Here's an excerpt:
Malcolm entered the bathroom and noticed: “MALCOLM MUST DIE” was scrawled in lipstick on the medicine cabinet mirror. He didn’t react, since he couldn’t read it. He opened the cabinet door and proceeded to fill a bag with toiletries as Edmond entered.
Malcolm said, “I’ll take all these medicines...”
Edmond replied, “Some of those are Mom’s...just take the aspirin, eye drops, and vitamins...”
Malcolm emptied the cabinet, “I’ll take it all...just in case.”
Malcolm closed the cabinet door and Edmond saw the message: “MALCOLM MUST DIE.” He stared at it, at the medicines, and then at Malcolm. He quickly formulated a chilling concept as he said, slowly, “You...can’t read...”
He stared at Malcolm, “Is that true?”
Malcolm looked at the mirror where a message read: “@x&ef%l ~@#f *&|” And then looked at Edmond with an expression of extreme vulnerability. He replied, quietly, “No — ‘can’t read.”
“Do you know what this says?”
“No.”
Edmond said coldly, “This says: ‘MALCOLM MUST DIE.’”
Malcolm was taken aback by the revelation but tried in vain to hide his expression.
Edmond pursued his theory, “What could that mean...Robert?” He stared, “Or is it Malcolm?” Edmond reached in his pocket for the pistol which he slowly took out and held at his side. “I only know of one person by the name of Malcolm who can’t read...”
He stared at Malcolm, “God in heaven, help me...if that person could be you.” He pointed the pistol at Malcolm’s temple, cocking the hammer, “Are you the Malcolm that was sent from hell to kill my father and now my mother?”
Malcolm replied, quietly, “I never meant...to hurt nobody...I tried to save your father.”
“If the road to hell is paved with good intentions...you must be in the fucking asphalt business!”
He pressed the barrel to Malcolm’s temple, "Give me one good reason not to pull this fuckin’ trigger.”
Malcolm offered no resistance, “‘Can’t give you no reason...y’better pull the trigger.”
“I never killed anybody before but I never had a reason before. I hate you for ruining my life!”
Malcolm looked down, “I thought...”
Edmond interrupted, “I don’t care what you thought or what you think. You killed my mother and father! That’s what I think you did!”
His hand began to shake, “I’ve got nothing to lose by killing you...I’m a blind man who’s waiting to die.”
Malcolm replied quietly, “I don’t want to live either...please pull the trigger...every time I try to help somebody...they get hurt. I’m tired of livin’...livin’ is too damn hard and it’s too damn lonely...please pull the trigger...”
He stared into Edmond’s eyes, “‘cause I don’t got the guts to do it myself.”
Edmond reset the hammer and let the gun hang to his side, “I can’t kill you...I don’t have the guts either.”
After studying 20 Tyler Perry DVDs in great detail, I’ve come to the conclusion that Brutal Lonely would be the perfect vehicle for his studio to produce an Academy Award level story.
Are you ready for some light-hearted fun? You’ll have to look elsewhere. Brutal Lonely has a bunch of characters loaded with problems to make you feel pretty darn good about your own life. Sort of a Les Miserables with guns, criminals and folks with terrible luck.
The main character is a large black man who can’t read, and then we've got a guy who’s in the process of going blind who has come to the conclusion that the black guy had inadvertently killed his parents as a result of his illiteracy. There’s another character who is a former police detective who has a devastating facial deformity that makes the Phantom of the Opera look like a male model. On the lighter side there are a bunch of gang members who enjoy Pulp Fiction-style banter before they all end up dead.
An unwed black girl who has her baby taken away from her and forced into prostitution is the comic relief. All of the events start on Friday, December 13th, 2019 after a terrorist attack in Chicago that resulted in the perpetrator getting away with $5 million in Guatemalan bearer bonds. Then we roll into Christmas where the only present the characters receive is lump of coal in their throats. You can’t beat the ending where the good guys make out like bandits and the bandits get their asses handed to them on a platter. (Not for pre-schoolers.) The final scene is not a tear-jerker. It will rip salty fluid out of your eyes. In a theater there will be uncontrolable sobbing. Well worth the price of admission.
Here's the Amazon Kindle link: Brutal Lonely