And his last words were-
e was sitting there, fidgeting, just like in the movies. Somewhat sickly, his only thought was
how that damn prison barber-lady had managed to cut his head when she�d shaven the three inch-circle
bald spot on his head. The saline solution that the guards had so benignly splashed on top of his head
only added to the pain, and guaranteed more to come.
The uncomfortable wooden chair, hard to the touch, and with a tall back, was ugly to look at. His arms were already tugging at the straps that were attached to his calves and his forearms. Marcos Valenzuela imagined what he looked like from the perspective of his guards, the pricks. Never a large man, he had made himself known by brain power. Yeah, I�ll become a genius from all these volts� A man, sitting quite serenely was what he wanted the guards to see. His arms rested on the armrests as if he were a king on a throne. Back straight in a regal posture, the only blatantly obvious give-away was the small, beany shaped metal cap�crown�which rested on his doomed head. The saline solution had sealed his fate, allowing those extra few volts to course through his small frame and�
�Would you like regular or extra crispy?� the seventy year old guard asked him while raging into a fit of laughter. His lawyer and family outside, unfortuneately, could not hear the guards and come rushing in to save him�or in the very least beat them to death with their own night-sticks.
A smile crossed his face.
�What�re you laughing about, Crispy. You know, I never really had a taste for human, but in your case I just might make an exception��
�Shut up you fat-ass blanco. You�ve always had the advantages, you�s never growed up on the streets with my homeboys. You don�t feel their pain when the bullets crash through their skulls. They die honorably, but you�ll always be a redneck blanco punk.� Oh, but he�d get his revenge on this guard, he just knew God would help him out, because he�d asked, when the time came. El dios no es antipatico, va a ayudarme con mi problemita�
The old guard had seen a lot of men like Marcos before, and they always had the same fate. He memorized the way each and every one of them had cursed him out and the ways they�d convulsed as the life was slowly drained from them�Marcos would be fun to watch.
�You know if you had half a mind you�d think to shut up. You better shut your eyes�� he taunted the man��because you know when the first shock goes through you, your eyes�ll pop out and dangle in front of you like the balls on a Christmas tree.�
Marcos looked up. He had never really been a religious man, but right now he needed all the help he could get. But instead of seeing God, he saw a single, dim lightbulb hanging from its chain to the ceiling, dangling slowly back and forth. Looks like someone being hung, he thought, I wonder which�d be better?
The first bolts hit him as he was looking at the lightbulb. Unceremoniously and quite forbodingly, the bulb dimmed as the power was used for other means. The electricity coursed through his body, from the shaved spot on his head to the rubber soles at his feet, where it lingered a while, melting the rubber and singing his feet.
The volts coursed through his veins, igniting plasma into a furious mixture of steam and death. Looking straight up, he realized his head was shaking. He brought his head down and saw that the muscles in his legs twitched relentlessly, trying to break free of the horrible restraints holding him in the torture chair. His arms periodically clenched and unclenched, releasing new gouts of pain up and down his arms and to his spine. His right arm popped loose of the restraint, but it didn�t matter.
Soon he realized the merit of the tall, straight backed chair. His body was convulsing in a horrid fashion, and the back of the chair prevented him from snapping his own back�basically so I don�t get hurt; how ironic, he thought.
But by looking down he had released another force onto himself: gravity. Gravity and the first few seconds of the shock�has it been only seconds?�tore his eyes right out of their sockets. Hanging straight down only by a thin connective membrane�optic nerve?�the eyes dangled just like the lightbulb which Marcos had seen. Parts of the eye were translucent or even transparent. With an unobstructed view, he peered down at his own convulsing body, and imagined himself a spirit looking at a dying man�detached, but feeling the pain nonetheless. His view dangled left and right and was dizzying. Just like those video tapes my family sent me, when they allowed Pablito to work the camcorder; what a debacle!
He noticed for the first time, his mouth. His red, full lips were quivering in a convulsive manner. He looked strangely upon his own lips.
Then, in a flash, he realized he�d been trying to say something over and over again. He could just barely make out the words coming from his own thoughts, but they were words nonetheless!
And his last words were�
In a sudden fit of apparent insanity, the seventy year old guard fell to the ground, convulsing like he was the one being electrocuted. His old, withered body fell on his nightstick and curled up into a fetal ball. His knees worked towards his body and away from it, again and again in a rapid succession of convulsions which appeared to be killing him. The white foam flew from his mouth, which was munching rapidly and trying desperately to say something, something that seemed to the other guard like the name Pablo, no Marcos Pablito Valenzuela. First, middle and last names, the old guard had blurted out again and again, names which meant nothing to him but had a greater and wider significance to the other dead man in the room.
