ANOTHER CHILLING EXCERPT OF DEAD MEN WALKING

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This is what it’s all about... power without the risk, Mr. Prescott does most of the work and Mrs. Prescott enjoys the power, Louise thought as she sipped her scotch laced with a little ice tea.

Mr. Prescott was introducing the CEO's of the newly merged corporations.

He looked great, she thought. She knew that sitting next to him as Mrs. Prescott was the true American dream. He had money, looks and power. Moments like these make up for the many lonely nights when he was away on a business trips or working late.

Mr. Prescott introduced Glen Washington, VP of Industrial Relations.

Its so clever of my husband, she thought, to choose a black man to explain how the new corporation was going to get rid of over 15,000 employees once the merger was complete. Even if he failed to explain it well, no one would dare to say anything, at least not to his face or in front of others.

As Mr. Washington explained the corporation’s plans for separation counseling, buyouts and the new job development center, Louise looked around the tables at the faces and was happy to see that they were sopping it up. Washington's velvet voice and smiling face was doing its job. 'Besides', Louise thought, no one at this affair thinks that they will lose their job.

The small cell phone on Louise's lap rang softly. She placed it to her ear and just listened as her security man asked her if she could excuse herself, there seemed to be a problem. Louise, feeling flustered, nodded to her husband and left the table. Her drink was still in her hand.

The security man pointed towards the cliffs and at first Louise could not understand what he was trying to show her. Then she saw it.

One of those damn hang things was turning in small circles and falling towards them. What was she to do? If she had everyone leave the pool house and it missed, then she would have ruined the party for no reason. If she did nothing and it hit the pool house, she would be responsible, she thought as she waved her arms, as if to ward off the falling menace, spilling her beverage on her dress, further upsetting her.

"Do something!" She screamed at the security man, "get a fucking net or something and stop that thing from hitting the house, you bastard!" Louise believed that anyone who took orders from her was probably incompetent and treated them as such.

The security man ran towards the now even closer hang glider, waving his arms and yelling, "Don't hit the house, aim for the bitch in the white dress."

"I heard that you asshole, you're fired," yelled Louise.

"Great," he replied as he quickly left Louise alone to deal with this run away hang glider.

After yelling at her security man, Louise turned back to the business at hand and could no longer see the hang glider. It must have fallen into the sea, she thought. She walked quickly to the rear of the pool house. She would watch the rest of the speeches from here and return to the main table when they begin serving lunch, besides, she needed another drink. It never occurred to Louise to call for assistance if she believed that the hang gilder did in fact fall into the sea.

Everyone was facing away from Louise towards the speaker. When Mr. Washington finished speaking, they all stood up to applaud. As they all sat down, Louise screamed.

The hang glider came into full view as it swept in from the ocean like a giant multi-colored bird of prey and crashed through the large window on the side where the main table stood.

The noise was deafening. The entire two-story high glass window exploded from the impact and thousands of plastic-lined pieces of glass sprayed the area. People were screaming and there was the sound of broken dishes, chairs and tables being pushed over as people tried to get away from the windows. Men were yelling for everyone to get down.

Mr. Prescott yelled, "Get down everyone get down." The glider hit the edge of the table and bounced in the air. It came down on the table and slid across its entire length, taking everything including the American eagle with it.

Then it was dead silent except for the sound of some women crying. Louise walked over to the table and looked at her husband and then at the glider. The wings were painted with fruit and vegetables and the man driving it seemed to be in some sort of sleeping bag, he was not moving. She heard the sound of a cell phone ringing it came from inside the sleeping bag. The ringing was a song that she recognized Old MacDonald had a farm… She could not help herself, she laughed aloud until it hurt. She just kept laughing.

"Where the hell is security, call for help, people are bleeding out there, get our first aid kits, don't just stand there, do something." Louise's husband yelled at her.

There would be one less testimony before Congress on Monday.
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