Week 2 Story: Guinness Reminiscence

(Pixabay)

“Hey John, how was the retirement party?” The bartender put down the glass he was cleaning, and began pulling a pint of Guinness for his favorite customer. “Oh you know how those things are,” John chuckled as he settled onto his regular stool, “a lot of handshakes, stuffy speeches, and impatience to get out of those uncomfortable uniforms. Twenty-seven years as a detective, and that dress coat still makes my shoulder blades itch. You would think I’d get used to it. Thanks Pete, I’ve been looking forward to this all day.” John savored his first velvety sip. His wife, Mary would only allow him two pints a week, so he relished every sip. “How’s your dad doing?,” John asked a short time later, “I haven’t heard from him in a couple of weeks.” Pete laughed, “yeah, he’s not the best at keeping in touch. Him and mom are still enjoying their ‘grand RV tour’. I’m going to have to pry him out of that thing when they finally get back.” John shook his head, “your dad was the best partner that I ever had, but sometimes I think the man would actually go crazy if he had to stay in the same spot for more than ten minutes. I need to give him a call. One of the rookies was asking about the weirdest cases I ever worked, made me think of him.” 

Pete leaned forward onto the bar, “so, what was the case? Dad didn’t like to talk about work in front of us kids. I think he didn’t want us to worry.” John poked at his glass a couple of seconds before answering. “It was a kidnapping case, beautiful young girl got entangled with some rich guy. It was the weirdest thing, but luckily it had a relatively happy ending. Too many don’t. Traveling salesman went on a work trip, left his wife and three daughters at home. He was going to be gone over Christmas, so he promised to bring lots of gifts back. The two older girls wanted every gewgaw you could imagine, but the youngest girl just asked him to bring her back a rose. He ended up having some car trouble just outside of town, when he was on his way home, and knocked on the door of this huge house. The man that lived there, a guy named Benny Basilisk, helped him out. But, before he left, the traveling salesman stole a rose for his daughter out of the man’s garden. Apparently, the dude worked for the mob, and he was nuts! He demanded that the man give him his daughter in exchange for the ‘betrayal’. I mean, who gets that pissed over a rose? But he did it, gave over his daughter. I guess he didn’t want to deal with the mob. So, the girl ended up locked in that house for a couple of days. Her mom came to the station, looking for help. Your dad was the only one to take her seriously, and thank the baby Jesus he did, it might not have ended well otherwise. So, we went to the house, and rescued that little girl. The guy had been drugging her, and convinced her that he was some sort of hideous monster. He’d told her that he needed her love to break some spell. The poor thing was so drugged up that she believed everything he said. She hadn’t been abused or anything, which was good, but it was just a matter of time. We got her out of there, though, and her mom put her in some pretty intensive therapy to deal with the weirdest case of Stockholm syndrome that I’ve ever heard about.” 

Pete’s eyes were huge as he listened to the strange tale. “What happened to the guy who kidnapped her?” “Well, he went to prison,” John replied. “I think he turned states evidence on some of his cronies for a lighter sentence, which would explain what happened later. He died about a week after he got to the prison, choked to death on a set of golden keys. No one knows where they came from, it was just one more weird thing on top of the already crazy.” John pushed away his empty glass, and stood up. “Thanks for the pint Pete, I gotta get home. Mary will have my head if she has to wait to watch Game of Thrones. Tell your dad to call me next time you talk to him.”

Authors Note - The story that inspired me was The Three Roses, aka Beauty and the Basilisk, a variation of Beauty and the Beast. A mother going to market asks her three daughters what they want, and the youngest asks for three roses. The mother got lost on her way home, and ended up at a strange palace with beautiful gardens. After taking three roses, she was confronted by the resident of the palace, a basilisk. He demanded her daughter in exchange. The daughter, Mary, was to nurse the basilisk in her lap everyday for three hours. After three days of this, he gave her a sword and told her to cut off his head. He then turned into a serpent with golden keys in his mouth. After cutting off that second head, he turned into a beautiful young man, and they married. I was never a big fan of the Beauty and the Beast story. It always struck me as odd that a kidnapping supposedly led to true love and a happily ever after, so I changed it. I made it a more contemporary story, without the magic, to highlight how wrong a modern audience would fine the situation. I also thought that the story would come out best being told by a third party rather than one of the individuals involved in the events, so I went with a cop telling a story about the weirdest case he ever worked.

Bibliography - "The Three Roses, "The Key of Gold" by Josef Baudis. Web source