The storm raged on the ragged Massachussets shore but that didn't bother Joseph much. He was bleeding.
Badly
. Uncontrollably
.
Logically, the only thing that Joseph was concerned about was stopping the bleeding. Actually, in all fairness to Joseph, there were lots of other things he cared about. Most of these cares were selfish, but some were not. The important thing was that he cared passionately about everything. He cared deeply that local grocery store had stopped carrying his favorite brand of cereal, Snuzzlebeary Chunks (tm), the ONE breakfast cereal he knew of with the bright colored marshmallows that come in six crazy fun shapes. "They're sugermagically sweeticious!" Joseph would often exclaim quoting Miffy, the purple, orange, and green-spotted dragon from the Snuzzlebeary Chunks (tm) commercials. Joseph wasn't sure if Miffy still appeared in the television commercials and he often sat wondering for hours about it, when he wasn't bleeding anyway. It had been months since Joseph had watched any television. Since those darn hooligans took off with all his major appliances during the riots. At least the filthy vagabonds had left his box of Snuzzlebeary Chunks (tm) alone, but even that was one now.
Everything was gone, and everyone Joseph cared about had left him as well. Even Miriam. She really didn't have that much of a choice about leaving, though. She had a choice of what pair of pants to wear each morning. She had a choice in indulging in a secret love affair with Charlie and even keep it a secret from Joseph even now, even as his hemorrhaging body lay writhing in agony on the diny gray blood-splattered floor. Miriam even had a choice whether or not to stab Joseph in the heated checkers match argument. They always played checkers on Tuesday mornings. Joseph frequently won handedly without exerting much effort. This Tuesday morning, the smug arrogance in the tone of Joseph's nasally voice was too much for Miriam to take. The uppity, thick Frech-Canadian accent so evident as he commanded, "King me!" often made her cringe but somehow the pulsating thunder and violent patter of rain on the window intensified her madness for a moment. Swiftly and happily, Miriam produced an exquisite knife from her purse and rammed in into Joseph's stomach.
Boy was he surprised! After taking a moment to laugh at the horrified disbelief on Joseph's face and taunt her defeated victim, Miriam had no choice but to leave her jilted lover for dead. Shocked, Joseph was unable to muster anything more than a barely audible gasp as Miriam pulled his last box of Snuzzlebeary Chunks (tm) from the cupboard before triumphantly marching out the front door. His girlfriend had just left him forever and made an attempt at ending his life that stood a good chance of succeeding. But Joseph couldn't think about that just yet. His favorite cereal was (provided text breaks off here - ha ha!)
