Stranger

Stranger
A SHORT STORY BY MICHAELA CATALANO



"You know, I've always wanted to do this," I said.

"What? I mean, what is this, specifically?"

"Don't do it!," somebody shouted, hands forming a makeshift megaphone over his face. "You have so much to live for!"

"Oh, I'm gonna do it," I yelled back. "I'm gonna do it, I swear to god I will." I swung my legs back and forth over the abyss, watched birds drifting through the distance. "I've got nothing to lose!" I turned, looked at her. She was sitting next to me, legs folded, watching with interest. "I don't know," I said to her. "Not this exactly, you know. The idea of this, that's what I wanted to do."

"The idea?" She raised an eyebrow. "They idea of dying? Or the idea of killing yourself?"

"Neither of those," I said.

"Ma'am!" A cop or somebody was yelling through an actual megaphone. I assumed it was a cop. I didn't know. I wasn't paying attention to the crowd any more. "Ma'am, please, come down and we can talk about this. We can get you help."

"Nobody can help me!" I screamed. "This is it! This is my last resort!"

"So if it's not either of those, then what is it?"

"It's not that important. It was just a thought. You know, you shouldn't be up here. The FBI is after me, they'll get you too."

"The FBI?" she said. "Why, what'd you do?"

"They're after me. They put microchips under my skin, when I was sleeping. After they took out the ones I already had in there, I mean."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, the Illuminati's probably in on it too. They're all after me. I found out their secret."

"Ma'am, please! Come down!"

"Fuck you! I'm not coming down! Christ."

"What is their secret?"

"Man, don't you see? It's so obvious. Area 51, all that shit? It's not a cover up. It's a distraction. All those crash sites and weird research areas, nothing happened there. It's faked. And while they're playing us all for idiots they're perfecting the real secret. And now they know I know."

"So what is the real secret?"

"They're keeping the Anti-Christ golem imprisoned in the Large Hadron Collider."

"Ah," she said. "I always wondered."

"So, tell me about yourself," I said.

"What?"

"I don't know. What kind of books are you into?"

"The ones that are worth reading," she said. "So why are you killing yourself, exactly? If you're on the run from the government, why are you giving them what they want?"

"Oh, I'm not," I said. "I just lie to strangers for fun. Listen, you seem pretty cool. Wanna hang out?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Let's go get some food. You like Indian?"

"Yeah," she said. "Let's get some Indian."