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    The Assassination of a Citizen
    The Assassination of a Citizen
    The Assassination of a Citizen
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    The Assassination of a Citizen

    By David Halliday

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    I don’t know if I said something wrong. But Paul changed. He wasn’t the Paul in the club. He started to act rough. He reached for the empty bottle of wine and smacked me on the head. I laid there for a while. Out of it. As I began to come to, I could feel his hands on my neck. And I passed out again. Slipping into a deep dark hole. The next time my head started to clear, I could hear him off to one side, near the bushes. He was crying. Like a baby.
    “Why did you make me do it?” he moaned.
    And then his little hands were around my neck again. I lay helpless on the ground, staring up into the clear night sky. And one by one the stars began to disappear.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Halliday
    Release dateNov 13, 2016
    ISBN9781370918126
    The Assassination of a Citizen
    Author

    David Halliday

    I have published poems, short stories, plays, art works in reviews and publications across the United States and Canada. I have several published books:murder by Coach House Press. This book is a series of poems and illustrations set up like scenes in a movie, describing the murder, trial, and mob execution of an innocent man. Winner of the 2001 Eppie for poetry.The Black Bird by. The Porcupine’s Quill. This is a book of poems, illustrations and short prose pieces describing the fictional making of the John Huston film, The Maltese Falcon.Making Movies by Press Porcepic. This is a book of long poems, interviews, short fiction pieces about a fictional BBC documentary about a fictional Canadian film maker, Samuel Bremmer and his company of actors and colleagues. It follows his career through the creation of a series of his movies.Church Street is Burning, a book of poems, was a finalist in the 2002 Eppie for poetry.The God of Six Points, published by Double-dragon-ebooks. A man who believes he is a god believes he has murdered one of his subjects.Sleeping Beauty, published by LTD ebooks.com is a murder mystery. A woman lands in a small village where the only escape is to be murdered. Finalist in the 2003 Dream Realm Awards. Winner of the 2004 IP Book Awards.The Hole, published by LTD ebooks is one in a series of cop stories. There are unusual happenings in the quiet suburb of Islington. People have begun to disappear. And they have been disappearing for generations. For the soon to retire Sam Kelly, this is his last case as a detective. All the clues point to a mysterious hole, which appears to have no bottom.In 2007 I was short listed for the C.B.C. Literary Contest in poetry.

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      Book preview

      The Assassination of a Citizen - David Halliday

      The Assassination of a Citizen

      by David Halliday

      The Invisible Man Part 17

      Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

      The Assassination of a Citizen Published by David Halliday at Smashwords Copyright 2016 David Halliday

      1. Wendel Olson

      This is my account. I'd been on a lot of meds. Everything was very confusing.

      2.Brittany Lacroix

      He was funny. He made me laugh. Most of the guys you meet at the Diamond just want to see your tits and stick their fingers up your wazoo. He wanted to talk. His name was Paul. Paid me for half a dozen dances and asked me to sit beside him. He was good looking and was well dressed. Had a kind of little boy appeal. Blonde hair fell over his eyes. Blue eyes. Open wide when he talked. Like a little kid telling you about the presents he’d gotten under the Christmas tree.

      Ever seen a UFO? Paul asked.

      Everything began with a question. It was like that game show Jeopardy. Except they began with answers. It was fun talking to him. Like an education in itself. I shook my head like I had no idea. UFO? Who doesn’t know what a UFO is? But it’s part of your training in the business. Always make the client feel that he’s smarter than you. We all know what head’s doing most of the thinking in a strip bar. Stupid. But, I don’t make the rules. It’s what it is. I read that there was a famous blonde bombshell in the 60s, Jayne Mansfield, who had a genius IQ but had to act as if she were a numbskull. It was the only way she could get ahead. So I played my part. Not like it was any hardship. I’m no brainiac. But I like to see these guys smile. It’s like their fantasy to sit and talk to a beautiful near naked woman who looks up to them because they are so funny and so smart. So that’s okay with me.

      Thousands have seen UFOs. Jimmy Carter saw one.

      Jimmy Carter? I remembered Jimmy Carter. My mother was one of his biggest fans. She was especially fond of his wife Rosalyn. Mother felt that if she’d been given the right breaks she would have modelled herself after Mrs. Carter.

      Paul nodded. The President from Georgia. But this happened before he was President. He was fishing. Fly fishing. In some small lake in Georgia. When this steel ship came hovering over the pond he was sitting in. The future president looked up at the belly of the vessel and muttered under his breath, ‘Oh, golly!’ Then the ship took off and Carter became President. He had a special report made for him regarding UFOs. After he read it, he no longer talked about his encounter. Makes you wonder, eh? Ever heard of Roswell?

      Should I? Of course I ‘d heard about Roswell. Didn’t every guy who came into the club mention Roswell. And the downed flying saucers passed off as weather balloons by the authorities. And the dead aliens, which the government explained as crash test dummies. Roswell was the moron’s litmus test. If you believed in flying saucers than you were tuned into the real science, not the crap they studied in college. I used to do well in physics. High school physics. But Newton bored me. An apple falling out of a tree. What world did he live in? When I dropped out of high school I used to spend my free time in the local library trying to locate books on Einstein. You don’t believe me, right? Well it’s true. And the books were difficult to find. And understand. I had to read everything I found dozens of times. It’s not like I got it in the first read. What did I learn? I learned that if you moved fast enough, you’d age slower. Slower than everyone who stood still, who settled in their suburban homes, cutting their lawns, cooking meatloaf, and raising rug rats. That suited me. I liked the fast life. Fast cars. Handsome gents. Burning the candle at both ends. I thought if I moved as fast as possible, time would stand still. I’d become eternal. Or at least famous. Neither of which happened. Which is why the speed of light is a wall. Separating us from God.

      In the early 50s, Paul continued, a flying saucer crashed into a field near the town of Roswell, Arizona.

      I love to listen to people like Paul. There was a peculiar lilt in his voice like it was an instrument. It didn’t matter that everything that came out of his mouth was mush. Which is why I love Nat King Cole. The lyrics of Mona Lisa are porridge. But that voice. Warm smooth golden syrup.

      That’s a state, right? I asked.

      Ya. Paul smiled.

      Paul looked proud of himself. Like Socrates drawing the truth out of one of his students. Yes, I’ve read Socrates. The Meno. Parts of the Republic. And I’ve read some of Aristotle. Which was like eating sawdust.

      Paul took a sip of beer. He was so excited that some of the beer spilt down his chin. That was appealing. That he’d be so interested in telling me something, that he couldn’t control his mouth. It was so generous. When incredibly stupid people tell you something that you don’t know, it makes their day. That made me feel good. That was my job.

      Paul went on for some time about his space ships and his aliens. It was like he was talking about his family that he hadn’t seen in a long time. Like he was a soldier in some foreign land where he didn’t want to be and all he had to make him feel like a person again

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