Charlie

Quick glance at the contour of the industrial skyline framed by the milky blue daybreak drew a sharp, jaundiced smirk upon Charlie’s lips.

Standing still at the brink of the rooftop of the desolate office block, the young man interpreted the remarkable picturesqueness as a slap in the face.

Such interpretation, though, was something new to his cynical self.

He had never been much of a believer, neither had he been a fan of esotericism of any kind. His outlook mostly consisted of the unwavering confidence in the pitiful concatenation of meaningless coincidences most people referred to simply as life. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Gods of all sorts could not fulfill the wishes sent to them in a form of zealous prayers.

The Universe could not favor anyone’s wishes, no matter how hard they believed it to happen.

Lady Luck could not smirk brazenly.

Karma could not present you with what you erstwhile gave.

No, neither of them could do anything of aforementioned.

None of them existed.

Life was just a tangle of random events holding no meaning, no significance.

And so had been Charlie beliefs since he was seven years old, and they were firm. Unwavering.

Until this very moment.

The 7th of April, 2014. The day which was supposed to be the last day of his wretched life, as planned long ago, appeared to be the first truly pleasant day of the spring.

The unremitting downpour vanished into oblivion with the first timid sun rays dabbing the clunky rooftops of Brickton; Charlie looked about and noticed an inky throng of clouds wending south-west. He sighed again.

Until this very moment he had firmly believed life was meaningless, and everyone who had ever tried to convince themselves otherwise with some esoteric, airy-fairy bullshit, was either utterly daft, or prone to autosuggestion. Or both.

But suddenly, as he was about to jump off the roof and clog the town’s main artery with his shattered corpse to make everyone’s Monday even more of a Monday than usual…

… it didn’t feel right to follow his usual faith in life being just a bunch of silly coincidences.

It just… didn’t.

Charlie knew how gullible it was to give up all of his convictions because of one sunny morning, but…

He glanced down at the cracked pavement of Main Street, dappled here and there with fidgety dots, either rushing to start the morning shift or to crash on a couch after a night of restless money-making. A drab-colored, rickety rectangle scuttled across the asphalt from time to time; most people driving through the Main Street around this time of the day were unfortunate factory employees, working their asses off in the shitty industrial area of Brickton.

Crossing his arms on his chest, Charlie frowned; considering how awful this place was, it was a miracle he found the rooftop all to himself.

He entertained himself with a vision of would-be suicidees queuing behind him in a polite silence, waiting patiently for their turn to perish.

Well, all those people below him probably had families to provide for. That was quite something to conceal the crippling depression besmirching the town like a fiendish pall.

He, on the other hand, had reasons, reasons of greater significance.

The boisterous guffaw pierced the air around him.

For a long while, as he deliberated the possibility of the Universe’s sentience, he forgot what had brought him here. What made this day figure in his calendar as the “Final Solution” for the past two years. What made him feel like a worthless piece of shit in the first place…

It was a broken heart.

Well, not only.

But mostly.

His hysterical chortling turned into a breathless giggle.

To be continued.