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A MINUTE PASSED (Dramatic Fiction)

I looked up at the clock to see how much time had gone by since I had first been placed on my mark. It was a minute passed. I had only been there for 60 short seconds yet it had felt like so much longer. Sweat was collecting on my brow and pouring down the side of my nose almost like rain-water. I was nervous. I knew what was in store for me within the next few moments.

"Cigarette?"

"No thank you, I don't smoke"

I had never tried a cigarette. The smell really turned me off. Perhaps I should have taken one anyway, just to be sociable. . . No, there was no need for me to be polite. Heaven knows, it wouldn't have done me a speck of good. The hands had hardly moved at all. It was now only two minutes past noon. The time was drawing closer.

"Blindfold?"

"Yes... NO"

Blindfolds were the chicken's way out. I wanted to let people know that Morris T. Baker was no scaredy cat. I could take my punishment like a real man.

"WAIT! I changed my mind. I'd like a blindfold after all, please."

What a cheap move. I just couldn't bear the sight of ten double-barrel shotguns aiming at me straight in the face. What would it matter anyway, there was nobody around to know the difference.

"Ready".

It was time, I could imagine the actions of the trained stone faced killers just outside my handkerchief. They would be showing no mercy for me.

"AIM"

There was a loud sound of clicking as the row of guns were cocked and aimed ready for firing. Oh, how I wished I was back in the good old United States safely packed in a prison cell somewhere, serving my time instead of here in front of this row of foreign justice. If my life had only been a little more colourful, perhaps it would be passing before me now, but alas, it wasn't.

FIRE!"

There was a pause. There was no string of shots.

I was not dead. I was still alive. I was still breathing. What had gone wrong? After awhile, I slowly slipped my blindfold down around my nose to see what had happened, and to my surprise I saw a row of ten uniformed soldiers holding their guns, but instead of bullets they had been loaded with large red "BANG" flags which were now sticking out of the ends. After a long pause, the guards called out "FOOLED YA!!"