Staggering with a half bottle of liquor, I ran into Helen, the girl who had a Goliath crush on me years back. She stood transfixed like a pole, horror registered in her eyes like she’d seen a ghost!

Three years without a job had run its toll on me, I was dead broke, lost hope in life, and all I could do was to drown my sorrow in booze. Each passing day my condition worsened! Unkempt hair and beards, dirty clothes stinking of sweat, cigarette and alcohol.

She broke-down and cried. After composing herself, she right away suggested I move in with her. She wasn’t making a lot of money as a manicurist. After moving in with her, she even worked harder so that she could provide all that I needed. She did everything to make my stay comfortable.

She came home with a newspaper everyday for me to check for job vacancies, she always assured me that I would make it.

After months of searching for a job in vain, one day she came home beaming with good news, "Honey I’ve found us a job!” She announced, she helped me get ready for the interview, accompanied me to the hair saloon for a trim and complimented me on how handsome I looked.

 I sat the interview and got the job. The first day at work, my female boss ‘landed’ for me. The days that followed my life changed drastically! Jenny (the lady boss) showered me with gifts of all sorts. In fact, I would spend the whole day without thinking about Helen, the girl who sacrificed all she could to stop me from self destructing!

The months that followed, I searched for a way to dump her and move on with Jenny. I resorted to sleeping on the couch! Rejected her food, complained on how the apartment was awful and wasn’t fit to accommodate living human beings.

I started treating her like a doormat. Helen wasn’t bothered with this behaviour; she thought maybe I was stressed at work.

Although Jenny knew where I stayed, she didn’t know I was living with another woman. One fateful morning she came to pick me. Before she could press the door bell, she heard me hurling nasty stuff at Helen, how tired I was of staying with her. How she wasn’t my level.

She finally knocked. Helen composed herself, put on a smile on her once beautiful face which was now contoured with worry lines. In a shaky voice accompanied by a tiny smile, she politely invited her in, "Hullo, please, do come in.”
Jenny was touched by Helen’s condition, the excruciating pain was written all over her face.

"I’m here to see Harry.”
"He’s in the bathroom, he will be here in a minute,” she politely informed her.

Jenny looked at her, and concluded she had never seen a beautiful mortal like that before, her long legs, her stature, even the way she walked with so much grace.

I was shocked, seeing Jenny. She was the last person I expected to see, and seeing them together amplified the shock! I quickly threw on some clothes and practically hauled Jenny out.

"She’s my cousin,” I lied when she asked, but the look in my eyes confirmed otherwise.

"You told me you’re single, I can’t build my happiness on other people’s misery,” Jenny tearfully confessed.
When I came home that night, I told Helen everything.
 "Jenny loves me, and she’s pretty loaded with cash. I can’t let this chance pass me by, and you, you’re in my way,” I growled.

"I love you, I can’t live without you,” those were Helen‘s last audible words, when I came back the following evening, I was greeted by a note on the table.
"Dear Harry, words just can’t easily express how much I love you, like I told you, I can’t live without you, I will always love you, so long my love.”

That night I put Helen’s lifeless body in Jenny’s car boot, went and dumped it deep in a remote village. Little did I know that Jenny had assigned a private investigator to watch me 24 hours. She was sure I killed my girl friend; she even knew where I had dumped her body.

 She called the police, three years now I’m on death row but I die slowly each day.

martin.bishop18@yahoo.com