The Right Number
About the twelfth time he stabbed his now-dead girlfriend Gwen, Gary wondered at what point he should stop. It had to be a special number, a number that would have meaning to him. Let’s see, he mused, continuing to stab Gwen routinely, his anger spent after the first four or five killing jabs. Gwen was twenty, so that could be an appropriate number; oops, too late, up to twenty-two already. How about twenty-six, for October 26, the day they first met. No, too corny, Gary decided. Maybe twenty-nine, for November 29, the day he saw her having lunch with James, the handsome guy in her office. Laughing and touching his arm like intimate friends. Gary knew how to deal with her duplicitous betrayal. How could she? He loved Gwen completely, totally, compulsively. And this was how she treated his all-consuming devotion. Passed twenty-nine now and heading towards thirty-three. Then the right number occurred to Gary. With a smile, he hacked seven more savage wounds and stopped. Forty. Twice Gwen’s age, which represented her two-faced nature. Perfect. Time to clean up and head home for some television maybe. Gary remembered Babe was on cable tonight.
Rod Drake,
My name is John Drake. My wife is named is Gwen, she is 40 years old. Her birthday is Oct. 26th. Her former husband is named Gary. Our dog is named Babe. They went through a very nasty divorce in which her safety was of great concern to her. Virtually all of what you wrote in “The Right Number” is far too concidental and causes both of us extreme anxiety and fear. Where did you get the information for this passage.
Comment by flightdog — March 4, 2007 @ 9:05 am
The whole story is imaginary, nothing in it is based on anything in real life. It is nothing more than a very odd coincidence and set of chance circumstances (much like our last names, although no relation I’m sure). Gary sounded like an ordinary, regular name, to make the situation more horrifying; Gwen is the name of Spider-Man’s girlfriend whom the Green Goblin killed in the comic book. The numbers were chosen at random, and I wanted a large, round number to stop at, so 40 it was to allow for other details to be mentioned as well as the killing. The Babe reference, a film about a pig, not a dog, was chosen to show how Gary’s mind so easily switched from his horrific crime to a sweet, childlike story unlike Gary’s obviously deranged state of mind. I often, almost always set my stories in October (the month of Halloween is good for horror stories), the 26th being the right amount of time before the November and afterwards date to show how quickly Gary became obsessed. Then my Gwen was 20, unmarried and didn’t even know she was having a relationship with Gary, other than a working situation. Gary is like any obsessive psycho in modern horror fiction, from Anthony Perkins in Psycho to Hannibal Lecter. Maybe fiction is stranger than the truth.
Comment by Rod Drake — March 5, 2007 @ 7:52 pm