Christian Longo 6: Narcissist, Murderer and Daddy Chapter 6

Chris shook his head vigorously. He had spent many a long, boring day in G Pod but he generally managed to keep his thoughts occupied. He had certainly never devoted this much time to thinking about this. Perhaps he was nervous about the upcoming verdict. He was sure he would soon be acquitted and be walking free again. He could only imagine what that would be like. But what about those nagging doubts that kept pestering him; something to do with LIFE SENTENCE!

“Brrr.” Chris gave a shiver. He surely didn’t like thinking about that. He must have really become lost in thought. Much time had passed and he was tired. It seemed as if the arduous trial was taking its toll. He went ahead and went about his nightly rituals in his little cell, crawled into his little cot, covered himself with his one blanket, rolled over and closed his eyes.

The Final Act
Do something about it you chump. “Wha…” His inner voice rousted him out of some kind of blue funk. Once he had polished off the last of the sauvignon, he had become so lost in thought, he might have zoned out a bit.

It was good that he had taken the time to think things through. That inner voice of his could be damned. He was his own man and he knew what to do. His situation was no different than what had been written long ago by Brigham Young himself, the very man who formed the Mormon religion. Chris knew a lot more about religions than anybody knew. Brigham was very decisive about things. There was no doubt about what he would do when he discovered one of his wives lying with another. And Chris well knew that, long before him, Moses was no different.

It was not like Chris had no inkling about what had gone on with Mary Jo and that guy from CNN. People thought he didn’t know things – but he knew plenty! There were things that he knew that no one else alive knew. He had special insight. He knew that Mary Jo had sinful thoughts, no matter what everyone else thought. Why should she be any different from the rest? People only see what they see, they have no idea what goes on behind closed minds.

Chris knew what he had to do to atone for himself as well as to the eyes of the Almighty. Chris was very knowledgeable in the teachings as well as the ways of the world. Mary Jo’s sassiness had certainly managed to prove what he had known all along; she needed to be chastised. He would have to get stern with her.

Chris looked out over the harbor. Just beyond that barking, clanging cacophony lie the deep blue sea and beyond that… well, perhaps time was drawing closer to find out. He took another swig from his empty wine glass, swished it around in his mouth to savor the bouquet, rose from the lounge chair and went inside.

It is time to stand up. It is time to be more than a mere man. Chris was thinking as he crept toward the bedroom and gently nudged the door open far enough to see Mary Jo and Madison sound asleep on the bed. He silently slipped the bedroom door closed behind him as he crept to the foot of the bed and looked down upon the sleeping figures. Chris was vaguely aware of his heart beating loudly. Unlike times before when he had crept around in the dark of night, this time it was loud in his ears. He put his hands to his ears and closed his eyes tight, willing the loud beating of his heart to quiet down before awakening everyone.

When he reopened his eyes he could still see his wife and child sleeping along with the figure of a human standing over them. He watched as little Madison stirred and opened her eyes. He watched as the figure placed two hands over little Madison’s face, totally covering it and the wide eyes. Two strong forearms held the little writhing body in place until the body stopped moving. Chris looked down upon this scene complacently. He made no move to alter what was transpiring for he knew that it was right.

The scene was suddenly interrupted by Mary Jo twisting around and rising up from the bed. She saw Madison and her mouth opened wide as if to scream. Chris was quick to respond, pouncing on her with the quickness of a predator. He grabbed her with one hand over her mouth, “This is not allowed. You may not speak. You must accept your punishment in silence, for you have sinned.”

Mary Jo struggled ferociously, clawing at his face forcing him to take evasive maneuvers. She pulled his hand from her face and he instinctively grabbed her throat to keep her quiet. “You must obey,” he snarled as he tightened his grip.

Mary Jo, realizing that she was fighting for her life found the agility in her petite body to hook a leg around his neck and pull him off. She jumped to her feet gasping for air and made for the door. But Chris reached out a long arm, tripping her. As she struggled to her feet, Chris was there.

Barely able to speak or breathe she gasped, “Oh Lord help you. You have killed us all.”

Chris hauled back and slugged her square in the face knocking her back against the wall with an audible thud. He wrapped both hands around her throat and squeezed. He was looking square into her wide open eyes. “Do not call upon the Lord,” he hissed, “for I am the witness to the almighty Jehovah. I am the messenger and you did this. This was your fault.” He squeezed harder while holding her body against the wall and lifting until her dainty feet had left the floor.

Her struggles soon ceased and her body went limp. What Chris could not see or could never feel was Mary Jo’s gentle soul slipping away from this earth, taking along all of her hopes and dreams for the future of her and her precious family including all she had stood for in this life. The anointed one released his grip from her throat and her, now still body, fell to the floor. “This was your quickening Mary Jo,” he whispered as he stepped over her body, “now sleep.”

Chris stepped out into the living room, quietly latching the bedroom door behind him. Zach and Sadie remained sound asleep as the cable television channel played in the background, the Lion King tape having long ago finished. Chris grabbed the remote and muted the volume. He was aware that the loud beating of his heart had quickly subsided. He felt much better, quite relieved but tired. He stood looking down at his two children wrapped up in their favorite comforter, on the sofa bed. They looked like Jehovah’s two little angels. He so liked to gaze upon their cherubic faces during those times when they were sound asleep. Sleeping little ones made his heart grow fond. Something else they did this time was to make him sleepy. He grabbed the spare blankets, moved Sadie aside, snuggled up on the sofa and dropped off into a well deserved sleep.

***

Chris could hear those bells clanging then there was a sudden scream. He awoke with a start, banging his head on the concrete wall. That deranged idiot was at it again in the cell below him, dragging his tin cup along the cell bars and hollering. The guards were quick to attend to the disturbance as usual. As the din died down Chris was vaguely cognizant of a dream or something. Had he fallen asleep? He was aware of having been deep in thought about his family. He sure did miss them. He was well aware that wakeup call would be coming soon, so he rolled over and closed his eyes. Sleep came to him quickly as always.

***

“Hey Daddy, watcha doing here?” Chris stirred awake with Zach’s face in his. He thought he had been having that dream again but couldn’t be sure, he vaguely recalled something cold and dark but hard.

“Oh, this was my time to sleep out here with you kids, Madison is in sleeping with Momma.” Chris responded. He noticed the clock said 8 AM, “Well, we better rustle up some breakfast for everyone, how about pizza?”

“Yes Daddy, that sounds real good.” Zach answered with a beaming smile.

“OK then, Chris answered, “I tell you what. You go ahead and start the bathwater so you kids can get cleaned up to start the day and I will get on that pizza.”

“OK Dad, deal,” Zach replied as he enthusiastically bounced into the bathroom.

Chris hauled himself up off the sofa and headed into the bedroom. There was Madison on the bed right where she belonged. But Mary Jo was on the floor. She had not gotten up and gone to sleep. Chris nudged her in the ribs. She didn’t move. The thought occurred to him that she wouldn’t be moving anymore. He picked her up and laid her beside Madison, where she belonged. She and Madison were always together. Madison had been an unplanned baby just as the other two had been. It had always been Mary Jo’s responsibility to handle Madison particularly. And for now, he would handle the other two.

Chris returned to the living room. Zach was busying himself with the leftover pizza while Sadie had scurried into the bathroom where the bathwater was running. She was about to get into the tub, “Is it time for my bath Daddy?”

“Jump on in Sadie,” Chris replied.

Once she had gotten in, he immediately wrapped one hand around her face and held her struggling body down with the other, pushing her hard into the bottom of the tub until the struggling stopped. He turned off the running water and once he was sure the little Sadie was no more, he pulled the body out and set it aside. He then made his way back into the kitchen where Zach had been getting things ready. He was always the little man of the house. “OK Daddy, I am getting things ready so we can eat and maybe we can all do something fun today. Can we daddy?”

“Of course we can. OK let’s get into that tub and get our day started then.”

“OK Daddy, here I come.” Zach put his fingers together in front of him and scurried into the bathroom making sounds like a motorboat. His eyes went wide as he entered the bathroom and spied his limp sister.

“Daddy what?”

Chris grabbed his son and pulled him to the tub. “Daddy what are you doing?” Zach’s voice had the shrill pitch of a child caught up in something way wrong.

“I am sending you to a better place.” Chris muscled his son into the tub. He didn’t go down easily.

“Daddy, daddy no, oh no!” His son’s wail ended in a gurgle of bubbles as his head went underwater. Chris throttled heavily on his son’s little neck. Zach fought mightily to save his life, kicking hard at his dad. It was all Chris could do to get it over with. Soon he found himself staring down into the wide open eyes of his son. His firstborn had been the last to go. What was it about those eyes? Were they Mary Jo’s eyes? There was no fear in those eyes. They were angry eyes. Chris was feeling very strange, like he was dis-embodied. It was dark all around him and he could hardly move, almost as if in a dream. He was trapped and could barely move as the angry eyes in the water bore down on him like a tsunami wave. They were coming for him!

Chris awakened with a start. It was wakeup call at the jailhouse. He had had that dream again and he was sweating. But it was way worse this time. It had never been this bad. His heart was beating all the way into his ears. He had never awakened like this before. Chris placed his sweaty hands in front of him and stared. The realization of where he was crept back into him like it did everyday he awakened in the jailhouse, when that fleeting fear would whisk through him, reminding him that it could be this way for the rest of his days. And there was something else. The realization had finally sunk in – it wasn’t all about him. There was a family once – that had depended upon him to keep them safe from the ravages of the world. The thought came into his head crystal clear. It turns out that I’m the one that my family needed protection from!

***

By the time Chris settled into the witness chair for his final day of testimony, any prior murky thoughts, dreams, fear or nervousness were far behind him. His head was as clear as a bell as he continued to recount the story of his life and his small family’s long journey into the abyss. He recounted in great detail how Mary Jo had picked him up from work on that fateful night and he had discovered, to his horror that two children were missing and that diminutive Mary Jo had indeed murdered them and dumped their weighted bodies into the Waldport Slough down south and that little Madison’s body lay in their bedroom near death.

He explained how he tried to make sense of what had happened and how he tried to soothe the hysterical Mary Jo and make her aware of what she was putting him through. He described a battle royale including screaming and “…yelling as loud as I’d ever yelled before,” ultimately resulting in the end of her life but strangely not arousing the suspicion of anyone else in the condo. He apologized to her extended family for sullying Mary Jo’s name by implicating her in this heinous murder but explained how he had to make things right in the eyes of Jehovah and the rest of the world.

Indeed that was the crucial turning point. It was Chris's testimony that convinced the jury of Chris's reality - one far different from most of ours. The jury came back with seven counts of murder in the first degree. Then, Chris played his final card. The jailhouse shrink had laid a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder on him. He would use his NPD as a mitigating factor to prevent him from receiving a death sentence. It was a valiant effort but it didn't fly with Judge Huckleberry.

Christopher Michael Fargo, a.k.a.: Michael Fargo, a.k.a.: Michael Finkelstein, renowned writer now resides on death row at Oregon State Penitentiary. He is known as #14509855.

It looks like Christopher's wild hell-ride has come to an end.
But then again…you never know.
-30-
Chuck Fasst