Pop music can inspire us in a lot of ways. I'm a
musician and have written quite a few stories that derive from songs I liked or
songs that intrigue me. Early on, when I was very much in the horror mode, I
came up with a story based on the song "Handy Man," written in 1959
by singer Jimmy Jones and songwriter Otis Blackwell. It was a hit—not just once, but three times, first the
Jones cut and then later in versions by Del Shannon and James Taylor. It always
struck me as a little odd. The narrator claims to be a handy man that fixes
broken hearts and says he's "busy twenty-four hours a day" with his
task. He invites all the girls with broken hearts to run to him and then gives
a sort of call-out (made especially famous by Del Shannon's falsetto voicing of
it): "Come-a Come-a Come-a Come-a
Come Come-a Come-a—Yeh Yeh Yeh Yeh Yeh." It's been popular for some fifty
years.
A couple of things got me thinking about it. For one,
James Taylor's version of it is different because it sounds a little dark and
sad. The other versions are exuberant, but Taylor's carries a gloomy undertone
and ends abruptly and on a minor note. This intrigued me. Why did he choose to
make the song sound a bit creepy? And songs can inspire the mentally unstable
to do horrific deeds. The most egregious of these was the Charles Manson
murders in 1969. Manson testified that he was convinced to kill actress Sharon
Tate and six others by songs from the Beatles' White Album, "Helter
Skelter" and "Revolution #9" among them. This got the
imaginative wheels turning. What might a person with a psychopathic mind do
with the odd and (in Taylor's version) dark lyrics of "Handy Man"?
"Handy Man" is the story of a guy inspired by the song
and convinced he can fix broken hearts. The way he goes about doing this is
destructive. It's a short story, about 1500 words (the closest I ever come to
flash fiction). The unnamed narrator talks about being inspired by the song and
relates two incidents in which he has fixed a broken heart.
The first one involves a girl who works at McDonald's and is being bullied
by a classmate in high school. The narrator notices how this has broken the
girl's heart, goes after the guy with a shotgun, and murders him during a
rainstorm. He does not know the bullied girl at all but rejoices to see how her
life changes for the better with the removal of her tormentor. He is careful to
cover the crime and leaves town several months later.
In his next place of residence, he moves in with a
girl name Luann and gets to know Tiffany, who goes by the nickname "Tiff."
She is heartbroken after being dumped by a boyfriend. He thinks to murder the
boyfriend, but decides that would only cause her more heartbreak. The solution:
kill Tiff so her heartbreak will end. He is able to do this and successfully
cover his crime. Soon he will go on to another town and look for another
opportunity to fix a broken heart. The story ends on this dark note:
Luann and I eventually
split. I moved on, this time to Oregon. I’ve found a job. There is a girl who
seemed forlorn. I’m getting to know her and she is beginning to confide to me.
I fix broken
hearts. I know I really can.
Someone has noted that one of the main features of
horror is when everyday things become sinister and threatening. A toy doll called
TalkyTina and that is programmed to say, "My name is Talky Tina, and I
love you," utters the chilling line, "My name is Talky Tina—and I'm
going to kill you" in an old Twilight
Zone episode; a heart-shaped box
unleashes a murderous ghost in Joe Hill's novel Heart-Shaped Box. In my story, a song loved by millions of people
is taken as justification for murder.
"Handy Man" can be read on line in the
archives of Read Short Fiction.
A new novella about coffee to die for, Le Cafe de la Mort,is now available in Kindle from Amazon.
For more titles, checks out my Writer's Page.
I would love to hear your comments.
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