Pain Killer(iman) John, a twenty year old sensitive young man, lived with his father and mother in their dingy house. His priority in life was to find a job, ‘not because I need money but because I am a sensitive person’ a magical sentence which john used to make his feeling of poverty disappear. Unlike his married sister, john knows how to read and write very well.

Now he has a job at the local shop at the end of the street. His first day at the shop: standing behind a wooden desk, scratching his head, searching for something that might attract his attention from the tension of first day at work. Suddenly, the door creaks to announce the arrival of enormous hazel eyes heading towards him.
‘Isn’t scanning the shelves the first thing a buyer would do?’ John thought ‘why is she heading towards me?’.
‘hello, John’ the lady said with a faint smile,
‘hello’ replied john with a goofy smile.
‘I know you don’t know me, but the important thing now is that I know you very well’
‘eh..?’ little pimples of sweat started to grow on John’s pointy chin.
‘look, I’m going to be straight with you. I want you to kill me‘
‘excuse me ..?’ said John
‘Tonight. And I want you to bury my body in my garden’
‘All right, ma’am. I will. Give me your address, and I’ll do what you want’
John has always known how to deal with people. He knew that if he kept arguing with the lady, he would definitely lose his job, and so this is the best thing to say to drive the crazy lady away.
‘Thank you, John. You won’t regret it‘ said the lady while handing him a blue card. John took the card and put it in his pocket. After the lady left the shop, John felt sorry for dismissing her like that. However, he thought that what he said to her was what she was looking for, that’s why she left the shop smiling.

After a hard long day at the shop, john dragged his thin legs on the dusty road. A sight which would attract any painter interested in drawing miserable sights. And he or she would have finished it without delays because it appeared every night at 10 pm.

Long hours dragged their minutes along the day for John, who is now buying loaves of bread to put on the table. He has to buy five, because his sister and his nephew are welcomed to stay in the house for today.
The hot loaves danced on John’s hands, and with them danced the hungry eyes of a little child who stretched his hand to john. ‘I could do it today with a cup of coffee’ John said this to the child while handing him a loaf of bread.

‘Today after breakfast, I’ll go to that lady’s house and apologize’ he thought, ‘I was rude with her’ he thought, trying to urge himself to do the right thing without too much thinking. He took the blue card out of his pocket, and followed the printed address to find himself in the middle of a tidy garden, in front of an elegant house. He hesitated at first, then after an encouraging long breath he rang the door bell. The door opened to the same hazel eyes he dismissed the other day.
‘Nice to see you again, John… come in, please’
John followed the lady to a luxurious room. They both sat,
‘Would you like tea or coffee?’ said the lady.
‘Thank you. I’m here only to apologize for what I did the other day,’
‘I know you think I’m crazy. I won’t blame you, but you’ll change your mind after I explain to you why I need you to kill me.’
Curiosity won over rationality, which made john stay to listen.
‘I know you think I’m rich and happy, but I’m not. I’m a cursed human being. I suffer an incurable disease which will kill life in me with every throb of pain. I can’t imagine myself living the rest of my life with it. I know you’re thinking ’why wouldn’t she kill herself?’ I’ll tell you, I’m afraid to do it. I’m a coward,’ the woman started to sob. John took a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to her.
‘Thank you. I’m going to leave you this house and everything I have, if you save me from this suffering,’
‘But .. what would I do with the money if I went to jail?’ said John
‘You won’t. Nobody will know anything. I live alone. My daughter died three years ago’ said she pointing to a picture of a little girl with golden locks.
‘And my husband too,’
John searched for a picture of a man on the wall, but he couldn't find any, and he felt he didn’t want to ask why there wasn't any picture of her husband on the wall.
‘and the neighbors are too busy to know me,’ said the lady, 'I’ll bring the contract which we should both sign now’
‘What contract?’ said john
‘I’m going to sell you my property’ said the lady.
‘but .. I didn't say yes yet' said John with a low voice.

The lady sat again and started to talk with tears going down her cheeks like drops of rain going down a window glass. She talked for hours and John kept listening to the voice inside him ‘do it, John’.
He turned his head to the window to find that they'd talked for more than eight hours. The night had fallen on John’s heart and he made his decision.
‘I’ll do it’ said John with a firm tone.
The lady stood and walked away. after ten minutes she appeared with a piece of paper and two plastic gloves, and she handed them to John. They signed papers. The lady lied on the ground and John looked at her inquiringly.
‘I want you to strangle me’ said the woman with pleading eyes.
John looked at her with sad eyes.
‘The air I breathe chokes me more than you would do’ said she with anger. ‘do it, please’ she cried.

John pulled on the gloves and like a professional killer, he put his blue hands around her neck and pressed with all his force. He felt weak for he had no food but a bitter coffee in the morning. He felt the energy the moment he remembered the pleading eyes of his mother while she gasped for breath in one of her asthma attacks and he pressed hard to kill that sadness he saw in his sister’s eyes when she said ‘one day I will buy you all the toys in the world’ to her crying son. He strangled with all the force he had to kill the agony he saw in the eyes of that crippled man who sat hopelessly in the corner waiting for a careless attention.

He rose and wiped the sweat that covered his red face. The woman lied there stiff like a tree log. He carried her blue body and put it gently on the sofa. He tried to remember her instructions. He did everything she said. He didn’t find a difficulty in completing the task as everything was made ready beforehand.

With the white line appearing in the horizon, he left to his house. After a week of long discussions with the family, everybody is convinced now that john has won the lottery. He bought a house with beautiful garden, and he is about to run a factory. The family moved to the new house. Everybody is having tea on the new table, when the mother started, ‘I had a long talk with the woman next door, she said that a woman’s body has been found buried in the garden of this house,’ then she turned to john ‘the woman you bought this house from’ she said with informative expression.
‘And … you know?.. they say that her husband killed her as two witnesses said. They told the police that they saw him burying her in the garden’ the mother continued. ‘The woman also told me that the dead lady deserved what happened to her, for how could a woman marry a man who killed her own child? Even if he did it by mistake, still …. she should’ve been ashamed of herself.’
John gulped twice with every little sip of his tea. He looked at his mother with his eyes wide open.
‘I know.. I should stop saying these things as this is going to make you regret what you did’ said the mother with a smile. ‘don’t…. you did the right thing by choosing the most beautiful house in the neighborhood.’

As her eyes were scanning the walls, she suddenly rose, and walked towards one of the walls. John’s eyes followed the mother’s finger pointing to the picture of the hazel eyes he closed forever with his own hand.
‘we have to take this picture off the wall,’ said the mother with disgust ‘I could tell, it’s hers’.
‘Don’t,’ cried John
‘Goodness son, You scared me’ said the mother moving away from the wall like a scolded child moving away from a socket.
‘sure that smile of hers is a pain killer,’ said the mother giggling, trying to overcome embarrassment.
‘You’ll never know.’ Said John with a low voice.

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