CHAPTER 1 PREVIEW
Bored is the man alone who consumed by guilt ponders plots he may never carry out. Yet, when “never”
becomes the focus and obsession of his twisted mind, he snaps.I wonder
why it is that so many books have characters that are authors. Mark Twain may have said it best: “Everyone is a moon
and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” He is, of course, talking about “selfishness.” We
want to build ourselves up in our own minds to be always greater than we really are. But, who is to say that one man’s
view of reality is any clearer than another man’s view of reality? Now in our modern societies of “political correctness,”
subjective reality is honed in messages and morals we are bombarded with through the media and our peers. Friday, October 25, 2002 So they caught
the sniper today. I thought for sure it would be some whacked out white guy, an ex-marine or something. Can you believe it
is some young black guy? He even shot a black bus driver. No, there is no way he would have shot that bus driver if he knew
he was black. Actually, what I heard is that he already came out and said he hates the “white man.” That means
he must not have seen the bus driver was black or he was just one of those light skinned blacks!” Tony
said to his friend Brent, who lived in Alabama. The
conversation went on for another few minutes or so, but Tony Salerno knew he was getting too drunk and too bored, so he ended
the conversation with some lame excuse. When he hung up the phone, he stared blankly into the wall in back
of the phone. It only took a few seconds for him to have a plan. He chuckled out loud to himself feeling a sense of pride
at how fast his mind could work even in his in drunken state. The idea of the sniper camped out in the
trunk of his car with a hole to stick the gun out of brought on his idea. Tony smiled a big grin and then laughed out loud.
He felt a sense of power he had never felt before and something snapped inside of him. He no longer cared
about the voice of reason and morals. He knew his life would change and he liked the feeling. There was nothing that would
stop him and for some reason what in the past had been vague mental ramblings and outright anger had melted into a plan.
Tony
Salerno was from Italian heritage as his name would indicate and he was proud of it. Raised in Hermosa Beach, California,
he grew up loving the beach. The warm water, the flow of the waves, and the surge of adrenaline when the waves started to
get big were still exciting even after twenty years of surfing. There was no other thrill like falling down the face of the
wave like a leaf in the wind when only he had the power to control it. He didn’t surf as often as he had when he was
younger, but when the urge hit and the waves were up, Tony hit the beach. He had started surfing when he was a teenager. He
had been tall and handsome and never had a problem attracting women yet he was always distant from them and always felt like
an outcast. Now that he was forty-five years old, he felt lonelier than ever. His son from his only marriage was off in college
in Arizona and Tony had been in and out of brief relationships since his divorce eighteen years ago. He never totally cleaned
up his apartment and the mess kept his rotating girlfriends from ever wanting to move in with him. He thought maybe he would
get in a more stable relationship at some point, but when that time would come was not too clear or really that much of a
priority for him.
After his lengthy but valueless conversation with his friend, he looked outside and saw there was a light rain. He
pursed his lips into what could be called a smile, but it was more of a smirk as he looked into the misty rain that obscured
his view of the beach. He stared blankly into the wet night. Tonight would be his night to make his first kill and the rain
made it perfect.
