God’s Gonna Cut You Down
A novella by Eduard Joseph
Published by Eduard Joseph
Copyright 2013 Eduard Joseph
Second edition: 2016 © Eduard Joseph
Front cover design by Eduard Joseph
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This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are
not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Any resemblance to any person or
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved
The right of Eduard Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the South African Copyright Act of 1978 (as amended).
The Grinning Clown
He sat in front of the mirror and stared at his own reflection in the twilit room – not that there was anything unique about his face or his appearance in general. He had a face that could easily disappear into a crowd like dust in the wind and that’s the way he liked it. He was a loner and shut the world out most of the time and usually kept to himself at work.
Up until now his life was pretty ordinary; he stayed in a one bedroom apartment in a rundown part of town and owned a cat called Kitty. The only reason he called his male cat Kitty was that he could say Hello Kitty when he got home from work, but that never happened as the cat was more independent than he was bargaining for when he bought it from a pet shop. It was out most evenings when he got out – almost like a grim reminder that his life was meaningless and that nobody really wanted to spend time with him.
He’d spend his nights warming up left over food from previous nights that he froze, sit in front of the TV watching reruns of old shows he’d already seen a thousand times, but still laughed in between chews at each punch-line or joke as if hearing it for the first time
His life was the same each day; he’d get up, go to work, go home, eat left overs and watch TV until he fell asleep. The mundane process would be repeated itself the next day and everyday thereafter until the end of time most probably.
He worked for one of the largest distribution companies in the country; Johnson Incorporated which was a distributor of medical supplies to over half of the private hospitals in the country.
He was one of ten accountants working for Johnson Incorporated – or at least he was until he was fired a couple of weeks earlier. Over the last few months his work had deteriorated until the quality of his work was not up to par with the other accountants and the head of the company, Mister John Johnson, had no alternative but to oversee the intervention and the disciplinary action that ultimately lead to his dismissal.
The only thing he had going in his mundane life was his job and that was taken away from him. As time passed his depression turned into anger and then hate for a man he’d only met twice in his life, but he knew it was best that he no longer worked there, for God had a plan for him as he stared at the mug, expressionless face that stared back at him from beyond the mirror; a face that was brutalized by a hard life.
Everything happens for a reason he told himself.
He wasn’t sure what the reason was for him losing his job until the night before when he tossed and turned all night and then he had a visitation by a dark winged creature that lingered in the shadows of his bedroom. The creature showed him his destiny and told him that the Almighty had chosen him to do his bidding.
He reached for a mask that lay upon the dresser in front of the mirror and toyed with it in his hands for a moment. The mask was made of thick rubber and resembled a deranged clown with a big, nasty grin upon its face, a large cherry, red nose, black vacant eyes and red triangular smudges over each eye.
He put on the mask and stared in the mirror at the horrid sneer before him and he tilted his head as if examining his reflection. He felt safe behind the mask – he could be who he wanted to be behind the mask. The mask took away his identity and the fact that his life wasn’t very interesting.
He reached for the shotgun that lay upon the bed behind him and got up. He was never one for violence, but ever since the dark angel came into his room he had lost all emotions – he no longer felt fear, hate, love or sympathy.
He was chosen by the dark angel to carry out a special mission; he had to rid the world from certain people. They weren’t human, the dark angel told him, but demons. Demons that had to be sent back to the fires of hell and he was the only one that could send them back.
His name was Godfrey Williams, but today his name would be abbreviated to God.
Mother of two
Gladys Adams was a single mother of two. Her husband passed away three years earlier in a motor vehicle accident after a drunk driver lost control of the other vehicle. It was hard on her, but even harder on her two young boys, Jack and Jesse. They were twins, but weren’t identical and had just turned ten – born ten minutes apart.
She brewed a pot of coffee and prepared each boy a bowl of cereal while the two boys sat at the kitchen table. Jack was a morning person and told his mother about the strange dream he had the night before, while Jesse on the other hand wasn’t a morning person. He sat quietly in his chair yawning every few minutes and wished his brother would shut up until at least eleven AM to give his body a chance to wake up and catch up with the rest of the world.
Gladys handed them each a bowl of cereal. Jack kept talking in between mouthfuls of cereal; talking about flying dinosaurs and aliens and all sorts of strange things he saw in his dream the night before while his mother nodded and cleaned the counter. Jesse hated it when his brother babbled so much in the morning and rolled his eyes at the stupid dream stories as he ate his cereal.
Gladys poured herself a cup of coffee and nodded at the sound of Jack’s voice as she walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. She took a sip of the coffee as she listened to Jack’s story with little to no attention and savoured the decadent taste of coffee.
Why does Jack talk so much in the mornings? She thought. She just wanted a bit of quiet before heading off to the corporate jungle. She knew it was wrong of her to think bad about her son. He was the splitting image of her father – he too was a morning person and talked nonstop from the moment he woke up.
Her mind drifted off to happier days when her husband was still alive. He was a hopeless romantic and won her heart by delivering exactly one hundred roses to her office while they were dating. Each rose had a little note tied to it indicating one thing he loved about her and it took her two hours to read each and every note.
Her phone beeped and her mind was jerked back to reality. She reached for her phone in her handbag – it was a text from Alex. He was a guy she started seeing about a month earlier, and though he was nothing like her late husband, she adored him.
The text said that he couldn’t wait to see her that evening and a smile snuck onto her face as she put the phone away. Her boys didn’t know about Alex and it didn’t feel like the right time to tell them.
“Come on boys.” Gladys said, “Finish your cereal. We have to get going or you will be late for school.”
“I don’t want to go back to school.” Jesse sighed.
“You’re just used to sleeping in. You will get used to going to school again.”
Secretly she was glad that school break was over. She had to pay a babysitter to watch the boys each day while she was at work and it made a dent in her pocket.
“Aren’t you excited to see all your friends again?” Gladys asked.
“Jack’s my friend.”
“Surely you have other friends?”
Jesse shook his head. Jack was his best friend. Other kids only
picked on him so he sought solace in his brother’s friendship.
Gladys nodded and tried to hide the fact that she was worried about him. He needed to make friends with more boys his own age. He spent almost every waken moment with his brother and she was afraid that he might form an obsession with his brother one day – she read about it once in an article.
“Let’s go.” Gladys said.
She gulped down the last of her coffee. The two boys groaned as she got up, grabbed their bags and placed their bowls in the sink.
“I know you’ll have a great day at school.” Gladys said.
Gladys pulled into her parking spot outside the Johnson Incorporated building and placed a visor in the windshield to keep out the sun and got out of her car. She walked across the vast parking lot towards the main entrance and took in a bit of the fresh morning air.
On her way she passed a security check point on a sidewalk and the security guard with a great big smile which was met by one from her side. The guard’s name was Freddie and he had been working there for as long as she could remember. He was there every morning to meet her with a warm greeting and took pride in his menial job.
She stared up at the building in front of her; it reached up into the sky eleven floors high and blocked most of the sun as it rose to the east. She worked on the second floor and she was glad she did. Sometimes the old elevator would act up and be out of order for days meaning that people had to use the stairs to get to their offices – not an easy task for some of the more overweight colleagues.
She entered through the main entrance and another security guard sitting behind the front desk greeted her with a warm smile.
“Good morning.” The guard greeted.
“Morning.”
She walked over to the elevator.
“It’s out of order again.” The guard said.
“Again?”
“Yeah. Pete has gone to print out a sign for us to put up.”
“It’s the second time this month. When are they replacing this ancient elevator?”
The guard raised his shoulders and shook his head.
She was one of the lucky ones who had only a few flights of stairs awaiting her.
“At least it’s a short climb.” Gladys said.
She walked over to the stairs and made her way up the flights of stairs.
The office space on the second floor was an open plan floor with twenty cubicles and hers was the third one to the left near the window as one entered.
She went to her cubicle and put down her bag. Her desk was a neat mess of paperwork, a computer and a framed picture of her two boys and a not-so-impressive view of the parking area and the few trees that lined it.
A skinny girl called Alice Simpson came running up to her. She was so skinny that if she turned sideways she’d disappear for a moment. She was the office gossip and all her stories always ended with, just don’t tell anybody else…
“You won’t believe what happened.” Alice exclaimed excited.
“Good morning to you too.”
“Yeah yeah.” Alice said rushed, “Anyway, there is a rumour going round that one of the girls on this floor is a skank.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone’s having an affair.” Alice whispered.
Alice folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow, trying to lure interest from Gladys, but she wasn’t biting.
“Who?” Gladys asked.
It worked, Alice thought.
“I don’t know. I’m trying to find out, but you know me – I hate a gossip. Oh, did I tell you that I saw Timothy cheating on his diet the other day? I saw him sneaking a donut from beneath his desk. It was one of those cream filled donuts with the icing sugar topping.”
Gladys wasn’t in the mood for Alice’s stories on a Monday morning, but didn’t want to seem rude so she nodded as if listening; all the while thinking about
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