Charlie's Big Idea

Charlie came to me
With this idea

He was about thirty
At the time
And I was working bottom rung
Lower sub-division
Of marketing
At M.C.G.

That's a software company
In New York

I was basically a glorified intern
Opening mail
And proof-reading instruction manuals

Charlie walks in
And wants to talk to my boss
About this video game he's designed
And my boss kind of passes him off to me
Like, 'Hey, pretend to listen to this guy
And then show him out'

So I take Charlie into this conference room
Where we usually fire people
And I listen to his idea

And believe it or not
It's actually a pretty good idea

I mean, it's one of those ideas
That when you first hear it
It hits you, you know?

Like you hear it and go--

Wow, I actually...hadn't thought of that before

So we were talking
I was asking questions
And all his answers were, like
Getting me more excited
Which was strange
Because the whole point was to just
Toss him back out onto the street
But at this point
I was actually getting really invested

By the time he was done
I was sold on the idea
I mean, I was sold
But, I had no authority
To like, clear the idea

I mean, I guess I could have
Brought Charlie to my boss
So that he could pitch it to him
But that wasn't what I was told to do and--

Uh...

I shook his hand
I told him thanks but no thanks
And I wished him well

Gave him five bucks
And told him to go buy himself a drink

Then when he left
I went to lunch
And my boss was there
And he came up
And asked to sit with me
And I said 'Sure'
And we were talking
And I said--

'Hey, I have this idea...'

And I told myself
I was just pitching it
To see what he would have said

You know, if I had brought Charlie to him

Except I wasn't saying anything about Charlie
But I wasn't saying anything about me either...at first

But then my boss got so excited
And he started talking about calling upstairs
To the eighth floor and I--

You have to understand
I was a nobody
I was a nothing
I was two months behind on my rent
Licking stamps
So that maybe one day
I could lick the stamps of someone
Slightly more important than me

And I just--

I sold the idea

My boss loved it
His boss loved it
And pretty soon I had a lawyer
And we were doing a deal
Within the company
And the deal included a raise
And a promotion
And control
Lots and lots of control
And I...

The product was huge

Broke records that year

Charlie's idea broke records
And I...

I got the credit

I don't know if he--

I mean, he must have known
He must have seen ads or even played the game
And figured out what happened

Or maybe he didn't

Maybe he thought it was just a coincidence

Maybe...

I made a lot of money
I bought a few nice cars
Two nice houses
And I was on the cover
Of a few magazines

At one point, I considered finding Charlie
So I could give him some of the money
And I'd love to say that's because I thought he deserved it
But, if that was the case
I would have given him all the money

Instead, I just wanted to alleviate some of my guilt
Because I couldn't get Charlie out of my head
All those years, and he stayed in there
Day after day

It was like the Tell Tale Heart

He just kept beating and beating

And finally...

They said I was drunk driving
And I was, I mean...

I was drunk
But...

I can handle my liquor pretty well
And I was only about a mile from home

Plus, and I'm sure somebody
Some crime scene guy or whatever
Might have suspected this, but--

The car hit the tree a little too cleanly

I mean, it was...

There was no swerving or...

I aimed for it
For the tree

You might think it's sad that I took my own life, but...

I took another man's life
Years before I took my own

Maybe Charlie needed that money
Maybe he was homeless
Maybe he wound up a drug addict or a drunk
Out on the sidewalk
Because of what I did

I gave him five bucks
You know?

Five lousy bucks

And I took his whole life from him

So don't cry for me, all right?

Don't be all sad for me

I had a good life
Right up until that car went into the tree

I had a life Charlie never had

I can pretty much guarantee that