Mary Maxwell
Canterbury Tale
Ms. Dudley
Nicole watched the group gathered around the pearly gates of heaven and thought about
how the stories of their lives measured up to hers. She had lived a morally questionable but
amazing lifestyle in her forty years. Her experiences were not necessarily enjoyable but filled
with suspense and power. She was on top of her game when she had died unexpectedly, but
looking back she smiled thinking of how unique and extreme her life truly had been. As the
storyteller that the crowd encircled came to the end of their tale she realized she was the only one
who had yet to give a glimpse into their life before death. As more and more faces turned to her,
Nicole knew that it was her turn to let those waiting with her have a peek into the life of Nicole
Jackson, international arms dealer, and dead hostage. As she began to tell her story she drifted
into memories of the glory of her former life and began to forget altogether that she had an
audience.
The plane landed with a jolt and Nicole lazily stretched, yawning and trying to open her
eyes. The flight had been a long one but she had managed to get a few hours of much needed
sleep. Negotiations with the Saudis always took a lot out of her, and this instance was no
different. Although they had taken longer than expected, the negotiations were a success and she
had managed to sell them a plethora of different high powered guns and other weapons including
some of the newly introduced high powered rifles that were more expensive than the average
American’s home. She was very proud of herself and she knew that her husband would be
equally ecstatic; this trip had been a major success in that she had made their company Jackson
and Meyerson Arms a cool 22 million dollars. The captain alerted the passengers that it was safe
to exit the plane and Nicole stood hastily, grabbed her carry on and exited the plane and entered
the limousine waiting for her on the runway.
As soon as she entered the limousine she reached for her cell phone. She had decided
even before boarding the flight that she would first call her dealer, then her boyfriend, and finally
her husband. She figured it was in order of importance. She dialed Jack’s number about as fast as
humanly possible. It rang twice and Jack picked up, “Nic it’s been a week where the hell have
you been, I got some good shit for you.”
“Sorry J I was in the Middle East doing some business, but I need a fix can you hook me
up?” Jack could sense the desperation in Nicole’s voice and told her to come right over.
“My stand is over on west 56th today, I’m only a few blocks away from Times
Square.”
“Okay, so you are in the same place you were last week, I know where you are. I’ll be
right over.” Nicole hurriedly slammed her phone down and directed the driver to Jack’s location.
When she arrived Jack was waiting for her at his hot dog stand. Before she even could
cross the street two men she recognized as wealthy businessmen came up to Jack and bought
some cocaine. She knew that drugs were bad but in her world cocaine was not considered a bad
thing, just a way of getting through the day. When she arrived at Jack’s stand she greeted him
with a handshake. As she felt the drugs slip into her hand she instantly felt better, she leaned over
and with a quick sniff they were gone, along with her feelings of sadness and insecurity. She
bought a soda waved goodbye to Jack and began to walk away.
“Zzzzz,zzzzz” Nicole felt her phone vibrate in her purse. She thought, “Hmm that must
be Steve.” Steve her husband, was surely calling to congratulate her on the deal and offer to take
her out to dinner.
“Hello Nicole,” a sinister voice on the other line greeted. “I know your expecting this to
be Steve, or your boyfriend Jake, but as you might’ve guessed it isn’t. Don’t move from where
you are standing because if you do I’ll shoot you.”
“Okay, who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?” Nicole was not in the least bit
terrified but she did want to know who was harassing her. A split second after she said this she
felt something whiz past her ear and with a sound unlike one she had ever heard she heard it hit
Jack in the chest. She saw Jack drop to the ground, dead, and realized she was no longer in
control of the situation.
The man on the phone said, “Scared now?”
“No!” Nicole lied, she was terrified. Her mind was going in a million different directions,
why was this happening? Was it something related to her dealings in arms? “What do you want,
why are you doing this?” she yelled. Only just now had she realized that she was drawing the
attentions of passersby.
“Now I want you to listen carefully, there is a pair of handcuffs located on the hot dog
stand, handcuff yourself to the stand and wait there, if you chose to run away, I will set off the
bomb stored in the stand. Look for yourself Nicole, there is a bomb in there." Nicole tentatively
stepped towards the stand and peeked inside. What she saw shocked her into attaching the cuffs
on the stand to her left wrist as quickly as she could. “Now Nicole, if you do what I say you
might live, but maybe not. The bomb in the stand is attached to your cell phone so if you hang up
on me or if your cell phone dies, so do you and everyone on this block. If you alert anyone they
will die. At this point Nicole was more terrified than ever before. Her mind was running and she
was trying to figure out a way to alert someone of her situation. She tried catching people’s eyes
but no one ever paid any serious attention to her.
“What do you want from me? Do you want money? I can give you money how much do
you want? I don’t even know you , what would you want from me?”
“Ms. Jackson your company deals arms to all kinds of criminals doesn’t it? You provide
weapons for terrorists, drug dealers and low life criminals.”
“My company also provides weapons for little old ladies and hunters, what’s your point?”
“My point is you will sell weapons to anyone who has the money to buy them. You don’t
care about anyone, you don’t care who dies, you just care if you can make some money. I had a
daughter but your husband he took her away from me. A tear came to the sniper’s eye as he
produced the small worn photograph that he carried with him at all times.
Nicole interrupted his thoughts with a loud, “so what does this have to do with me?”
“You are about to find out.” The sniper mumbled as he angrily dialed Nicole’s husband
Stephen’s work number and asked to speak to Mr. Meyerson.
“Hello?” Stephen answered the phone with boredom in his voice. After all it was just his
wife calling him, its not like they actually liked each other. Their marriage had been only one of
convenience for the short period of their wedded bliss they had fooled themselves into thinking
they actually loved each other.
“Steve?” Nicole spoke on the other line, her voice was shaky and Steve paid little
attention. He was about to ask her about the trip until the snipers voice cut in.
“Mr. Meyerson, right now your wife is cuffed to a hot dog stand, and I have one of your
company’s high powered rifles pointed at her head. You might ask why but in your heart of
hearts you know the answer. You know that someone has to pay for the destruction the weapons
you deal have caused. You have caused more hurt and heartache than you know.”
“Mike?” Steven was in shock. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew exactly
who he was talking to. It was Michael Smith his former friend. Before he could ask anymore
questions the line clicked dead. Steven was then faced with the hardest decision of his life. He
could flee the country and escape a shameful past or he could go to the hot dog stand and face
what had come back to haunt him. He immediately alerted the authorities of the situation and
called an emergency meeting of his executive advisors to consult him on the matter. They all
knew his secret and he felt they would tell him what he wanted to hear, and that was to leave his
wife to fend for herself and escape the country.
Nicole was in an utter state of confusion. How did her husband know the sniper holding
her hostage? How could this possibly be happening to her?
“You are probably thinking how does my husband know who I am right?” The sniper
interrupted Nicole’s thoughts. “Well about ten years ago your husband was on a business trip
setting up an arms deal in Chile. He pissed a few people off and was attacked. I shot a couple of
people and he narrowly escaped capture. A few days later my daughter was killed by the same
gun that I saved your husbands life. Now isn’t that ironic?”
“Look I’m sorry about your daughter but what do you think killing a bunch of people and
blowing up a whole block will do? I doubt your daughter would want you to do this.” Nicole was
practically pleading at this point, she had no idea what else to do and the battery on her cell
phone was about three quarters drained. She knew that there was only about an hour left before
the phone died.
“Well let’s see if your husband is coming to your rescue, shall we?” The sniper
interrupted Nicole’s tirade and began to dial Stephen’s cell phone number.
“We both know where Stephen is, on his way to the airport Mike. He doesn’t care about
me, he cares about his reputation. He’ll release a statement after you kill me saying how
wonderful I was and how much he loved me.”
“We’ll see.” Mike continued to dial the number.
“Hello?” Stephen answered on the first ring with the edge in his voice apparent.
“Hello Stephen, I’ve got your wife here, where are you? I bet you are on your way to JFK
ready to board a flight out of the country?” Stephen squirmed in his seat because the sniper had
guessed exactly where he was. He was already preparing his speech to release to the press,
saying how sorry he was he was forced to miss his wife’s death. Whether or not he would like to
admit it, he’d rather see someone else die instead of himself. Before hanging up the sniper
challenged Stephen. “Stephen are you willing to leave your wife to die while you escape the
country? Is that the kind of man you are?” At this statement Stephen snapped, he couldn’t let the
coward in some building with a rifle threaten his wife and question his integrity. Also he needed
to go to shut his wife up. He knew that in seeing her death she would tell Mike anything he
wanted to know, including shady deals that had occurred between their company and various
politicians, company executives, and foreign terrorists. If she leaked the disreputable information
she knew, he would be ruined.
As soon as he hung up the phone Nicole interrupted the snipers satisfaction with his
speech to Stephen. “I told you, he doesn’t care about me, he was on his way to the airport. You
should just kill me, I don’t care, it’s not like your going to let me walk away from this unscathed.
You drew all these people here, and police officers here there is no way your not going to go out
without an impressive finish.” Nicole surveyed the crowd of reporters, onlookers, and police
officers that had gathered in a circle with a radius of three hundred yards all around. As dusk
settled and the battery on her cell phone went lower and lower, Nicole became more and more at
peace with herself. She began to accept her imminent death. She sat down next to the hot dog
stand and began to just talk to Mike about her life. She never thought she would die like this
talking to her murderer. She actually thought he was a nice guy but she had to remind herself that
he was holding her hostage. Just as they began to really understand each other they were
interrupted by shouting over by where the police had stationed themselves. Looking up she saw
her husband running toward her.
“Here Mike! Here I am Stephen Meyerson! This is what you wanted isn’t it? So kill me!
You won’t do it…” Before Stephen could utter another word a bullet hit his knee cap, another
then hit him right in the heart. He lay there dying and it pained Nicole to watch it, no matter how
much she disliked her husband.
“He thought I wouldn’t do it. But someone had to. He should know what it feels like to
die like that. Enough people have died like that as a result of his business. But now Nicole it is
your turn, you played an equal part in this and now it is your turn.” Before Mike could even aim
his rifle at Nicole he saw her drop from her sitting position. One of the CIA agents on Stephen’s
payroll had followed up on earlier orders from Stephen. He had been told to kill Nicole if
something happened to Stephen. Stephen had ordered this to keep Nicole quiet, even in death he
did not want anyone know the dirty dealings he had done during his life. As Nicole lay bleeding
on the cold pavement she realized the impact of her life on the world. She had provided people in
even the most outlandish places with weapons to protect themselves and kill others. How ironic
that she would be laying here dying due to something she had helped manufacture. She now
knew that the phrase, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” that she and her husband had
used to justify their business was complete bullshit. She realized only now that guns gave people
incentive to kill each other, but she could do nothing now but accept death and appreciate the life
she had lived.
At this Nicole came back from her memory to see all twenty nine other people looking at
her in amazement. Many could not see how this young woman could have experienced so much
in such a short time. Many felt tears coming to their eyes but Nicole was not sad at all. She knew
she had been a victim of circumstance but she was not angry or full of regret as she looked back
at her life. She appreciated the life she had lived and after telling her story was ready to let go of
her previous life and accept death.