Stephen Bentley

He / She Tries to Imagine Crossing Over - From Episode 05

Taunts of ‘Wally the wanker!’ at school made him feel worthless. ‘My lousy parents couldn’t even name me Walter. Bloody Wally!’ he would lament. Then after the film about a chocolate factory, the taunt mutated to simply ‘Wally Wanker.’ He hated it. Hated life. ‘I wish I was dead,’ he would say, ‘maybe there is a God and a Paradise.’ He tried to imagine an afterlife. 

At forty, losing his poxy job, he became homeless. At forty-one, he was turned down for a homeless shelter. ‘You’re not a drug addict nor are you an ex-serviceman with PTSD,’ said the lady with the plummy voice who oversaw the charity. 

Now begging in the high street, Walter saw a replica gun in a second-hand shop. ‘Fuck it, I’ve had enough,’ Wally muttered. 

Wearing a black balaclava, Wally heard the loudspeaker outside the bank. ‘Come out with your hands raised,’ the voice demanded. In one hand, fifty quid in cash, in the other, the replica 9 millimetre. Both cash and gun stolen. 

Walking out of the bank, Wally saw the armed response vehicle. ‘Get down on your knees,’ the loudspeaker barked. Standing tall, Wally raised the gun. 

He didn’t hear the crack of the marksman’s rifle, nor did he feel his head exploding like a squished ripe and worthless oversized tomato. Goo and gore galore! 

Floating, looking down at his headless corpse, Wally felt peaceful. 

Stephen is a former UK Dectective Sergeant and Barrister. Now a true crime and crime fiction author of books such as ‘Operation Julie’ and ‘Operation George’. His own police work as a pioneering undercover policeman in the 1970s led to the break up of one of the largest LSD manufacturing operations in the world. Find out more at stephenbentley.info