Sunshine by Rob Garbin

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SUMMARY: This is for the July flash fiction contest "Deception"

Three weeks ago Henry Stanton was an upstanding leader of the business community in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Today he was a ragged beggar in the strip district. He smelled of urine, sour wine, and cigarettes. His unwashed brown hair hung down below the nape of his neck and his face was grimy and unshaven, but what people noticed first was his tinfoil hat. Henry had fashioned a triangular hat out of tinfoil to protect his brain from the alien menace, a menace that tormented him. The voices stopped as soon as he had put the foil fedora on but, before he slipped into madness, he had had enough sense left to verify his suspicions. When he had taken the hat off, the voices again told him of impending doom.
The sun shown down mercilessly on the shoppers along the marketplace as Henry, rocking back and forth, sat huddled in the corner of a building. He mumbled while he constantly checked his expensive watch. Some teens had tried rolling him for the watch a couple of evenings ago but soon found out just how crazy he was. No one bothered him after that. The cardboard sign beside Henry stated that the world would end at two thirty five on Thursday July 11th 2008. It was now two thirty two of that very day. Henry continued to rock back and forth checking his watch until a shadow fell across his face causing him to squeal as he jumped up. He found himself facing a clean cut businessman that irritated his memory.
"Henry, is that you?" the new arrival exclaimed!
John Hoffman was a salesman who had recently sold a computer system to Henry's business. They were old college buddies and maintained the relationship through the years that followed. John had been out of town when he received a frantic call from Henry's wife who told him Henry had gone missing after scaring her with some crazy alien plot to destroy the world. John knew that Henry had been under a lot of stress lately from the recession affecting the country but was stunned by this turn of events. He cut his trip short and flew home.
"Get out of my way" growled Henry.
John took a step back as Henry rechecked his watch and looked up at the sun, which was high in the sky. With a start Henry turned back to the man who had upset him.
"John? Could it be?"
"Yes Henry it's me. Jill and I have been combing the city looking for you. What is going on?"
Henry looked at his friend a little sheepishly.
"You are going to think I'm crazy just like Jill did. The aliens said nobody would believe me. They said I was totally powerless to stop their plan. For days I couldn't even keep them from tormenting me with the plan until I learned how to shield my mind." Henry reached up to his head and patted the tinfoil hat with his grimy hand. The action inadvertently brought Henry's watch into sight. In an instant Henry lunged for John and grabbed him by his lapels screaming into his face with fetid breath.
"For God's sake John, in less than a minute they are going to set off a device in our sun that will snuff it out like a candle.