Bewitched,
Provoked and Bewildered
by George
Sparling
“What’s
got into you today, Marty? You don’t sound
like yourself,” Pam says. She’s
concerned, exactly why I like her.
I say,
“The National Security Agency has embed
words not my own into Broca’s area which
controls speech in the brain’s left
hemisphere. It’s a sting operation to make
random persons say they’ll commit terrorist
violence.”
“Since
when the neuroscientist? You’re talking
paranoia.” She, a non-drinker, tosses back a
cup of vodka.
“I
could’ve poisoned that drink.”
NSA’s words, not mine. Pam, the last person
I want dead. NSA plays around with lives, making
Pam think I’m psychotic.
“Don’t
try to be someone else.” She twists her hair
around her fingers, and her face turns ugly.
“What are you up to?”
“I have
big plans.” I can’t wait for them to
tell her the plans. I don’t know what
they’ll make me say next.
Pam’s
eyes are red-rimmed. “What kind?”
“Helpers
will strap explosives around my body and
I’ll detonate the Statue of Liberty.”
“Are you
telling me the truth? Why would the NSA let you
get away with murder?”
“They
foment terror, not stop it. In two days, ka-boom.”
My real thoughts and words lie unretrievable in
my memory storage.
“Why tell
me this? You know I have to call the FBI.”
When I
strangle her to death tears flow like never
before.
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