Ordering with this link is for items being mailed in the USA.
If you are ordering issues to be mailed to the U.K., go to the Down in the Dirt main page for U.K. shipping.

...Future issues can be ordered in advance, to ensure that you receive a copy as soon is the issue is released.

Order this writing in the 2009 book Crawling Through the Dirt

this writing is in the collection book Ink in my Blood (prose edition) (PDF file) download: only $4.95 (b&w pgs): paperback book $16.95 (b&w pgs):hardcover book $32.95 (color pgs): paperback book $64.95 (color pgs): hardcover book $74.95

A Random Act of Violence

Marvin McAtee II

    “You’ve got some ketchup right there,” Karen said leaning towards her daughter’s mouth with a napkin.
    “I can do it momma,” proclaimed Serenity, Karen’s vivacious six year old, as she snatched the napkin from her mother’s hand.
She rubbed it across her mouth, further smearing the condiment.
“Told ya,” she added bobbing her head for dramatic effect.
    “Yeah,” Karen laughed as she helped her little girl out by cleaning off the smudge, “you sure did.”
The two of them were out enjoying a mother-daughter day, since dad was stuck at the office, on this beautiful August morning.
    They had already been shopping and were planning on going to the movies, but they decided to first stop off for a bite to eat.
    The two of them were laughing and enjoying “big girl” conversation when a man in a trench coat walked in.
His face was uncovered except for the shadow his ball cap cast across it.
He took only a few steps in before revealing the semi-automatic rifle he was wielding.
    He fired off a few rounds into the ceiling, smiling as the restaurants customers screamed and tried to take cover.
He made his way through the diner firing off more shots with each step.
Karen’s maternal instincts kicked in as she dove over the table to comfort her screaming child, unknowingly attracting the eye of the armed assailant.
Karen covered Serenity, tightly wrapping her arms around her.
She was trying to use her own body as a protective cocoon as she cleaved the child to her bosom.
    The fiendish character stood over the top of their booth, looking down at them.
He squeezed the trigger filling both of their bodies with the hot lead spewing out its barrel.
After empting out the clip into his innocent prey he darted out of the establishment.
    The mother lay on top of her daughter with blood pouring out of her fresh wounds.
She was slipping away, but was only praying for her daughter’s safety.
As her eyes started to close one final time she saw blood run from her baby’s lips.
A single tear fell rolled down her cheek as she took her last breath.
    The two were awoke by a brilliant white light.
Karen grabbed her daughter in a heart felt loving embrace as they stared off into the great unknown.
They had no idea where they were or what had happened, but neither of them was afraid.
    “Welcome home,” a voice said.
    “Home?” Karen said trying to figure out what was going on, “where have we been?”
    “It is of no importance anymore.
All that matters is you are home.”
    “Where’s my daddy?” Serenity interrupted.
    “He did not come with you but will be here soon, if he passes my final test,” the voice explained.
“You may watch him through there.”
When its words were finished a section of clouds moved and the man they wanted to see came into focus.
    “Daddy!” Serenity exclaimed as if she hadn’t seen him in years.
Her tone quickly changed as she saw how he was acting.
    Tad, her father, was sitting on his couch sobbing.
He had been flipping through old photos and driving himself insane.
There was a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a gun in the other.
    The depression had been growing since he had received the awful news.
Weeks had passed, but with all the sleepless nights he was unsure exactly how much time had gone by.
“A random act of violence!” he cried out.
    That was what the police had ruled the crime just before telling him that the perp would probably never be caught.
There had been no leads or no arrests made since that horrendous day.
Tad found himself slowly loosing his grasp on reality.
He missed his wife and daughter very much, in fact too much.
He did not want to live with the pain anymore.
Tad turned up the bottle one last time before putting the gun to his head.
He cocked it back debating on whether or not to pull the trigger when his phone rang.
    The answering machine picked up and a voice spoke, “Mr. Higgenbottom this is Sheriff Dunbarr down at the precinct.
We have arrested a suspect we believe to be the guilty party of your case.
He is being taken in for immediate arraignment and will be going to trial right away.”
    Tad put the gun down.
He did not want to live, but he wanted to see the monster responsible for his misery pay for his crime.
    Within a few months the trial was underway.
Tad was doing a little better he had gone back to work trying to occupy his mind.
His employer repeatedly told him to not rush it and take all the time he needed.
But in his mind the only time he needed was one day.
The one day he would never get back.
    He was still having trouble sleeping at night.
His psychiatrist had written him numerous prescriptions, but their help was only minimal at best.
He would not be able to rest until he saw that madman behind bars.
He was present on the day of the trial.
He sat upfront behind the D.A.
    “Ville Padrone,” was the name they called as the bailiff led the man in.
His feet and hands had been shackled.
He was dressed in a solid orange jumper and black slippers.
His hair was cut short, a buzz cut.
His eyes appeared to be as black as his heart.
He wore a pencil thin mustache on his lip, as he walked into the courtroom with a smile.
    Tad could feel his body temperature rise as his blood began to boil.
He felt like jumping across the rail and pounding Ville’s face in with his bare hands.
It took every ounce of self control that he had to finally subdue his wrathful revenge.
    The judge entered the room and the trial began.
It was a complete and utter mockery of the justice system as the overpaid defense attorney put on his show.
The investigating officer was discredited because he had a history of excessive force complaints.
The weapon that had cut down Tad’s family was deemed inadmissible because of a type-o on the search warrant.
Even the D.A.’s eyewitness was brought to tears as Padrone’s attorney brought up her drug filled promiscuous past.
As strong of a case as the prosecutor had built, the defense had ripped it apart within hours.
    With no admissible evidence, no credible witnesses, and the arresting officer’s testimony being tossed out, the jury did not need much time to deliberate.
It seemed like only minutes to Tad before they had reached their verdict of “not guilty.”
    Tad never took his eyes off of his family’s killer the entire trial.
He studied the man who did not deserve to live remembering every detail about him.
He would not forget Ville, and soon Ville would not forget him.


As the jury read off the not guilty verdict Ville turned to Tad.
His eyes widened with joy as he saw Tad staring back at him.
Ville gave a devilish smile while shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “No big deal.”
    “YOU MURDERER!” Tad screamed leaping from his seat across the room.
His hands landed around Ville’s neck.
    The judge called for order slamming her gavel on her desk.
“Bailiff break them up!” she ordered.
    Ville laughed as the bailiffs wrestled Tad to the ground.
Tad was infuriated and unable to control his body.
The officers viewed it as resisting as he kicked and lunged at Ville.
They had no choice but to zap him.
    Once the electric shock put him into submission they cuffed him and stood him before the judge.
She charged him with contempt of court and sentenced him to one night in jail.
    “I’m the victim!” he shouted as she handed down her verdict.
“That bastard shot and killed my girls in cold blood and I’m the one going to jail while he is set free to roam the streets!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”
    The officer shoved Tad into the holding cell and slammed the door shut.
He climbed up on the dirty cot.
He started to cry as his hatred for Ville turned into regret for Serenity.
“I’m sorry,” he cried as he thought about her.
He couldn’t help but think about all the times when he was too busy with work to play with her, or how when she would do something so insignificant but the added stress from the bills piling up would cause him to explode at her.
He filled his mind with everything he had done wrong stirring up those familiar thoughts of suicide as he drifted off to sleep.
    The next morning he was released a new man.
At some point in the night he came to the realization that it was not him that had done wrong.
He loved his wife and daughter and it was not his fault they were no longer here.
There was only one man to blame for that, Ville.
    He had thought up a hundred and one ways to murder the son of a bitch.
Some were real drug out twisted ways to torment him.
He wanted Ville to die a slow and agonizing death like his own soul was dying.
More importantly Tad wanted to watch him die that painful death.
    He began to stalk his prey.
    The officer who Ville’s lawyer discredited was more than happy to let Tad help himself to the case files.
He browsed them soaking up any bit of information that could potentially lead him to Ville’s whereabouts.
He went over the reports for hours before setting out on his mission.
    He found Ville’s address and decided to start there.
It was hours before the apartment showed any signs of life.
Tad waited for Ville to make a move he was very eager to pounce on him, but he wanted to make sure he would hold the upper hand.
He watched as Ville got into his car.
He followed him carefully to a bar on the outskirts of town.
Ville went in, but Tad stayed in his car waiting like the ever vigilante hunter ready to ambush its prey when it is at its weakest.
    A couple of hours later Ville came out with a woman on his arm.
They climbed into his two tone Cutlass and drove off.
Tad followed them as they pulled into a nearby alley.
The longer he had to wait to punish Ville the more the anger built up inside of Tad.
    He was staring at the car watching its windows fog up when his mind started to carry him off to when he first met his wife.
As he thought about her beautiful sweet perfect face his eyes swelled up with tears.
His heart started to break the more her face reminded him of Serenity.
    Then, in a quick instant his mind was pulled back to reality by a screaming woman.
Tad paused for a minute to distinguish what kind of scream it was.
She screamed again signaling to him it was not a lover’s moan.
He hopped out of his car and ran up to Ville’s.
He threw open the driver’s side door and grabbed him.
    Tad threw Ville to the gravel causing him to bang his head on a dumpster.
The woman in the car appeared to have a broken nose as she tried to cover herself with he tattered clothing.
“Get out of here,” Tad told her as she made a mad dash out of the alleyway.
    Ville lay on the small rocks; his head bleeding.
Tad could literally smell the booze on his breath as he sat him up.
He propped him up against the brown dumpster, and delivered a powerful right hook, “That was for my baby!”
The drunkard spat out a bloody tooth as he tried to get to his feet.
    Ville had managed to get up on all fours, but was experiencing some technical difficulty with his equilibrium.
Seizing what he saw as a golden opportunity Tad ran up and kicked him in the ribs.
Ville was knocked back against the dumpster.
The severe blow made breathing a difficult task to him, but between breaths he managed to get out, “I’ll... kill... you!”
    “You already have,” Tad said letting his anger guide him.
He pulled a picture of Serenity and Karen out of his pocket.
He knelt down beside Ville and held the tearstained photo up for him to see, “Why?” he asked no longer able to fight back the sorrow.
“Why them?
They were sweethearts that never done nothing to nobody,” he wiped his sleeve across his face to dry his tears.
    Ville was purposely letting his inebriated eyes wander elsewhere.
Tad grabbed him by his shirt and shoved the picture in his face, “You look at it!” he demanded.
“You took everything away from me!
EVERYTHING!”
    Tad punched Ville one more time laying him out.
He scanned around the dark alley for something to finish the job when his eye caught a concrete brick.
He walked over to Ville with the heavy block in his hands and revenge in his heart.
    Tad raised the brick high above his head.
    “Daddy!” Serenity screamed out as her mother clung to her tightly.
    As the little girl’s voice filled her daddy’s ears peace entered into his body.
He felt the presence of her and forgiveness instantly filled his heart.
Tears of joy filled his eyes as happy thoughts of his little girl overtook him.
    While Tad was having his spiritual moment Ville took the opportunity to pull the Glock 9 from his waistband.
He aimed the gun at Tad who was seemingly unaware.
The thought crossed his mind as to where the dumbfounded happy look on Tad’s face came from, before he pulled the trigger.
    Three shots he fired.
The first hit Tad’s chest instantly stopping his heart.
The second clipped his throat; causing blood to spray out profusely.
The third and final bullet caught him in the face.
It hit his cheek tearing away the right side of his face as it passed through.
As Tad’s body fell to the ground the cylinder block fell on what was left of his skull.
The force caused it to flatten before breaking in half.
It forced out a bloody mixture of brain matter and tissue through the new openings of his cranium.
    When Tad awoke he saw a brilliant light in a cloudy surrounding, “Welcome home,” the voice said.
With one arm around Karen and Serenity hoisted up in the other they walked through the pearly gates.

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...