Better
William Zupkoski thrived to be the best. He needed to prove to the world that he could do everything. Be everything. He was smarter than his classmates, but it was not enough for him. He always was the fastest on the track and had the best pitching while playing ball. Girls would flirt with him. He looked better than most of his friends. But, nothing could ever satisfy him.
He needed to be better.
William stopped trying soon. Everyone telling him how far he was going to go in life became annoying. So, he stayed at home and sat on his chair. Reading stories of events that would go down in history. The men and women who would be legends one day. He deserved to be in the news next to them. His name deserved to be on everyone’s tongues.
Spoken and loved.
He was better than those people who were raised on a pedestal in front of the world.
Another section of the paper showed criminals. People who didn’t escape the police. Who didn’t win. People who failed. William laughed at them. If he was a criminal, he wouldn’t get caught. He wouldn’t be known. He would be better than any ignorant person who tried and failed before him.
So he did.
He became better. One gun, one robbery. He loved the fear in people’s eyes.
Another robbery. He felt better. Satisfied. This was the feeling he was missing. The fear people gave him was the fuel he was missing to finally be better than everyone around him.
Five robberies.
Fifteen.
Thirty.
All the way to forty.
Yes people got hurt. You can hurt people when you’re better than them. And William truly thought he was. Forty armed robberies and never caught. He would be a legend.
Until one day, he was caught. He never was the best; he knew it now.
On December 23, 1929, his home became a penitentiary. One that the criminals he used to laugh at lived in, too. He was sentenced from seventy to a hundred forty years in that cage.
The prison treated him like nothing. His name was stolen and replaced with numbers. C-5818. He couldn’t allow himself to be treated like this. He was so much better than everyone in that prison. He could prove it, too.
William became quiet and good.
He could cut his sentence by at least half.
He told people how much better he was than them. Some knew it, too; others didn’t.
One laughed at him.
He had to prove he was better than this small man.
He knew he was better.
The man’s blood was on his hands. He was dead.
William killed him. He smiled. He knew he was better than this man.
Some years passed. William got out of jail after only nine years. He showed them. Only the best could shave their sentence down that much.
He lived the rest of his life knowing he was better than any of the men and women in that penitentiary. He got out.
People were scared of him now. Their fear had the same effect others' fear had on him before jail. He felt better than everyone. He knew he was. He had to be.
As his life went on, people stopped caring about him.
They thought he was nothing. It was like he was C-5818 all over again.
One day in New Jersey, William was in a shop. He wasn’t looking for anything. He was just there. Breathing air. Feeling invisible. Barely existing. Longing to feel the satisfaction he felt when he was younger.
The shopkeeper came up to him and asked if he was going to buy something.
Before William knew it, the blood of the shopkeeper was on his hands. He stood there in shock until the police came. Someone must have gotten them.
William Zupkoski was executed for his crime. For killing a shopkeeper. However, he wasn’t scared to die. He knew it and now everyone would.
He was better
Than those people from his childhood,
Every politician,
Every legend,
Every criminal,
That shopkeeper.
Everyone.
Ava- this is a great back story. The quick sharp staccato-like sentence structure matches the rythm of William's life. You captured his justification for violence with the menacing yet restrained line "You can hurt people when you're better than them."
ReplyDeleteThis backstory held my attention throughout. I especially liked the lines, "One day in New Jersey, William was in a shop. He wasn’t looking for anything. He was just there. Breathing air. Feeling invisible. Barely existing."
ReplyDeleteThis is such a well written back story for this character. I get the feeling that, in William's mind, he is the main character and is quite justified in everything he's done. However, us the readers can sense his descent into the dark side. --Carrie
ReplyDeleteYour writing makes it easy to feel how deep in his head William lives. I could feel how claustrophobic his thoughts were in their obsessiveness. My favorite lines were "On December 23, 1929, his home became a penitentiary. One that the criminals he used to laugh at lived in, too." It really communicates what a slap in the face this is to William, and how far he's fallen.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think it's interesting that despite wanting to be the best, William got tired of everyone telling him that he was going far in life. It reveals how much William's thought process doesn't actually make sense and is mostly about wanting power.