Anyone can do well in a sprint, but you have to remember that life is a marathon.
The doctor told me that for the first two days that I was in the hospital I was in a coma.
I’ve now been here for three weeks. I’ve lost two fingers on my right hand and three on my left. I have severe facial lacerations and part on my scalp was ripped off.
I no longer have a lower lip and part of my nose was torn off. I have bites all over my legs and arms and chest and back.
But not my neck. I made sure to protect that.
I told the police that I had surrendered. I even told the couple that I didn’t have a weapon. Why did the woman have the dogs attack me?
The couple told the police that when they entered the apartment their dogs were already attacking me. That they stopped them. That I was lying.
When the cops started questioning me, I refused to say anything else. I wanted an attorney.
I was confused. I was weak. I almost died.
And when I saw my attorney, he told me to take it easy, and we would discuss the case in detail when I was feeling better.
The couple must have a really good attorney. They usually tell you what to say… so that you don’t get into trouble. He had the woman deny that she commanded the dogs to attack me.
What it came down to… It was my word against theirs. And you better believe that their attorney knew that. And he would make sure to have the couple use the same rehearsed script. They won’t be tripping over each other’s words. They would back each other up.
I was a criminal, and they were two upstanding citizens. The cops didn’t believe me.
I am currently thinking about a career change. Not sure what.
My mom visited me in the hospital and handed me a letter. It was from my uncle. She went to see him in prison yesterday.
It read, “Sorry to hear what happened to you. I always told you to carry a gun. I don’t know why you didn’t listen to me. If you had one, you could have killed them all. Keep track of the couple and the two dogs. I’m getting out next year, and I’ll pay them all a visit. And believe me… I’m not the kind of guy you want visiting you.”
My mom told me that when her younger brother, my uncle, was a little boy that he would never tire of playing. He was a very playful little boy, and very friendly. I wondered how he learned to become a monster.
I tried to forget what happened to me and move on. But every time I look in the mirror… I’m reminded.
That couple should have never done that. They knew that I surrendered and was unarmed. And it won’t be just my uncle paying them and the two dogs a visit next year. We’ll be paying them a visit.
It was Friday and I couldn’t wait to see my mom. She was bringing me some pastries. I have an awful sweet tooth.
The aroma alone, from freshly baked pastries makes my mouth water. From flaky croissants to sweet Danishes… I crave them all.
They’re perfect for breakfast… even lunch.
When my mom arrived, she smilingly handed me the pastries. I didn’t even offer her one.
She gently wiped the jelly from the donut off my mouth. After I devoured the pastries, we started talking about my case. I couldn’t believe what she was telling me.
I just started laughing and laughing. My mom looked at me like I was crazy.
She told me that the couple said, “The rare coins were stolen.”
She looked at me for a reaction. But I didn’t have any.
She sternly said, “When the police arrived at the couple’s apartment, they found the safe open and it was empty. And I was told that the combination number to the safe was found in your wallet.”
I kept laughing.
She sarcastically said, “Are you on some sugar high from eating the donuts.”
I didn’t bother to respond.
She added, “The couple also said they heard another man going down the fire escape. Who was he?”
I kept laughing and laughing.
“Are you alright,” asked a concerned mom.
“Yes.”
It was ingenious. That’s why the woman had the dogs attack me. She realized in a split second what she needed to do.
It was a burglary, and I was the burglar. But it wasn’t me that stole the rare coins. They stole the rare coins.
And more than likely she wanted the dogs to kill me. I was the only one that knew the truth.
I would later learn that they filed an insurance claim for the theft of the rare coins for over 200,000 dollars.
I would also later learn from my sources, that the weekend that the couple were going away was wrong. It was the following weekend. The date was wrong.
That’s why the dogs were in the apartment. The couple never went away. They were home.
Time goes by very slowly when you’re healing. The monotonous routine is mind-numbing. It felt like I was living in slow motion. Living under water. It was surreal.
My life used to be like rock and roll. It had a pulsating beat. It resembled Las Vegas nightlife. It had a heartbeat.
Being in a hospital was as exciting as a children’s petting zoo.
I was bored out of my mind.
Maybe that’s why I was having so many arguments with the staff.
I’m an extrovert. Is that a flaw? It is when you combine it with boredom. We can become insufferable bullies. We crave attention.
I was eventually released from the hospital.
As I was leaving, I heard one of the nurses’ comments, “Good riddance!”
When I went to visit my uncle in prison, I told him everything about that awful night. And I told him about the date mix-up.
He smiled and said, “Don’t you get it. It was a scam from the beginning. The couple purposely left the wall safe combination number by the safe. They wanted one of the construction workers to see it and break in. Or pass the combination number off to someone else, and that person would burglarize their apartment.”
“But why?”
“Why? It’s so simple. That’s why they had the wall safe installed in their apartment in the first place. They wanted people to know that they had valuable coins stored there. I’m sure people knew that this guy was a rare coin dealer. That’s also why they let people know that they were going away for the weekend. It was a set-up. They weren’t really going away. They would be waiting. Waiting silently with their well-trained dogs in their three-bedroom apartment. Waiting silently with their well-trained dogs to attack and kill the guy that broke in and give the police the same excuse… There were two of them, and the other guy ran off with the coins. It was an insurance scam. It was all planned. By the way, you’re lucky to be alive.”
I started crying.
I felt so embarrassed, but I couldn’t stop myself. The tears were streaming down my face.
I had been through so much.
I knew that throughout my life, the scars on my face would haunt me and serve as a constant reminder about that dark night. Throughout my life, the memory would sting my eyes and be rinsed out by my tears.
And for me, the world will change. That’s inevitable. It looks very different when you see it through scars and tears.
Don’t get me wrong… I’ll still dance my way through life. You can’t change what you are. But I’ll tweak it here and there. And I’ll always be looking over my shoulder.
My mom told me, “Even after the darkest storms… afterward, the sun shines.”
That’s true. But sometimes after a bad storm, a tree is uprooted. Or a baby bird is displaced from its nest. The storm leaves its own scars.
I didn’t realize it when I was younger, but the bill for choosing unwisely in life… always comes due.
The postman always rings twice.
I would never rob anyone again.
I now knew what it was like to be caught in a spider’s web, and to be at the mercy of a spider. And the spider’s gaze is cold and merciless.
Hospital bed photo by Author.
Fictional stories by John Saccone 
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