Back when I was 7, living in northern Ontario, my family inhabited a small house in a quaint, remote town. Despite the influx of immigrants arriving in Canada at that time, there were only three children in this rural town, including myself. My best friend, Kenneth, and a gorgeous lady (or so I thought at that time) named Lucy were all I had known since I was an infant. We didn’t know much of the internet, and we preferred the company of friends regardless. Since our parents were always busy doing whatever they did (my father was a cop when we were in Korea, and my mother a nurse), Kenneth, Lucy and I always spent time together, stuck like glue. Well, that was until Lucy moved away. She never told us that she would, and it took a lot of explaining from my parents to understand the concept of moving away. I was furious, and asked Kenneth if he had known about this. He looked at me, confused, and asked what I had meant by “moving away”. I told him what my parents had told me and he claimed he knew nothing about it.
We enrolled into a remote school that year, and I eventually got over the incident by making new friends. Halfway through the year, they found Lucy’s corpse. She was found in a nearby forest, sullied by nature and somewhat buried. Death was a foreign concept to me, so again my parents had to explain to me that I would never see Lucy again. They never got the chance to explain to me about trials and incarceration. Authorities questioned Kenneth and I to see if we knew of anything surrounding the incident. However, we were children and they shrugged off at all of our fantastical ideas. Everyone eventually suspected Lucy’s abusive father of the deed, as it was known that he was an alcoholic, and often struck Lucy’s mother. During a trip to a seminar that April, my father found Lucy’s parents near Thunder Bay, and apprehended them. What did not make sense to me, however, was why the police were stationed in front of Kenneth’s house.
It seemed Lucy’s mother claimed that Kenneth was the last one to see her, thus Kenneth was the last point of contact. Kenneth’s parents denied the claim repeatedly, yet they still went to a small adjudication room to discuss the details, as Lucy’s father was also not yet pardoned either. Kenneth’s mother screeched at me, asking why I was not there with them this one time. Kenneth’s mother believed strongly that Kenneth was innocent. I believed the same. The judge declared that the court was in pertinence to the death of Lucy Kimura, and to find the one guilty of the act. No one would have known what truly happened on the fateful day, lest Kenneth, being the kind boy he was, assured everyone that no one was guilty. The crowd looked to him in confusion, and he burned this one line into my mind.
“I can’t be guilty if I killed her without remorse”.
Kenneth was taken away shortly after, and I got to see him before he left. I remember greeting him, and he blankly stared at me. I asked him if he would be coming back, and he replied, “Of course, you’re next.”
Credit: Chimp Turds