Shamrock Open-Darby O'Gill and the Revenge of the Little People (578 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.68 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (View user info) at 2006-03-14 09:48:57 EST
He had a gold pocket watch on the end of a chain, which he swung around and around whenever he appeared. It would be when I wasn't looking, that moment when a sound outside would draw my attention away from the room as I looked around. By the time I looked back, he was always there in his little green vest and pants. The stereotypical leprechaun, a sort of heuristic to what the little Irish sprite should look like.
"It is time again laddie. Time to see if you can keep your coin, your treasure, your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." He said with a grin while spinning that watch around and around. This time I would ignore him. If I just ignored him, it wouldn't happen again.
Every time he beats me, and I am always the worse for it.
The doorbell chimed cheerfully and I walked away from the leprechaun to open it. Despite the fact that I left him in one room, he was standing next to the front door when I got to it.
With that grin of his...That knowing grin.
As the door swung open my heart sank. This was what he was going to try and take from me? This was it? No. I would never lose this to him.
"We need to talk." Marissa said, her hands firmly by her side. I blinked and silently cursed the world as I stepped back and allowed her in the apartment.
The leprechaun was practically dancing in excitement. He was so sure he could take this away from me, but I was older now and I had reason. I would never allow him to take this last precious thing from me.
The leprechaun whispered into Marissa's ear, and she repeated what he said. Repeated the words like they were her words, when in fact they weren't. He was orchestrating her.
"I told you that I didn't have an infinite amount of patience. I told you that I would come to see you when I finally could not take anymore. Well now is the time." She said, her arms folded across her chest and her face drawn back in a determined stare. All this because the leprechaun was feeding her what to say and feel. But she wasn't beyond my reach. I fully believed it was possible for me to win.
At least, I assumed it was. Every time he challenged me it at least appeared I could win, but maybe I couldn't. Maybe he was playing me as well.
The first time, when we played chess, I know I could have somehow won that. I mean every player has a chance to win in chess. Granted I was 11 and in a state of shock over playing a leprechaun in chess, especially after what he told me we were playing for. In retrospect I guess I wasn't mature enough or stable enough to win.
Foolish me, I had thought I was a good chess player at 11 and that was why when he let me pick the game, I challenged him. After watching some stupid Sean Connery movie earlier that night I thought that I would have the wits to beat a leprechaun.
The chess game was a contest of logic. The poker game after that was of luck and skill.
This I could already tell was a contest of rhetoric and persuasion. I had to persuade the girl I loved to stay with me.
I had taken debate so long ago, so I now struggled to remember everything I had learned. The most training I got was being the son of a lawyer, where every argument about how much television I could watch or when I could go to bed required attention to detail and a steadfast resolve.
I now struggled to remember everything I had ever heard or learned about debating, about convincing your opponent you are right. I didn't want to leave this up to chance. I would give everything I had.
Words flowed over my tongue and out of my lips. Points of reason and admissions of love seemed to fall on Marissa's deaf ears as she starred stonily back at me. The leprechaun stood by her side grinning like a mad man, that cocky son of a bitch. She was firmly in his territory, but I was sure I could bring her heart back around to me.
I always wondered why he did this. Why he came around and took what was most precious to me. Why was it me?
Hours. It lasted hours, the back and forth between us. I tried everything I could. I had always been told to keep your head about you when debating, but after an hour or so I couldn't do it any longer. I broke down. I raged and cried and screamed and roared. I tried to be fearsome so she was too afraid to leave and I tried to be pathetic so she would pity me and stay.
I would do anything.
The leprechaun began to laugh at me after a while. He laughed at the pain I was going through watching the last person I really loved leave me. He laughed as she starred at me with disgust and contempt. Her eyes were glazed over, they had a trance-like quality to them.
She wasn't really there, she was being fed emotions by this little man. He would not give up his grip on her mind. I was unable to shake her free from him.
And when she finally turned around and walked to the door, when I saw that I had lost, I just fell. I fell to my knees and starred at my hands in my lap. Tears dripped down and splashed quietly onto my fingers with the sound of the door slamming shut.
The door slammed shut and Marissa walked out of my life forever.
"You know she really loved you don't you? You know she wanted you to marry her, that's why she was so impatient with you all the time." I heard the leprechaun say as he pranced over to me, spinning that gold watch around and around. I didn't say anything. I just continued to stare at my hands.
"Well she will go and be a trophy wife for an older man who bested me. He won a 'pot of gold' and I deliver don't I?" The leprechaun asked rhetorically as I shook slightly.
She was all I had.
"Why do you do this? Why do you do this to me?" I whispered while starring at my hands. The little leprechaun let out another bark of laughter.
"Why? Because leprechauns don't have real pots of gold lying around. The gold is metaphorical for something you really want. Every time someone challenges me to a contest, challenges me for a 'pot of gold', they are really challenging me for something they really want. In this case it was a man in Los Angelos who wanted a younger affair to show off to his other rich friends." He explained, and I tried not to think of this unknown man taking my Marissa and using her for social status.
"Marissa will go to California. She will think she has every reason in the world to go, but the real reason she is going is because I am making her. She will meet this man and he will use her to elevate himself among his peers." The leprechaun said without a hint of remorse in his voice. This was just how things were to him.
"And the poker game for my parents. Who wanted them to be separate?" I asked softly.
"Oh that? That was about your father. He challenged me and won, so I gave him what he wanted. He wanted an affair with an intern at his law office, and I granted it. Your mother just found out and left him." The leprechaun commented. Never before had he explained the reasoning behind what he did, and so I needed to press him for information.
I didn't want to ask the next question, but I had to. I had to know.
"And...the chess game. The chess game when I was 11. The game for my sister's life. Who wanted her to die?" I asked quietly.
"No one wanted her to die in particular. But there was a late night embalmer at the hospital that had a penchant for young, dead girls. I delivered a prime specimen to him, I understand he enjoyed her very much." The leprechaun admitted and I leapt up and rushed at him.
"I WILL KILL YOU!" I yelled as I raced at him and tried to kick him, but as soon as I threw my leg out at him he disappeared and reappeared behind me, using my momentum to push me to the ground.
I fell sobbing to the carpeted floor and the leprechaun starred at me with contempt, much like Marissa had moments ago.
"Whenever people want something from me, I can't just make it appear out of thin air. It has to be taken from someone. Most people go on the offensive, trying to take other people's things for themselves, but you try and make your own. You don't take, you create relationships and love to fill your life with the things you want. You, in essence, save up your own pots of gold for yourself, and that is why I always come to take yours whenever other people win something from me. I wouldn't want to give up what I have would I? No, it's just as easy to beat you and take your precious possessions." The leprechaun said, before he stopped spinning his watch around and put it in his pocket.
"I would have thought you would have noticed. You saw that 'Darby O'Gill and the Revenge of the Little People' movie didn't you? The first night I visited, I thought you would notice the parallel." The leprechaun said.
"Well... Anyway I must be off. Until next time." He commented and then he just popped out of existence leaving me sobbing on the floor.
I stayed there for a while, just crying and hugging myself on the ground before I got up on shaky knees and made my way to my bedroom.
He can't take everything of value away from me.... I wouldn't give him that pleasure.
With shivering hands I pulled open the top dresser drawer and reached through my clothes to the back of the drawer till I felt something hard. I fumbled around it and pulled it out.
The 22-caliber pistol was always loaded. Always.
As I pushed the barrel to my temple I grinned despite the insanity of it all.
He may take everything I love and cherish while I was alive, but I wouldn't give him that pleasure anymore.
The last thing I heard was the trigger click.
User Reviews
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-03-14 23:00:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
oh crap.. I don't know which of these I like better
Submitted by midwesternknight (user info) at 2006-03-14 18:36:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
good writing, suicide's bad though gotta play the game until you learn to cheat is my motto
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-03-14 15:32:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-03-14 11:49:35 (#)
Ranking: 1
This was an "okay" read - the ending was abrupt, as already stated, and I think that you could have done more with the title than you did. It just seemed to be all too predictable. Solid +1 material.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-03-14 15:31:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
He should have done the Bill and Ted thing and switched to Battleship or Twister. Reading this, I wasn't sure what made it revenge as opposed to simple sadism of convenience.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-03-14 11:49:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
This was an "okay" read - the ending was abrupt, as already stated, and I think that you could have done more with the title than you did. It just seemed to be all too predictable. Solid +1 material.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-03-14 11:34:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-03-14 11:34:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
HV I may be a little hard on you here but it's the finals. +1.5 the premise is great and overall i like it but I don't love it. I think the suicide was kind of a cop out just as it is in real life. It's kinda like you decided you needed to end this and that was the most expedient way there. A .22? If that did kill you it would most likely be a slow and horrible death, at least find him something that will leave a gaping whole as it explodes out the opposite side of his head splatting bits of bone, blood, and brain all over the room, then we can watch as his eyes roll up into his head and he takes his remaining breaths, more out of habit than anything. His eyes dull as a pool of blood gathers round his head in an obscene and foul halo. so I've been interrupted several times while trying to write this. I think I was trying to illustrate that if you're going to suicide someone at least make it integral to the story and give it some feeling/life. after so much emotion and action this falls flat.
Submitted by DizzyMissus (user info) at 2006-03-14 10:20:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-03-14 10:11:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i like that idea of the pot of gold. i thought it ended a little abruptly but still really good. nice interpretation.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-14 10:02:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
http://www.ubersite.com/m/85153 The contest link.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-14 10:00:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-14 09:57:43 (#)
Ranking: 2
This will take some beating...
----
No it won't.
wardy will come by and -2 it with 'good reason' and I'll lose.
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2006-03-14 09:58:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
auto +2 I know you, and for not using the word "marker" that I know of. SUICIDE IS NOT A SOLUTION, IT'S A ONE-WAY TICKET TO A DESTRUCTION DERBY STARRING YOUR FACE. I heard that on Channel One when I was fourteen. Awkward beginning, but then again I don't believe in "rules" or "opinions".
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-14 09:57:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This will take some beating...
...except for the suicide at the end. That seemed a bit excessive for the character kill himself. It jarred a bit, I thought. A solid 2 nonetheless.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-03-14 09:57:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I wish I had an appropriate comment...I'm sorry.