A Space time Hunter

When my wife was about to give birth to our baby, I was running a DUI check. Margaret, my wife's mother, called me, so I hurried back.

I was actually a little late when I got there, but my wife didn't mind. I was so nervous after she got into my police car. She kept comforting me and asked me with a big smile if she would still be my only baby after our baby was born.

I was really nervous. It was a terrible thing to say, but I wasn't worried about the baby. I peeked at my wife every now and then, because I was so afraid that something would happen to her during the delivery and that I would never have her in my life.

I thought about a lot of bad things that could happen. I tried really hard to dispel my worries.

When we arrived at the hospital, we saw no parking space there. Lucky for us, there was a parking space across the street from the hospital. I pulled over so my wife could get out of the car first.

That was the last time I saw her.

She wasn't crossing the street when she had a crash. She got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, reaching out for a hug, and a car rushed over.

I watched her get swept under the car. Her expression didn't even have time to change to one of pain. She looked frightened.

I went straight crazy!

I was screaming in the street, on my knees trying to drag my wife out. She was spitting blood in a pool of blood.

The driver got out of the car drunk and threw up straight on the road. I didn't have time for him. My mind was blank.

I screamed like a mindless puppet, not knowing what I was saying. I took my wife to the hospital and called for a doctor, but I couldn't even speak properly.

It wasn't until the nurses put my wife on a stretcher and took her away that I started to think. I became more and more afraid, crouching in a corner of the hospital, shaking all over, and I couldn't stop crying.

There was no way I could calm down. I started sobbing and ended up crying out loud. I couldn't keep my cries down.

I cried when I called my wife's relatives to come over. All I could think about was my wife. I was so scared. I kept wondering if something bad would happen to her.

Then Margaret, her younger daughter Ava, and Ava's boyfriend all came. Ava's boyfriend was a police officer, too. When he got there, he went straight to the driver.

The perpetrator sat in a chair and threw up. My colleagues joined Ava's boyfriend later. They asked the man why he was on that road because he was going the wrong way. If he hadn't made a U-turn and kept going forward, one of our colleagues would have caught him for drunk driving.

He said he saw a tweet about a DUI check, so he changed direction. But he saw a police car on his way. He was so scared that he wanted to run away. He was driving the wrong way and there were cars on either side of him, so he had no way to escape. He was so anxious that he hit the sidewalk.

My captain blew a fuse. He said every time we ran a DUI check, we would run into such an idiot. He then asked the driver to name the person who sent the tweet, and he would punish them all.

When we knew who the person was, we were devastated.

It was Margaret!

When she called me, she knew I was running a DUI check. To show off my job as a traffic cop, she told her friends to stay off the main roads.

The culprit read her tweet and chose to change to another road!

I was furious, but I had no mind for them. I just wanted my wife to be safe.

But after a while, the doctor came out and told us that he was sorry.

Margaret howled in the hospital. I couldn't suppress my hatred for her when I saw her. She killed my wife!

I punched her right in the mouth and broke her teeth. She fell to the ground with a thud, and I lifted my foot and kicked her in the head.

I kicked her and cried, yelling that it was her fault!

My colleagues hurriedly separated us. I heard the culprit on the phone, telling his family that he had been unlucky enough to kill someone and that they should get the money ready.

I walked straight up to him angrily. He was nervous and told me not to be reckless and that he was protected by law!

I put his head in a trash can!

I knew I was a cop, but I was dying to kill that bastard!

I held him down in his vomit, and he was struggling, a trash can over his head. My colleagues came to pull me away. I kept kicking him in the head. My captain grabbed me hard and told me to calm down.

I said I couldn't fucking calm down and that I quit!

The perpetrator was pulled out of the trash can, so scared that he cried and shouted to the police to protect him!

I punched him in the temple and knocked him to the floor, convulsing and vomiting.

My colleagues were afraid that I might hurt him, so they quickly pinned me down. They took Margaret and the perpetrator away before they let me go.

I cried when I went to see my wife's body. She died with her eyes open!

I lost my wife and baby.

I had lived a happy life, and then I lost it all overnight because of a man's drunk driving! My wife was standing on the sidewalk. What the hell did she do wrong?

I spent the night in the hospital crying, holding my wife's body, hoping she would wake up.

The next morning my colleagues came to visit me. While they were comforting me, our leader called to say that I might be punished for hitting the culprit. My captain talked back, saying if the leader tried to punish me, he'd take all his men and smash up his office. Then he hung up.

My colleagues were nice to me and my wife, but I still quit.

I couldn't work as a cop anymore.

I felt responsible for my wife's death because Margaret learned the DUI check from me.

I couldn't do that job no matter what.

After I quit my job, I stayed home and spent the whole day looking at pictures of my wife, listening to her voice messages, and crying over her clothes.

The next day, the perpetrator's family contacted me.

It was the man's wife who came to visit me. Ironically, she was also pregnant. She apologized as soon as she arrived and said she wished to compensate me and settle the matter in private.

As she spoke, she even cried. She said that life as a pregnant woman was not easy and that if her husband went to prison, she and her baby would have nothing to fall back on.

She also said that if her husband went to jail, she didn't know what would happen to her child or how could the child keep his head up when everyone knew his dad had been in prison.

I told her that at least all of them were alive.

Her husband was alive, she was alive, and she was going to have a baby. What was wrong with being a criminal's child? Weren't them three alive and well?

...

But what about my baby?

She was about to be born, and she couldn't wait to come out into this world and be my little princess, but she didn't get the chance.

And what about my wife?

She was the love of my life, the one I wanted to protect all my life, but I didn't have her anymore.

I told the perpetrator's wife to go. She was upset and displeased when I refused to settle the matter privately. She questioned what more I wanted since they had apologized to me and that they were willing to compensate me for my wife's death.

I would have punched her in the face if she hadn't been pregnant!

The pregnant woman was so desperate that her attitude changed completely. She said I wanted her husband to go to jail because I wanted to kill her and her baby. She asked me to put myself in her shoes. She said I should have understood the importance of family since I lost my wife and baby, but she didn't expect me to be so heartless.

She also said it was okay if I didn't sign the letter of understanding as she had ways to get her husband out.

I didn't want to listen to her anymore, because I knew I was going to hit her if she stayed any longer.

So I drove her out. She told me to wait and see.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.

The husband was an asshole, and so was his wife.

But even disgusting people like them had had the letter of understanding signed.

Margaret signed it.

When I learned the news, I flew into a rage!

I banged on Margaret's door and demanded an explanation.

I had beaten her before, so she was afraid to talk to me. Nathaniel White, my wife's father, came out and asked me to do him a favor. He said peace mattered the most.

I said no way and demanded that Margaret come out because I was gonna kill her today!

I was so angry that I said a lot of nasty things.

Margaret was afraid I would go in and hit her, so she called Ava's boyfriend over.

I'd had a good relationship with that man. We went to the same police academy. Later, I became a traffic cop and he became a criminal cop.

My wife and her sister Ava got to know and fell in love with us because they admired the police when they were young and used to hang around our academy.

When Ava's boyfriend got there, he kept pulling me, telling me to calm down.

I asked him if I beat the old woman to death, would he shoot me? I said that was acceptable as I couldn't wait to join my wife in heaven!

He pressed me against the door and told me in earnest that my wife did not want me to join her.

Margaret couldn't help but shout upstairs that the man who killed my wife while drunk driving didn't run away and would only be sentenced to less than three years.

She didn't think three years meant anything. The killer was rich and was willing to pay 120,000 dollars. She said the killer would not be severely punished anyway, so why didn't we take the money?

She cried as she spoke. She said it was not easy for her to raise her daughters, and now that her older daughter was gone, she just wanted to take the money to support her younger daughter. She added that if her older daughter was still alive, she could watch her husband beat her mother.

I thought of my wife and felt sad again.

Ava came too. She and my wife were twins. They looked exactly the same.

She grabbed my arm and told me not to be impulsive. What she said really upset me. She said her sister had gone, but she was up there watching over us, and she wouldn't have wanted me to be like this.

Looking at her face reminded me of my wife.

I used to be good at fighting when I was at the academy. At that time, I was too naive and liked to brag to my wife about my skills.

Back then, my wife told me seriously that a man's fists were used to protect the country, his family, and those who needed to be protected. She added that if a man did not fight to protect someone or something, he was a loser.

And now I tried to hit her mother to give vent to my anger. She'd think I was a failure if she found out!

When I thought of her, I softened and went home as I was told.

Ava and her boyfriend took time off work and stayed with me all day so I wouldn't feel too bad.

Then the jury reached a verdict.

With the understanding of the victim's family, the perpetrator was given a suspended sentence and released.

Damn it!

I used to be a traffic cop, but I hated the traffic law for the first time!

Ava and her boyfriend told me to get over it, but I didn't listen.

I tried to find out everything I could about the perpetrator. When he was released from prison, I went straight to him without my family's knowledge.

He was dining in a restaurant. When I entered the restaurant, I saw him celebrating his release with a bunch of friends.

What I saw made me feel terrible. My wife was dead, but he was there celebrating that he didn't need to serve time, that he was not going to pay the price, and that he killed someone for nothing!

He was visibly stunned to see me.

I called him out and asked him if he was Jacob Smith.

He said yes.

"I found out everything about you. Your family is rich, and you don't mind having a criminal record. You didn't finish middle school. You didn't go to work after you got married. Instead, you spent all your time drinking and womanizing. You never do anything serious because your family is rich. You live off your parents.

"But what about my wife?

"She loved to bring food to my colleagues, donate her old clothes to needy children, and visit lonely elderly people every winter. She signed up for organ donation so she could help those who were desperate for life even after her death.

"You're such a fucking scumbag. Compared to my wife, you really have nothing to live for," I said.

He kept his head down, afraid to speak, probably because he still remembered how I had beaten him.

I couldn't help crying. I wiped away my tears and said, "What's the point of you living? The death of someone as good as my wife ended up giving you a reprieve. If you had lived a life of any significance, I wouldn't feel this bad."

He kept apologizing to me, saying that he really knew he was wrong and that he would never do it again, asking me to forgive him.

I didn't want to talk too much to him. I told him that my wife had given her life for him to start all over and that he had to mend his ways because he owed his life to her.

Then I went back to my car across from the restaurant and cried, listening to my wife's voice messages over and over again. I wanted to drive away, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't breathe. My grief was overwhelming. I couldn't stop throwing up in the car. I felt like I couldn't breathe until I did that. I couldn't drive at all.

I reclined my seat, tired from crying. When I sat up, I saw Jacob come out drunk. And most importantly, he got into the driver's seat!

I was devastated!

He was drunk driving again!

He was just like a dog returning to its vomit!

I watched him start the car and drive away. He was still on probation, and if he got caught again, he was gonna get an even heavier sentence!

But I didn't want to report him to the police!

He was a fucking beast. It was no use sending him to jail!

Unable to suppress my anger, I started my car and ran after him. He was driving really fast, but I was driving even faster, and I tried to hit the front of his car!

I didn't hit his car, but I managed to stop him. When he got out of the car, he walked angrily towards me, swearing.

But when he came to my window and saw me, he said he was wrong and asked me not to call the police. He knew I was no longer a traffic cop, and he offered me money.

I got out of the car and gave him a hard push. I asked him what he had promised me in the restaurant.

He tried to gloss it over. He said he only drove to a hotel not far away because he was too drunk and wanted to get a room to sleep.

How could I believe that?

The more I looked at his face, the more I hated him, and the more I missed my wife. I grabbed his head and smashed it against the window!

I hit his head so hard against the window that it broke. I didn't care about the consequences. All I could think about was making the bastard pay!

He kept yelling for help, but it was late, and the streets were empty.

He begged for mercy, saying he really knew he was wrong. I gritted my teeth to calm myself and let go of him for the time being.

I gasped, trying to suppress the anger inside me. And then he pulled an extendable baton out of the window and attacked me!

He was teaching his grandmother how to suck eggs!

I leaned forward and put my shoulders against his wrist. He made a conscious effort to pull his hand back, but I grabbed his arm.

I could have taken him in one move, but I ground his face against the broken glass!

I didn't want to overpower him. I wanted to beat him to death!

He yelled that one more hit would kill him, but I grabbed him by the ear and tore it down!

I wished I could rip his ear off. Anyway, he couldn't hear the verdict or my advice!

The pain was killing him. He pushed me away and ran away drunk.

In a panic, he jumped off the bridge.

The bridge was more than 30 feet high, and the water below was shallow!

I sobered up and saw it was dark under the bridge. I ran under the bridge and saw him lying in the water, his body covered in blood.

I turned him over and checked his breath with my hand.

He was not breathing.

He was dead!

I didn't know why, but I wasn't afraid at all. Instead, I was thinking that I had finally avenged my wife's death.

I sat next to his body and couldn't help smiling.

I was not afraid. The worst-case scenario would be for me to turn myself in and say I killed him. I wished I could be shot so I could join my wife in heaven.

But after a while, I didn't think it was worth it.

He was a worthless piece of shit. Why would I get both me and my wife killed for him?

As a former traffic cop, I knew the cameras nearby weren't up and running yet, so I carried his body up the bridge and stuffed it in the trunk of his car.

I parked my car and then drove his down the river because I knew there were no cameras in the neighborhood.

I had a map of the city in my head, and I was able to avoid everything that would make me a criminal.

I drove all the way to the riverside. It was dark and there was no one around.

I got out of the car and examined his body closely. After making sure that nothing was wrong, I released the handbrake and pushed the car into the river.

I didn't regret it. I just felt happy!

He deserved it!

I watched his car sink to the bottom of the river with increasing relief. Just as I was about to leave, my phone rang.

I took out my phone and found it was a strange number. I thought it was a phone fraud, but on second thought, I didn't think anyone would do something like that this late.

So I picked up the phone and asked who it was.

After a moment's silence, a woman said, "You killed Jacob Smith, didn't you?"

I was dumbfounded! I trembled as if I had got an electric shock!

"What nonsense are you talking about?" I snapped.

"Are there four trees next to where you dumped the body?" the woman asked again.

There were indeed four trees next to me.