Atticus’ Last Stand

Atticus McClarty drags himself off the bed and sluggishly gets in the shower. His wife, Laura is the complete opposite! There’s a stark exuberance in her eyes as she manages to remain attentive to her twin sons, Darren and Franklin while finishing breakfast. The twins who are eight, are showing off their latest drawings to their mother. It’s hard to understand what she is seeing, but Laura won’t let them know and instead, she smiles and says, “This is so good! You two are amazing! Keep it up.” As the twins start drawing their next set of art, Atticus walks in and sits down to eat food.

“Good morning dad!” exclaim the twins while Atticus loudly eats his breakfast. Atticus says, “What’s so good about it?” which sets off Laura who responds “Atticus, be easy on them!” The children are aware of why their dad is upset and Atticus makes it pretty clear when he responds to Laura with “How many times, Laura? How many times do I have to tell them to stop cutting my ties with their scissors? My ties aren’t meant for art!” Laura puts a plate of pancakes down as she responds to her husband “Oh, they’re just kids. They love being so creative! I mean, look at their drawings!” and points at the twins’ work. The twins hold the drawings for their father to see, and he is marginally impressed. Atticus sips his coffee and says “Well, art isn’t going to pay the bills. I expect my sons to realize real men need to put in actual work and it starts with looking the part. In this case, a tie that doesn’t have holes and marker spots all over it.” Atticus gets up from his seat, about to head to the door when Laura says, “Where are you going?” Atticus replies, “I’m going to work.” Laura responds, “But it’s the weekend. You never work the weekend?” In which Atticus vehemently says, “Someone needs to pay these bills and you know, I’m saving to open a liquor store. I’m tired of working at that office.” The tone of his voice scares the children and they start to cry while their dad glares at them. “Oh, grow up. Boys don’t cry!” Atticus yells before storming out.

As Atticus drives to work, he notices the neighborhood has gotten worse over the years and is crowded with homeless people. Suddenly his car stops, and he can’t restart it. “Why does this always happen to me!?” Atticus yells while smacking the wheel. Droves of homeless people walk towards his car; asking for money and food. “Please sir, do you have food?” mutters one man and the next person follows up with “Sir, do you have change? Anything?” Atticus tries his best to make them leave “No, I don’t have anything. Please, leave me alone.” The crowd grows and starts touching his car. Atticus yells “Get your hands off my car, bums!” which upsets them. They start pushing Atticus’ car back and forth. Among the group, one of them smashes one of Atticus’ car headlights with a brick. It appears he is about to do more damage,but Atticus gets his car back up. Fearful, the homeless crowd spreads out as Atticus drives forward.

An hour later, Atticus speed walks into his office and seemingly soars into his chair in his cubicle hoping his boss, Mr. Dermot does not notice, but he does, and yells “Mr. McClarty, this is the fourth time you arrived late, and you expected me not to say anything?” before Atticus can say anything, his boss continues “You should be lucky I haven’t fired you! There’s plenty of people vying for your position in this company!” In which Atticus responds, “Sir, if I can explain…” but he is cut off by Mr. Dermot who yells at Atticus in front of everyone in the office “There’s nothing to explain! You have a job and you are expected to arrive on time. If this abhorrent behavior continues, I’ll make sure someone else has your job. We’re clear?” Mr. Dermot doesn’t wait for a receptive answer and walks towards his big fancy office, but not before Atticus fires back with, “Don’t bother! I quit this dump!”

It’s midafternoon, a demoralized Atticus parks his car into the driveway by his crummy apartment building. As he gets out of the car, he looks at his surroundings and then at his car and the people around him. “My life sucks.” mutters Atticus before slamming the car door shut. He takes a quick turn to his apartment door and steps on a mysterious black book on the floor. He looks around and picks up the book. He walks in on his wife and kids watching a kid’s program on their small, outdated television.Laura looks at him while the kids remain hypnotized by the colors and friendly characters. Laura walks over to him and says “You’re home early. What happened?” Atticus ignores her and walks into the bedroom. Laura doesn’t bat an eye and stays on him before saying “You quit? Didn’t you? I know you hated that job so much. It’s going to be okay. We can get through this.” she softly says, but it does nothing for Atticus who replies , “It’s my fault. I stood up to Mr. Dermot and now we got nothing.” Laura snaps back, “Is that all you can think of? Money? You have family, a strong support system that will always be around long after money.” Atticus says nothing. Laura embraces him. A moment goes by and she says “Your sons and I will be in the living room in case you want to join us. Atticus, money is not always the answer.”

That evening, Atticus is applying for several jobs. As he sits there alone in the dark, he looks at the black book and opens it. There’s nothing written in the book at all. Atticus thinks nothing of it and puts it to the side. Atticus hears gunshots outside the building and takes a swig of his drink, exclaiming “I wish I lived in a big mansion in a nice part of town! I wish I was a millionaire!” Atticus turns off the computer and retires that night. The next morning, Atticus wakes up in an unfamiliar room. He looks around and his wife Laura runs into the room yelling ”Atticus, we need to get out of here! I don’t know what happened! One day, I’m home and then, I’m here! I think we were kidnapped!” Atticus ignores Laura and picks up the black book which was mysteriously in bed with him. As Laura keeps going on, Atticus says “I just wish you would shut up, and take a nap.” Laura stops instantly and proceeds to lay on the bed for a nap. Atticus stares at her and says “I was kidding? Laura? I wish you’d stop and talk to me.” the pages in the black book start flipping as Atticus’ wishes are written down. Laura wakes up and proceeds to yammer about the home again! Atticus is astonished by the book’s powers and says “I wish Laura stopped worrying about the house and act like it’s totally normal.” The book writes down Atticus’ wish and Laura ceases. “Hi honey, I’m going to go make some breakfast.” Laura cheerfully tells Atticus before walking away. Atticus kisses the book in joy; realizing the book can grant wishes!

Some days have gone by and the family is settled into their lovely new home. Everyone seems a lot happier especially Atticus! Atticus is drinking a tall glass of fine wine and is sitting in his home office when Laura walks by. Atticus notices and instead of greeting her, he talks about his stocks. “Hey babe, look how much I’m getting back!” He flashes his phone to her, but she isn’t interested. Out of curiosity, Atticus checks out the stock of his old company and notices they are doing quite well. Then he thinks about Mr. Dermot and his words. Atticus looks at the book and says “I wish Mr. Dermot was fired and the company closed down!” The very next day, Atticus is driving past his old neighborhood. The homeless people who attacked his car are there and getting closer. Mr. Dermot is among them. Atticus glares at the black book by his side and says, “I wish these bums would push each other.” Right before his eyes, the homeless shove each other. Atticus drives past them, but as he drove away, the homeless people started to viciously maim each other with surrounding objects, Mr. Dermot getting attacked as well with a brick. Over the radio in the car, the DJ talks about a global phenomenon that the homeless are killing each other. Atticus scoffs at it and says “I wish there was no crime whatsoever.” as he drives away.

Months go by, Atticus is a successful businessman and his liquor store has multiple chains. Life is good as crime no longer exists and he isn’t worried about losing money since he can simply wish more. Atticus is home alone while his family are on a trip in Aspen. As he finishes his drink, the phone starts ringing. Atticus picks up the phone and what he hears is shocking, “Sir, this is the Aspen police, I regret to inform you that your family was killed by a Bear. We need to know when you’ll recover the bodies?” Atticus is speechless and hangs up on the officer.

It’s been days since the terrible news, Atticus keeps drinking and wishes things from the book to make him happy, but no luck. A drunken Atticus reminisce of his family “I should’ve been nicer. I should’ve spent more time with them.” mutters Atticus in between sips of his wine. Atticus glares at the book and looks away to an old picture of the family. Atticus takes another swig and says “I wish my family came back! I wish I can see them right now!” Seemingly out of nowhere, the bell to the front door of the home rings. It keeps going for a while. Atticus gets off his seat and gingerly makes it to the door while carrying his book. As he gets closer, the timely ringing morphs into banging against the door. Angrilly, Atticus says “Yeah, hold your damn horses.” Atticus opens the door and to his horror, his family are back, but they’re bodies are decomposing, mangled and bloody. Awestrucken, Atticus runs away to the nearest phone and calls 911! “911, what’s the emergency?” the operator says in an unusual cheerful manner before Atticus yells out “There’s a crime here! My family are trying to kill me!” The operator responds “Sir, you’re hilarious! Crime doesn’t exist anymore! Good one, have a good night.” and hangs up. Atticus screams “I wish crime existed!” while gripping on the book! Before Atticus can dial again, Laura reaches over and bites down on the side of his neck! Atticus pushes her against the wall and makes his way to his room. Atticus locks the door to his room and is about to wish on the book once more! Atticus tries to muster out words, but he can’t because his voice is fading due to the bite! He continues to bleed all over himself and the book! The family tear down the door and Atticus grabs a wine bottle to use as a weapon and backs up against the window. The ghouls lunge towards him and Atticus falls to his death.

Hours later, the police and EMS are at the scene. The dead body of Atticus is put in a body bag and stretchered out. One officer looks up the window and glares at another officer “So, what do you think? Suicide? Maybe a little too much wine?” asks the first officer. As they finish up, an EMS worker notices the book on the ground. He picks it up before leaving.