaking hands.

“Did you really think you could evade us forever? You decided to run to the cops. You didn’t have the balls to be a real man. Witness Protection? Really? Since you have all the time in the world right now, I’d like to direct your attention to the notebook that you found in the paper bag,” said the Man.

Ron opens up the notebook and begins flipping through it again. He flips to the end, which is something he negated to take notice of. He notices a list of names, with the majority of them being X’d or crossed out. He notices his name towards the bottom, along with a few others. His name is directly underneath the last name that was crossed out.

“Was only a matter of time before we found you. Flip to the back cover of the book. There’s a slit towards the bottom of it,” said the Man.

Ron pokes his fingers into the slit and pulls out a small tracking device from the back cover. He stares at the device in horror.

“You’re so predictable. We knew you would take the money if the opportunity presented itself. You know that hot girl that you met a few weeks ago? Katie Bradford? She’s with us. She knew that you would see the bag of money from where you were parked. It all worked out so perfectly. Couldn’t have played out any better,” said the Man.

Ron begins to shake uncontrollably. A tear begins to roll down his cheek.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you, Ron. Try and conserve every last bit of air you got left. Just close your eyes and it will all be over soon. Well, I’ve got to go. See you on the other side, snitch,” said the Man.

The voice stops broadcasting through the Walkie. Ron begins yelling for help.

“Help! Help me! Is there anyone out there?!”, screamed Ron.

The flashlight in his hand begins to flicker as the batteries begin to die. The beam of light continues to get dimmer and dimmer. Suddenly, the flashlight dies, and Ron is immersed into complete darkness. He continues to scream and bang on the inside of the coffin. The surface above shows the burial location; the middle of the woods, surrounded by trees on all sides.