Fool

Pain


He lay on his back naked, watching the ceiling fan spin lazily. The weight was unbalanced, so it rocked back and forth gently with each revolution. He hadn’t stepped out of his apartment since the break-up. Dating more frequently only meant he had to deal with more frequent break-ups. He thought he was ready for that pain again. He thought that after Nell, he’d be able to handle any pain an unforgiving, godless universe could throw his way.

The sickly sweet funk of unwashed dishes hung heavily in the air, but the Little Fool didn’t notice anymore. It simply wasn’t important. Nell was gone, Tommy might as well have been gone, and he couldn’t seem to keep women around for more than a few weeks at a time. Even his gnarly Frankenstein scar had started to fade. It wasn’t that important, but it was sexy in a way. He got it saving lives.

The Little Fool was jerked from his daze by a harsh pounding on the door. He sighed deeply through his nose before standing up from the bed. Dickie stared at him with his soulless button eyes from his new perch on the dresser. The Little Fool looked half-heartedly for his bathrobe for only a few seconds before walking to the door naked. He opened the door wide enough to look out into the hallway. His landlord stood in the hall, holding a small envelope in his hand.

“There a problem?” The Little Fool asked.

Chuck moved his gaze to the left, not wanting to look at the Little Fool any more than was absolutely necessary. There was a pink piece of paper in the envelope in Chuck’s hands; the Little Fool could see that much, even in the dirty yellow light of the hallway. Nothing on pink paper was ever good. The paper was pink because only good things were pink. Pink is princesses and unicorns and mushroom kingdoms. Pink is pure and innocent, unless it’s a folded piece of paper in an envelope.

Chuck handed the envelope to the Little Fool.

“Mr. Matzen was found dead last night,” Chuck said heavily. “He was in his car. Police say it was murder.”

The Little Fool looked down at the sealed envelope. Through the plain white paper, he could make out the NYPD seal on the top of the folded sheet inside. Chuck wasn’t holding any other envelopes, which could only mean two things; either the Little Fool was the last in the building to find out, or he was the only one in the building to get an envelope from the police.