The Three Fates of Henrik Nordmark: A Novel by Christopher Meades

Author:Christopher Meades [Meades, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2010-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

thirteen

Henrik realized he could never truly be a saint. He tried chivalry long ago and found it to be an abstract notion that was nearly impossible to accomplish in reality. He knew he would never do great things that made people speak of him with admiration. But watching that young man get thrown out of the office building made Henrik realize you don’t have to be good to be distinct or unique. An equal effect can be achieved by being bad. Henrik walked to the local shopping mall intent on becoming a public menace. It was easy, he decided. He would simply mimic the actions he found most deplorable in others. One could much more readily inspire hatred than love. Some day, he reasoned, he might grow out of aberrance. But for now, it was the first step along a diving board into a pool of eccentricity.

Once inside the shopping mall, Henrik proceeded to walk through the stores and haphazardly rearrange the clothes folded on the shelves. He would pick up an article — a T-shirt or a cardigan, a pair of pleated pants or a lady’s full bodice — it didn’t really matter what it was — and he would crumble it in his hands and unfold its sleeves, then place it back indiscriminately on the shelf. With each piece of clothing, Henrik imagined himself to be more and more wicked, a certifiable brute in this world. He furnished a demonic cackle, far too quiet for anyone to hear, but loud enough to underscore the depravity of his actions.

To Henrik’s immense dismay, the store staff didn’t seem to notice. He’d anticipated at least one of them would grow furiously angry and throw him out of the store on his heels. But none of them seemed to care. In one store, a young man wearing women’s jeans and a pink headband even followed along behind Henrik, dutifully cleaning up his mess and making small talk with him.

Henrik would have to up the ante.

He found the most crowded hallway in the mall and set about walking slowly and taking up as much space as he possibly could. This will do the trick, he thought. Many a time while walking down a busy city sidewalk, Henrik had found himself victim to the incredible scourge of slow, overweight women meandering along at a breathtakingly unhurried dawdle, their leisurely attitude and seeming obliviousness to the traffic jam behind them causing a rage to form deep within Henrik to where it manifested in a tightness in his chest. They always traveled in flocks, these women. Henrik had no such flock, but still, he set about eliciting an angry response from the shoppers in the mall. He waddled four times slower than normal, stretched out his arms and stumbled absently in people’s way when they attempted to pass him. To Henrik’s horror, his actions had little effect. No one seemed to notice him in the least. He was only one man after all and the shoppers could pass him easily on either side.

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