I Landed My Dream Job, Then I Killed Myself

Fresh out of college, I landed a job that paid five hundred grand a year.

My mother was so happy she threw a celebration dinner, laughing as she nudged me to go around and toast everyone.

At the party, relatives praised how far I'd come.

My high school teacher said I had a limitless future.

The couple from next door even pressed a thick red envelope into my hand.

I finished my drink, my heart pounding fast, my face flushing redder and redder.

"Keep drinking, everyone. I'll go buy another bottle of whiskey."

My mother stood up.

The chair scraped against the floor with a harsh screech.

My whole body seized up.

By the time I came back to myself, the fruit knife from the table was already in my hand.

The next second, beyond my control, I drove the knife into my own neck.

……

Warm blood splashed across my mother's face.

Still gripping the fruit knife, I crumpled at her feet.

The relatives reacted first, shrieking as they scrambled back.

The auntie from next door was the first to lunge over, pressing her coat down hard against my neck.

She shouted at my mother,

"Ina Dickerson, what are you standing there for?!"

"Call the police, call an ambulance!"

By the time the patrol car and the ambulance arrived, I had stopped breathing.

The police tape went up fast, the celebration spread still steaming on the table.

Bill Chavez, captain of the City Major Crimes Unit, crouched down to examine the wound on my neck.

Beside him, intern Martha Lambert was giving her report.

"The victim, Elaine Fox, twenty-two, a finance graduate from Ashford University."

"Tonight's dinner was to celebrate Elaine getting hired at the Sterling Group. Halfway through the meal, she suddenly stabbed herself in the neck with a knife."

"We checked the knife. It's just an ordinary fruit knife, the kind you can buy anywhere."

Bill frowned.

"Ashford University, the best school in the city."

"The Sterling Group, the best company around, paying five figures a month."

"She had everything going for her. Why would she kill herself?"

"Before she did it, did anyone do anything?"

Martha hesitated.

"Yes. The victim's mother said she was going to keep drinking and go buy another bottle of whiskey."

Seeing Bill's frown deepen, Martha quickly pulled out her phone.

"This is the security footage from the victim's home."

On the screen, I was smiling the whole time.

Toasting my elders, chatting with my teacher, even topping off the neighbors' glasses without being asked.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Until my mother stood up.

She said with a smile, "Keep drinking, everyone. I'll go buy another bottle of whiskey."

On the screen, I suddenly froze, the smile draining slowly from my face.

The next second, I picked up the fruit knife from the table and drove it into my own neck.

Martha couldn't bear to watch and shut her eyes.

The video ended.

"Captain, was she drunk?"

"Drunk people don't act like that."

Bill lifted his eyes from the phone screen.

He walked over to my mother.

"Ms. Dickerson, besides that sentence, what else did you say?"

My mother stood in the doorway, blood still not wiped clean from her hair.

At the question, she answered a little sluggishly,

"Nothing. I really only said I was going down to buy another bottle of whiskey."

"But there were already two bottles of whiskey in the house. Why would you go buy another?"

My mother raised her eyes, the rims of them red, her voice turning sharp.

"I was just worried it wouldn't be enough. Ellie landing a good job is a big happy occasion. If the drinks ran out, the guests would think we were being rude."

"Officer, are you saying I'm the one who killed my daughter?"

"Are you saying my daughter would choose to take her own life over one sentence like that?"

It didn't add up.

Bill turned back to the footage, replayed that one sentence three times over, and it was still just the most ordinary sentence.