Show The I Fiction UPSTREAM NEMESIS ByC By Richard H. H Wilkinson C Corner orner OHN WAS ONLY 29 and already JOHN life was bitter Today with the rain lashing In his face wetting the newspapers before he could pass them to cust customers from beneath the oil skin covering chilled to the bone e envying n v y 1 n g those who filed 9 Minute into the subway subway Fiction e entrance nt ran c e with their sleek conI contented contented con con- tented well fed I looks he hated life He hated people people peo pea pIe hated the world Wealthy society woman slays husband husband husband hus hus- band and runs off oU with suitor tra 1 I L Life e had been unkind to him L Life e hadn't given him the breaks That's it It was lifes life's fault Eith Either r you were born into the easy way or you didn't have a chance This stuff about fighting your way to the top overcoming obstacles being a whooping self made success success Nuts Nuts You cant can't fight when life is against you when the crowd is way out ahead and throwing dust into your face Rich society woman knocks off her spouse Buy a sir A thousand smackers Ha Fat chance Not when the breaks were against you A man was a fool to try and buck the crowds ds when they were against him Like that guy inthe in inthe inthe the green hat Look at him trying to fight his way up those stairs Didn't the know that it was just after 5 o'clock and hundreds hundreds hun of people would be coming down the stairs on their way home Hey a News There was wasa a man at Johns John's elbow looking impatient impatient im im- im patient and irritated John jerked himself back to earth Sure Evening News Here you are mister Thanks tra John stopped abruptly A shot had sounded above the pounding of ofrain ofrain ofrain rain and the rumble of traffic It 5 Wt Y it 1 F urn HJ Johnny Look you yon must have seen who did it standing h here re like that You bad had a view came from the dire direction of the stairs There was a stir a wild scrambling shrieks curses The sea of humanity came tumbling down pausing shrinking away hor r staring at something on the ground John glimpsed the he figure lying there grotesquely sprawled across the steps He heard the name of Silas Berry mentioned Judge Silas Berry Hey Newsy how about a paper paper paper pa pa- per John turned It was the man manIn manIn manin In the green hat John felt his heart pound then stand still Nice stand you got here sonny Must make a lot of dough Must see seea see seea a lot that happens facing upstream like that Didn't happen to see what occurred just lust now on the elevator steps did you OHN GULPED I heard a shot JOHN What happened Was somebody Killed I didn't see a thing I was selling a paper Who do yuh Uh suppose suppose sup sup- pose done it The cold light dimmed in the eyes of the man with the green hat He smiled A siren sounded The crowd scattered John saw Officer Mike Clancey elbowing his way towards him Hi Ill Johnny I Look you must have seen who did it standing here like that You had a view You were the only one who did facing upstream upstream upstream up up- stream like that See who done it Johnny Johnny glanced at the man Inthe inthe in inthe the green hat The mans man's hand was inside his coat Sure he be said Sure I saw it all It was that guy there Then he jumped He heard the muffled explosion of a revolver saw Clancey leap heard shouts and swearing and knew that other cops were coming Then he heard more shots He felt a stinging pain in his arm He felt something hot running running run run- ning down inside his sleeve Things began to reel He knew he was fainting Officer Clancey was bending over nim when he came to Youre all allright allright allright right kid Just a scratch And what a break That was Moe Consoletti He had threatened to get Old Silas They're both dead And you get the reward kid One thousand smackers smack smack- ers Is that a break or is that a break |