Jeffrey Snedecker: A Short Story

Charity wasn 't very attentive to what other people were thinking. Usually people just thought about their lives, and it wasn’t interesting. Today the street was lined with snow, pushed aside in white piles against the brownish road, like other people’s thoughts, which she skirted around in much the same way. She was walking to the coffee shop where she liked to relax when she heard someone seriously contemplating murder. Often she would hear people angrily thinking they wanted someone else dead, but she could tell from their emotions that they didn’t mean it. This person was serious.

For Charity, reading minds wasn’t just a matter of spying on people without them knowing: it was something she’d lived with for most of her life. It wasn’t like …show more content…
She could focus on a particular person, much as if she were having a conversation in a busy room. She stopped walking to place all her attention on that person’s thoughts. The person – a man, she now realized – was contemplating poison or gun? Be close for either. Poison I could get close early. Not get caught. Chemistry. Suspect me if poisoned. Nobody uses it. Funny. Nobody thinks cleaning supplies as poison. Back to Snedecker. Get caught if gun. Jeffrey Snedecker sued; releasing toxic chemicals. Never did that. Snedecker won. Stupid. Jury not see him lying? They see told truth? Of course Snedecker sued more I afford. Of course more I have as chemist. Poison or gun?

His plans were clear once she deciphered his disjointed thoughts. Thoughts were often disconnected, especially if the person thinking was emotional. Luckily, she had gotten good at piecing everything together over the years. Essentially, someone named Jeffery Snedecker had sued him for releasing toxic chemicals, even though he was innocent. Regardless, Snedecker had won the case. Now he wanted revenge, and he was contemplating whether it would be better to use poison or a gun. She had to convince him not to kill