The Invention Of Detroit

“Choo, Choo!” The train hissed as it approached. I sat my book down and watched as the crowd gathered by the tracks to greet their loved ones who would be exiting the train. There was no reason for me to rush forward, the business associate I was meeting would find me when she was able to fight her way through the crowd.

Moving even further away from the crowds, I turned my attention to the view of Detroit from the station. With the tracks slightly raised from the ground, the view was breathtaking. In the distance the new power plant caught my eye. It was two circular buildings with a walkway connecting them. Somewhere in that building was my husband, a man who I had grown to loathe the last few months. Before the dark thoughts could cloud my mind, a soft voice whispered, “Alice? Alice Smith?”

“It’s Alex Johnson,” I snapped testily at the blond haired woman. My own hair was brown and mousy, even when it was cut short it looked to be a mess. However there was no time to worry about my appearance, there were more important matters to discuss. “My husband works in that building. They are trying to create electricity by using steam! Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous?”

“It is 1898, technology is changing.” The woman answered, I hated her immensely. Change was something that I understood all too well, it was something that I craved but what they were attempting seemed to be straight out of a science fiction novel. She must have realized her faux paus because she continued, “You didn’t bring me here to talk about the amazing strides that we are making in the electricity industry. You want me to get rid of your husband right? Just a divorce?”

“That’s all I can afford. Make sure that he doesn’t know that I paid you to seduce him. The last thing I need is for some nosy Judge to know that I want to be rid of this man,” My eyes looked at the people around us, none of them were paying us any mind. Yet something felt wrong to me, almost as if the ludicrousness of steam producing electricity had been magnified. “Do you have a plan? Will you be accidentally running into him at the pub?”

“Hold it right there,” A portly cop walked up to us with a smug look on his face. My breath got caught in my chest. Everything was about to blow up in my face, so I did the only thing that made sense to me in that moment. I grabbed his gun, and pointed it at him.

“Ali-er Alex, please think about what you’re doing.” The woman said but her words were lost on me. After all of the time I had craved change, no one was going to stop me from achieving it. The trigger was easy to pull back, and once the bullet exploded out of it, the gun fell out of my hand. The crowd gathered around the fallen officer, some tried to grab onto me as I made my way out of the train station.

In only a matter of hours, I would be on the front page of every paper in Detroit. The woman would certainly tell them everything that she knew about me in order to save her own hide. My eyes shifted right, then to the left. An ambulance siren could be heard in the distance, it was getting closer. There was nothing left for me to do but go back to my house.

Since I didn’t want to be caught, I pulled the hat over my head down and pulled the collar of my coat up. After a while the noise from the ambulance went silent, and my thoughts wandered to what life would be like for me. Rumor had it that a motored vehicle was about to be introduced to the public, something that I would never be able to see. Ambulances and Police Cars were the first on the market. It made the jobs for those public servants much easier.

Too easy. It meant that by the time I reached my house, they would be there waiting for me. Yes I had wanted a change for my life but nothing like this, I thought maybe I could divorce my husband and get a cute new haircut.

As I approached my neighborhood, I was dismayed to find that the electricity was out again. The brilliant idea to get all of our power from the plant was my husband’s. He had insisted that because he worked there, we should support it and be trend setters. Sometimes I wondered if Lizzie Borden hadn’t had the right idea by chopping up her family. What did I have to lose now?

“I’ve been expecting you,” My husband stood with his arms crossed at the door. His brown eyes were amused, a smile brightened his face. “Hiring a prostitute to seduce me and then shooting a policeman. I had no idea you had this much fire in you.”
“Can’t my last few minutes of freedom be spent in peace? I’ll be out of your hair soon enough and you can play the victim for all eternity. Right now I just want to wallow in defeat.”

“Why? Your plan was brilliant and if I had known that you were so smart, I would have proposed that we run the racket here before now.” My husband moved towards me, bringing me into his arms and kissing me. “Alice baby, one day everyone will know the names of Wilbur and Alice Smith. We can rob banks and make enough money to live the good life. Change is good.”

Who knew that hiring a prostitute for my husband would save my marriage?