The Seven Deadly Sinners

Forty years old, and here I am, still looking at this same picture. It was so long ago, but I can remember everything like it was yesterday. It was the summer of 2005, and my friends and I had all just graduated from high school. The picture I speak of was of my girlfriend standing next to a BMW I received as a graduation present. It was only loaned to me for the duration of the summer. My girlfriend and I absolutely adored it. At that point, my girlfriend and I had only been dating about two years. We were absolutely in love. Life was great. We were all about to embark on the greatest summer of our lives, or so we thought.
         The summer started off like any other. Basically a drag, but always a good time. There were tons of parties, tons of girls, and tons of fun. Lots of lazying around the house, sleeping until noon, barbecuing hamburgers all day. That kind of stuff. Everyone loves it, unless your crazy or something. I don't know, I've always loved the summer. Personally, I think it's the best time of the year. Anyways, not to get off topic, but what happened that summer I'll never forget, and I mean never. I still remember the night it all began.
         There were seven of us. Paulie, Domenico, Mario, Fosta, Louie, Nicky and I. We had all been up partying throughout the night, and had settled in for a late-night discussion of the good things to come that summer. Many things came to the table. The big one that night was money. We needed money. After all, besides Dominico and Nicky, we had all quit our jobs for the summer. I guess you could say we were lazy guys. We had just graduated, what did you want from us? We were kids. It was our last few months before college, and we wanted nothing to do but have good, quality fun; so, we discussed money.
         It started out innocent enough. Paulie mentioned the mall. He said it'd be a great place to rob. Fosta took the idea seriously, and started thinking of real ways to rob it without getting caught. Nicky mentioned his job, and his made-up mastering of the loading docks there, and claimed we could easily get away with robbing the tractor trailers that pull in there. “After all,” he said, “those guys will easily take a hand-out any day of the week. They don't care.” I sat around and listened. I knew my friends were smart guys, they were wise guys. They'd figure it out. We each put in our own five cents, and a few hours later had a solid plan. We started to get ready. Over the weeks, everything slowly came together. This was a serious crime, and we couldn't wait to commit it. No one ever forgot that night, or the idea. Mario practiced his karate intensely in case anything went wrong and violence needed to take place. I studied the laws in case we were caught. Domenico worked his job wondering why he had become involved. Louie had a lot of street connections, and made the weapon purchases. Nicky continued to study the loading docks. My girlfriend was constantly worried. Life was good. I think we were all having a great time.
         Finally the day came for the crime to take place. We all agreed to meet in seperate cars a mile away from the mall, park our cars, and walk together. Out of seven, four of us were armed with small pistols. We walked the mile to the mall, and waited outside. The trailer was going to be coming any minute. We smoked a few cigarettes while we waited, and finally saw the headlights in the distance. “This is it” Mario said as it was approaching. We split up and hid in different spots around the area where the truck would park.
         We planned on having Fosta politely ask the man to take a hand-out if we could rob his truck at first. If that failed, Mario would knock him out. If that failed as well, shoot him in the leg. The truck pulled up, and two guys hopped out. This was the first problem. We had only expected one man. Fosta calmly poked out of the surrounding brush, and walked towards the man. They saw him coming and went into a fighting stance. As he was about to ask, the man punched him in the jaw. Fosta wasn't a big guy, and hit the ground immediately. That was Mario's cue. He ran out of the bushes and did a spin-kick directly to the guys temple. That guy was down, but now another had jumped on Mario. I was still watching, too afraid to help. I didn't know what to do, I felt like a coward. I saw Domenico directly across from me looking pretty much helpless too. That's also when I saw Nicky pull out his gun. He cocked it, and as I was about to scream something, I heard five shots ring out. The truck driver was dead, and the other one was slowly regaining consciousness. I don't think anyone realized that though.
         No one noticed the other guy getting up but me. I'm sure Domenico might have, but I'm not entirely sure because I was never able to ask him. The man grabbed Mario by the legs, and pulled him down. Mario slipped and bashed his head on the pavement. He wasn't moving. Only later did I find out he had died. Nicky started moving now, and I saw him go for the guy, but the guy already had a surprise of his own. He pulled a knife out, and slashed Nicky across the face. Nicky, apparently not being able to withstand pain, dropped the gun. The trucker grabbed it, and shot him a few times. Nicky was dead. At this point, I saw Fosta get up and start moving. He was unconscious for what seemed like an eternity, but it must have only been about five or six minutes. He went to make a move, but the trucker shot him in the leg. Fosta was down again.
         Louie jumped up, and darted deeper into the brush. He disappeared. He was gone. Domenico was still there, sitting in shock. So was I. I thought back to the weapons. I had known four of us had guns, but seemed to forget who now. Obviously, Nicky had one, but he was the only one who was making it obvious. I knew Fosta hadn't had one, and if he had, he wasn't showing it. Mario may have had one, but he was intent on using his karate anyways. I didn't decide to take one. I knew Lwouie had one, but he was gone. Domenico clearly was scared, and so he probably decided not to take one either. Paulie was no where to be found. I looked at Fosta lying on the ground, and saw him give me a wink, and a hand expression as if to say “Leave!”. I left. I ran as fast as I could. As I was running, I heard more shots. I heard the cop sirens. What was going to happen? What had we done?
         I didn't sleep at all that night. My girlfriend was with me the whole night screaming and yelling about how stupid the idea was. We didn't know what to think. Early in the morning, I picked up the newspaper. I figured it would have been able to make it in todays paper. Sure enough, it had. It was the front page. It showed six pictures. They didn't realize there was a seventh person. The police report said the cops had arrested one man, which was Fosta. Fosta ratted out Louie and Paulie, probably because they ran. He took pity on me and kept my name out of it. As for Louie and Paulie, they weren't the rat type anyways, so I knew I would be safe. Domenico had made an attempt to run once the cops arrived, and they killed him immediately. Mario and Nicky were dead, but you already knew that.
         Fosta ended up only getting five years in a maximum security penitentiary. Louie and Paulie were serving fifty year sentences without parole, believed to have murdered the one trucker together. Mario, Nicky, and Domenico were gone. As for me, I made it out alive, and free. I never committed another crime after that, and I never talked to any of them again. My life changed immensely that summer, and I'll never forget it. I'll always remember the seven of us, and how innocent we all were. “How naïve,” I think “how naïve.”