BOOK: The Good Guy – Strange Behavior
by Randall Allen Dunn
Eventually, this guy would realize his mistake, whereupon Tim would pretend that he, too had been confused. Meanwhile, there was a little fun to be had.
Sliding the manila envelope across the bar, the guy said, “Half of it’s there. Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.”
As he finished speaking, the stranger turned on his stool, got to his feet, and headed toward the door.
As Tim was about to call the man back, the terrible meaning of those eleven words clarified for him: Half of it’s there. Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.
In the Dean Koontz thriller, The Good Guy, simple barroom banter leads an innocent man, Tim Carrier, to accidentally accept a bizarre assignment: to kill a woman he has never met. After mistaking Tim for his private appointment, a nervous man slides him a photo of a woman and an envelope full of cash, with instructions to get rid of her.
Tim had only been playing a joke by pretending to be the man’s contact. He never expected this kind of trouble. And once the stranger disappears, Tim is at a loss for what to do next.
Most of us would know what to do. We could simply pocket the pile of bills and escape, ten thousand dollars richer. Many of us wouldn’t even harbor a guilty conscience over the woman who was scheduled to be murdered.
So Tim makes a simple choice: find the woman and warn her.
Strange behavior.
He’s no danger junkie or thrill-seeker. He doesn’t seek the glory of a hero. He just feels it’s right to warn the woman, to give her a chance to escape.
It proves more complicated than that, when he discovers that Linda Paquette, the woman he’s trying to save, is a bit eccentric. Meeting Tim at her door, she invites him in, having almost no qualms about bringing a total stranger into her home. A home which houses a 1939 Ford coupe in the kitchen, because she likes to look at it while she eats. She soon invites him to take a “virtual ride” by sitting in the car with her.
Beyond the windshield lay the kitchen. Surreal.
The keys were in the ignition, but Linda didn’t switch on the engine for this virtual ride. Maybe when her mug was empty, she would fire up the Ford and drive over to the coffee brewer near the oven.
She smiled at him. “Isn’t this nice?”
“It’s like being at a drive-in theater, watching a movie about a kitchen.”
She’s not overly concerned when he warns her about the threat against her life. Though she eventually agrees to vacate her home. After which, Tim and Linda find themselves on the run from the real contract killer, Krait. But after several of his attempts to kill Linda are thwarted by Tim, Krait steps up his game.
By threatening Tim’s mother, Mary.
At which point, Krait (using a false name of Kessler) discovers something surprising about his adversary.
“So when we call Tim, I’ll tell him I’ve spirited you away. And I’ll have instructions for him. You’ll play that game. You’re long gone, and you want to come home, and please will he do what the bad Mr. Kessler tells him to do.”
Earlier her cheeks had flushed with anger and humiliation. At last she had paled.
“I can’t do it,” she said.
“Of course you can, dear.”
“I can’t put him in that position.”
“What position?”
“Choosing who’s going to die.”
“Are you serious?”
“What a horrible thing for him.”
“You’re serious.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Mary, she’s a skank he met just yesterday.”
“Just yesterday. You’re his mother. It’s an easy decision for the boy.”
“But he’ll have to live with it. why should he have to live with a decision like that?”
“What the hell? Are you afraid he’ll choose the skank over you?” Krait asked, and warned himself against the anger that he heard in his voice.
“I know Tim. I know he’ll do what he thinks is right and best. But there’s no right here that doesn’t have a wrong attached to it.
Krait took a deep breath. He took another. Calm. He needed to remain calm. He stood up. He stretched. He smiled down at Mary.
“And if he chooses me,” she said, “I’ll have to live with that girl on my conscience, won’t I?”
Strange behavior. Especially to those who are used to looking out for themselves and no one else. Why would a man worry about the life of a woman he’s never met, when he could easily walk away and be rich for it? Why would a mother, facing death, worry about the conscience of her son, or her own conscience?
Krait can’t figure it out. In fact, he considers the behavior of Tim and his mother, Mary, an unsolvable puzzle.
Conscience and compassion are absolute mysteries to those who have none. So when you have a decision to make about whether to help someone else, expecting nothing in return, don’t worry about whether other people support you, or even understand you.
They don’t have to live with the choices you make. You do.
Find more reviews of The Good Guy at amazon.com!
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Some of us run to the clubs, the drugs, and the unhealthy behavior to make us feel better about life, instead of trying to actually improve our life and enjoy it. There’s a lot more to life than just living for a weekend high, only to be brought down on Monday morning.
Sadly, she had gotten herself grounded last week for some severe misbehavior, and got grounded from watching any TV for the day. That morning, she asked if she could watch TV, and I reminded her why she couldn’t. She followed me into the kitchen and stood quietly, thinking. “Are you gonna watch some of your shows?” she asked. She knows that we sometimes watch TV ourselves when she’s grounded, but only the shows that we want to watch.
So I tried not to worry about the bad timing of the recital and focus on preparing for the conference. It wouldn’t be the first time I would have to miss something with my daughter because of business, and we needed to get used to it.
Then I learned that the recital would be held in the evening. I had assumed the preschoolers would have an afternoon recital, around the time that they normally held their class.
It really only took me a second to decide. I didn’t want to miss any of the conference, let alone my favorite parts, but I wanted to be there for Abby. She probably wouldn’t remember or care about it in the years ahead, but I would. Although I knew I would have to miss some events in her life, I wanted to make every effort to be there when I could.
He promises to attend Jack’s baseball game, but he gets caught up with overtime work at the office. When he finally arrives at the ballfield, wearing his baseball cap and ready to root for Jack’s team, the stands are completely empty. The other families have already gone home, together. Peter doesn’t even realize what he’s missed. His son made the hit that won the game for his team. But when Jack looked through the stands, his father wasn’t among the cheering crowd.
Imagine Peter’s surprise when Moira’s grandmother, Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith), reveals that he is really Peter Pan, the elfish flying hero who refused to ever grow up. Until he chose to abandon that life and become a human.
When Pan’s old nemesis, the pirate Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), kidnaps Jack and Maggie, Peter must remember how to become a child again. Until he can do so, he can never regain his long-dormant powers of flight. 
we don’t ultimately value those things more we value our loved ones. At the end of their lives, people want to see their family and friends one final time, not their stock market reports. When a person’s house is burning down, they want to retrieve family pictures, not sports trophies.
Not that I don’t like you, I’m just at a party.
Case in point: Lady Gaga’s song, “Telephone”, about an obnoxious friend who won’t stop calling throughout the night. Some guy didn’t take the time to call earlier and make plans, but then expects a girl to be available to talk to him when she’s already out for the night. So to get her attention, he calls her. When she doesn’t call him back, he calls again. And again. And again.
Sometimes when we have plenty of time on our hands, because we’re currently without a job or a family or a consuming project, we act as if our friends have the same amount of free time. But they usually don’t. Jobs, families, household chores and community projects can quickly eat up our friends’ time. They might want to make time for us, but be forced to limit it so that they can balance out the time they spend on all of their other activities.
