Interview with Joseph 1/2
"Tonight on our program we have had the chance to hold an exclusive interview with the famed Joseph Merlock. A teenage boy who lost everything and saw death before his eyes but escaped the clutches of his Mexican captors." The news anchor spoke this and then the screen changed to a room completely absent of color or objects except that same man and a teenager. The anchor began talking in a very strong, knowing voice. The teenager listened while staring at his shoes.
"I would like to start off by telling you how deeply sorry I am and that I hope the best for you after your losses. Joseph, so I heard that you escaped the people who can after you. What was it like? How did they try to get to you?" Joseph stared down to a minute then looked up, his eyes glistening from the water certainly pooling up in them. The camera panned out so that if he cried his tears wouldn't be visible.
"It's funny, you would think that if you are one person that they might send a jeep or two after you and that's it. You might think 'these people are no match for your hiding skills you learned on the playground'," he paused for a moment, "boy was I in for a rude awakening. Imagine being a scared kid. I'm not fooling myself and trying to pass off as an adult, I might be 18 but I am a kid. Imagine being a scared kid, you lost your family, your house, and our life. Now you also have to run away to have even a chance of surviving. I thought they would do some patrols and leave. No, it wouldn't be that easy. They wanted to make an example out of me so no one else would act out again. Within maybe, an hour, I heard rumbling. I was hiding in a small shack I used to play in as a child and I looked out. From where I was crouching maybe, 20 feet away, there stood an enormous tank. Then I heard some bickering in Spanish I quickly dove back down behind the wall. I had a few Hispanic friends so I heard two words out of what one of them was saying 'over there', then I heard footsteps coming closer and closer. I began to panic, there was no way I could take on a soldier, no way I would survive. I looked around and saw my lifeline. The tank was on a street and that's where the soldiers were coming from. The shack was in a forest and he door was pointing at the street. At the back of the shack was a little hole. Just big enough for me to fit through. I squirmed and I knew they would kill me if I saw me so I really did struggle for my life. Finally I popped through to the outside, but I had made a lot of noise. I immediately began running. I heard a hail of bullet fire around me. Mounds of dirt exploded and bullets whizzed past and hit a tree in front of me. Then there was the loudest boom you could ever hear. You know how fireworks sound? Well this was a hundred of those, in your ear. The explosion struck several feet away and through me a good ten feet to the side. Shards of wood and rock were driven into my skin. I was bleeding substantially. It didn't hurt though. I heard stories of super human capabilities in dire times and I can now say they are true. I ran like there was no tomorrow because I knew there might not be a tomorrow." Joseph paused then looked at the man, showing he had finished answering his question. The questioner just looked at him in a deep sorrowful style.
"Well how did you get away and where did you go?"
Joseph kind of chortled,"everyone seems to think that I got away. Truth is I blacked out from blood loss. Next thing I knew I was laying in a dank cell. I looked out the barred window and recognized nothing. I was actually near a sign that I could barely read. It said 'El Paso'. Then, a bit closer and in an elementary schoolyard I saw something horrifying. A gallows. It had the wood platform, rope, and everything. It had my name on it, but for when, I didn't know. I didn't sleep at all that night, as you would expect, and then I heard two people yelling at each other in Spanish as they walked up to my cell. I sat up on my cot and looked at them. The one that looked my age looked back. The older man, presumably an officer in the police, said 'bring this one for prep to hang', smiling at me afterwards. The boy policeman nodded and was given the key to my cell. He walked in and I backed up. He whispered 'I want to help you' and I looked at him quizzically. He explained that he didn't want to live in this hell hole anymore. He wanted to leave for America to start a better life because his parents and sister had been killed during the initial days of the purges when people were dying merely because they looked at a solider funny. he put my hands behind my back and cuffed them. He cuffed them just enough so I could slip out of them but also so he could quickly close the cuffs tighter if someone else saw. As we walked to the so-called 'prep room' he explained his plan. He said he would find a car to take us to the border. He took me to a room, probably the warden's office, when I looked outside. There was a crowd of people around the gallows and on the platform itself stood a large man in army fatigues. He shouted and pounded his fist on a podium and this was followed by cheers and clapping. The kid said 'got it' and showed me a set of keys. Just then the warden walked in and started hollering and yelling in Spanish. He said 'take him to the prep room or you will join him in there!' Just then my accomplice spring his trap. He pistol whipped the warden and kicked him in the groin. He immediately hit the ground. The boy looked menacingly over the helpless individual. He said 'you killed my family you bastard' and popped a bullet straight into his head with his sidearm I was not aware of. At this point I thought I had been desensitized but I remember sheer horror flooding into me when the splatter covered my shirt. I know it is something I will never forget but I also know its something I never want to see again. We ran for the car as fast as possible. We jumped in and he floored it." Joseph stopped once again. Still not having smiled once in the entire episode, or shown any emotion for that matter. He stared blankly at the news reporter.
"Well what happened after that? Did he survive? How did you get over to America again?" The anchor asked, obviously completely captivated from Joseph's story.
"Don't worry, I'm only halfway through."
