Short Stories

NORMAN

by Donnell Richardson

Roland Daniels sat at the Formica-topped center island of an ornate kitchen inside the Hemmingways’ home in Bangor, Maine. He had recently turned forty, and today would be the official marking of his latest contract hit. However, for the past four weeks he hadn’t been Roland Daniels, he had been Norman Watts instead. Norman was a thirty-five-year-old (Roland could easily play a thirty-five, or even thirty-year-old because of his young face) middle-class employee who worked in a small cubicle for a living, earned a low salary, had an ex-wife, no kids, and was known around the office for spending countless hours at the bars getting drunk. They sympathized for the “nice guy” in his harmless state.