Nothing But The Truth Willy is an honest and single man with low income. He decided to go to Las Vegas to make some money. On his way he suddenly saw a van coming towards him. He tried to avoid the accident. He turned his car and hit the wayside tree. The van rolled and fell down into the valley. Willy came out of his car and went down to the van. The old man in the van was badly hurt. He looked at Willy and gave some money and a secret locker key and told him to take the money from the locker and use it for good purposes. The old man had no family, no relatives and no friends. But Willy did not want to leave the old man like that. He carried the old man to his car and took him to the nearby hospital. The doctor said that the old man fell in comatose condition. Not knowing what to do, Willy checked into a motel and waited there for some days. After few days the old man died. Willy buried the old man in the nearby cemetery and came back to the motel. Willy opened the old man’s wallet and checked all the papers. He took the key and went to Las Vegas bank. The concerned officer checked the papers and showed Willy the secret locker. Willy opened the locker and found lot of stakes worth millions of dollars. Willy took some money and settled in a posh neighborhood near Las Vegas city. But some thing was bothering in his ears but he ignored it. Willy’s new neighbors were very rich. They received Willy with warm welcome to their neighborhood. They soon became very friendly to Willy. Willy went to clubs, races and pools with them and enjoyed their rich life style. One fine morning Billy realized that he was slowly losing his hearing ability. He remembered that some thing must have happened when he hit the wayside tree with his car. He noticed that his ears were bleeding again. He was scared and checked his hearing ability. He rushed to the nearby hospital and the doctors checked every thing and could not find any fault. They gave some medicines. But Willy began to lose his hearing ability day by day. He went to the specialists again and tried some hearing aids. He totally became deaf. Then he realized that he could not hear the audible sounds but could hear the thoughts of people. The doctors had no clue about his condition. He entered into a different phase of life. He could not drive his car any more. He could not use the normal phones. He could not do certain things with out an aid. Every thing changed in his life style. Willy had strange experiences with the people. He could not hear when they talked, but he could clearly hear their thoughts. This peculiar situation brought him strange troubles. But he did not tell his condition to the people except letting them know that he was deaf. He never told anyone that he was able to hear the thoughts of the people. He began to hear the thoughts of the people everywhere. The thoughts of the people were so loud to him and he could not stand the thought-noise any more. He ran away from the neighborhood and went to the restaurants, parks, libraries, Internet cafes and finally to the nearby forest. He enjoyed the silence for a while. He spent the whole day in the forest. He came back to his house and noticed that the nighttime thought-noise was even worse in his neighborhood. He could clearly hear the thought-noise of his neighbors. He heard the dream-noises of the people. He tried very hard to go to sleep. Finally he could hear his own thoughts. He tried and tried to stop thinking. He could not stop his own thoughts. He tried different earflaps to stop the thought-noises. It did not work. The neighborhood became a hell for him. He was hearing his own thoughts through out the night and tried hard to learn to sleep with it. Soon the neighbors came to know that Willy was deaf. They began to talk bad things about him in front of him. They started laughing at him. But Willy took it easy and searched for the solution. * * * * * Among all the neighbors Peter and Janet were the only ones who tried to help Willy. They were always checking his welfare and they became good friends to Willy. They were the new comers to the neighborhood. Peter had some knee operation and he used the wheel chair to move around. Willy finally found a special earflap. It helped him a lot. The thought-noise slowed down and he could get some sleep during nights. One night Willy was talking to Janet. Peter was in the other room. Janet was telling her story to Willy through sign language. Willy could understand her speech through her lip movements. While they were talking like that, Willy clearly heard the thoughts of Peter from the next room. Peter was thinking and planning to kill Janet. Willy wanted to tell her that her husband was trying to kill her. But he immediately thought that she might not believe him. Janet loved her husband and trusted him more than any thing. Willy carefully listened to Peter’s whole thought-plan. He went to his house and began to think. He wanted to forget the whole thing and sleep. But he kept on hearing Peter’s thoughts and finally decided to help Janet. He thought of a plan. Willy went to the police and explained his situation. The police chief understood that Willy was deaf. But he did not accept that Willy heard Peter’s thoughts. He made fun of him and handed over his case to a lady Detective Julie. The Detective patiently listened to Willy and went to his house and watched Peter’s behavior from distance. Peter got up at 5.00 A.M. and went into the kitchen and opened the gas pipe and went out for walking exercise. According to his plan Janet will get up at 5.30 A.M. and goes into the kitchen and she will turn the stove. Willy told every thing to Julie. They both rushed to Janet’s house as soon as Peter left the house. But it was too late. Janet got up before 5.30 and went into the kitchen and started the stove. The house blew up and Janet died. The neighbors came and nobody could save Janet. The fire department came to the scene. Willy and Julie looked for Peter. But they did not say any thing about Peter. Peter came from the gym and cried for Janet like a hell. The neighbors tried to help Peter to recover from the shock. They believed that Peter was the sweetest man. Willy and Julie did not know what to do. Julie began to believe Willy. But the police chief ignored Willy and told Julie to keep away from the case and from Willy. But Julie developed friendship with Willy. She went to Willy’s house and they both shared their past with each other in a strange way. Next day Peter had received Janet’s insurance amount. Julie and Willy unofficially continued to investigate the case. One day Willy went to the library. The serial killer also came to the library to prepare the list of his next victims. Willy began to hear all the thoughts of the readers and all the contents of the killer’s plan. But he could not identify the serial killer. He shared the news with Julie. Willy and Julie decoded the serial killer’s secret plan and saved all the victims by acting in time. The city Mayor wanted to surprise Julie by giving the ‘woman of valor prize’ to Julie at a city meet for saving many lives. The Mayor had shares in the Insurance Company. The serial killer was enraged because of the failures and turned his attention towards the Mayor and Julie. He began to prepare a plan to kill the Mayor and Julie. One day he went to the library. Willy was also in the library at that time and heard the serial killer’s plan. He carefully looked at the readers. But he could not identify the serial killer among all the readers in the library. Willy tried to remember the serial killer’s though-voice until he could recognize it among many other noises. He went to Julie and they both discussed about this matter with the police chief. The police chief and the judge were against her plan to arrest all the innocent library members on the basis of deaf man Willy’s witness. Finally Willy and Julie prepared a counter plan to catch the serial killer. * * * * * The city Mayor conducts annual meeting and honors the talented people of the city. It became a custom of the city. The Mayor invited the Arab Sheik as the chief guest. The Arab Sheik and the Mayor owned this Insurance Company. And the serial killer hated the Mayor and planned to kill him during the annual meeting. The meeting was arranged at the local mini stadium. Only the city heads were invited to that big banquet. The police chief was reluctant to allow Willy and Julie to attend the meeting. But the Mayor showed him the list of the prizewinners and asked him to appoint Julie to supervise the personal security of the Sheik. He also told that he wanted to surprise Julie about the prize. The police chief appointed Julie to supervise the security situation of the Sheik. She tried hard to convince the police chief to allow Willy to the meeting. But the police chief denied her request. Willy warned her to make sure about every invitee. Julie checked the list of the invitees and explained the whole situation to Willy and told him that every thing was under control. Willy had no chance to enter the stadium. He changed his plans and went to the Arab Sheik and explained the situation to him. The Arab Sheik tested Willy’s talent of hearing his thoughts and finally understood that Willy was telling the truth. He accepted Willy’s plan. Willy dressed himself as Sheik’s brother. The Sheik called the Mayor and told him that he had brought his brother to the meeting this year. Mayor told the police chief and gave him the list of the Arab Sheik’s followers. The special invitees came to the stadium and the meeting began. The Sheik came with his wives, brother and his wives and the other lady security personnel. The Mayor introduced Julie as the new personal security supervisor to the Sheik. The media persons were allowed with their cameras. The serial killer came into the stadium as the camera assistant to ‘The Las Vegas Tribunal’ reporter. The meeting had begun. The serial killer filmed the program for a while and inserted the special needle shooter gun into the camera along with the new tape. He began to think for the right time to shoot the needles at the Mayor, Arab Sheik and Julie. Willy clearly recognized the thought-voice of the serial killer. He shared that with the Arab Sheik’s personal guard. The Arab Sheik changed his seat and confused the serial killer for a while. The serial killer’s thought-voice became so loud and clear to Willy. The Mayor announced the best woman of valor prize to Julie and surprised her. Julie walked towards the dais. The Mayor handed over the prize to the Arab Sheik and asked him to give it to Julie. The serial killer began to approach the podium when he saw Julie, Arab Sheik and the Mayor together. Willy finally spotted the serial killer when he was approaching and aiming at Julie. Willy in disguise told the Sheik and his personal guard stopped the serial killer. The security personnel arrested him. They searched his camera and found the poisonous needles. The Sheik sang the song with over joy quoting a verse from John Keats that heard melodies were sweet but those unheard were sweeter than those. The judge tested Arab Sheik’s brother and his talent of hearing the thoughts and accepted his witness as a special case. The police chief flattered Sheik’s brother for his strange talent. Julie argued with the police chief about Willy’s talent. The police chief ignored her and hugged the Sheik’s brother and Willy took off his Arab costumes.
Copyright © 2001 Shmuel Yacobi |