The Hero Without A Cool Name Read online

  Roy Tabby

  The Hero Without A Cool Name

  Stan Hendriks

  Roy Tabby Series Book One

  Author Stan Hendriks

  Cover design created by Buzz Erlinger-Ford

  Copyright © 2019 by Stan Hendriks. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Table Of Contents

  Chapter One It’s Your Own Fault

  Chapter Two Don’t Be A Fool

  Chapter Three He Has Arrived

  Chapter Four The Time Has Come

  Chapter Five An Unexpected Package

  Chapter Six It May Already Be Over

  Chapter Seven This Is Not What A Hero Does

  Chapter Eight A True Maniac

  Chapter Nine It’s Over

  Chapter Ten Are You Ready?

  Chapter One It’s Your Own Fault

  Detroit, Michigan. August 2018.

  A man named Roy Tabby, who is twenty-nine years old, has blond medium-long hair, blue eyes, and a beard, is seated on his old and ripped up couch in his apartment that only has a fridge, a bed, a small television, and a dirty mirror in it. There are also a lot of empty pizza boxes everywhere and a lot of empty whiskey bottles laying all over the place. As Roy is watching an American football game on the television, he takes a big sip from a half-full whiskey bottle with a somewhat sad and disappointed expression on his face. “Come on, you idiot! How can you drop the ball like that! They should put glue on your hands!” Roy shouts, as he shakes his head. But right at that moment, someone knocks on the door and with a deep sigh, Roy walks over to the door and opens it. His sister, Nathalie Tabby, who is thirty-six years old, and is wearing a well-fitted suit, looks at him with an angry expression on her face as she lets herself in. “Sure, come in,” Roy says, as he then closes the door.

  Nathalie looks around and as she crosses her arms, she replies, “I gave you the opportunity of a lifetime but no, you prefer to drink yourself to sleep and watch the television all day.”

  “Oh, come on, I overslept, that’s all.”

  “Really, Roy?! All you had to do was be at the company at two! At two for God sake!”

  “I know, I know, I’m sorry, okay?”

  “Sorry?! Why are you even apologizing to me?! You’re ruining your own life here not mine! What is wrong with you?! Ever since you got fired from that stupid bar you have been drinking non-stop and… look at you! Look at this place! Everything is a mess! When are you finally going to get yourself together?!”

  “Did you come here to just shout at me or?”

  “Roy, I… I care about you; can’t you see that?”

  “I can but you telling me what I already know isn’t really helping, alright?! I know I’m a mess and that I’m throwing my life away, but I couldn’t care less at this moment nor do I care about that stupid job in your company. And speaking of your company, shouldn’t you be bossing people around right now?”

  “Unbelievable,” Nathalie replies, as she shakes her head. “You’ve just given up, haven’t you?”

  “Listen, I don’t have time for this.”

  “Oh really? Because it looks like you have all the time in the world!”

  “Let me rephrase that, I don’t want to talk about this so could you just leave?”

  “Roy, do you really want to end up like dad? Is that what you want? You are so intelligent and such a hard worker and it’s a Goddamn shame that you’re throwing that away like this!”

  “You just don’t get it, do you?”

  “No, you’re right! I don’t get it, at all!”

  “Listen, I’m not like you or mom, okay?! Is that so hard to understand?! I wasn’t made for the successful business life nor was I made for any success! I’m a failure without a purpose and that’s just the way it is.”

  “You know that’s not the case.”

  “It is, I accepted that long ago and maybe you should too. Look, I appreciate that you’re trying to help me but I’m fine, okay? I just need to be left alone, that’s all.”

  As a tear comes rolling down Nathalie’s cheek, she shakes her head and replies, “Fine.” Then she storms out of Roy’s apartment and slams the door shut!

  With a deep sigh, Roy bows his head down and takes another big sip of his whiskey. After that, he throws the bottle against the wall and with tears in his eyes, he sits back down on the couch and smashes his fist down on the cushion that is laying on the couch!

  Later that evening, Roy is walking through the rain with his head held down and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He goes into a phone booth and searches through his pockets to pay for a call. After a while, he finally found enough coins and as he puts them into the machine, he dials a number and with a somewhat nervous expression on his face, he waits. “Hello?” Nathalie answers.

  “Hey, it’s… it’s me, Roy.”

  “Oh, hey, why are you calling?”

  “I… I want to apologize. I’ve should have been on time but I… I messed up. I’m sorry.”

  Then there is a brief moment of silence. “I… I don’t know what to say. Listen, Roy, I’m not mad at the fact that you didn’t show up, I’m more mad about you throwing your life away. You have so much potential and you’re just wasting it. And next to that, you’re my brother and I don’t want to see you go down the same road as dad.”

  “I know, but it’s… it’s just hard. I just had such a clear vision that I was going to become a musician you know. I could already see the people asking me for a picture and my autograph, me performing all over the world with hundreds of fans shouting my name, and it’s just hard you know. I really thought that, that was my purpose but when I found out that it wasn’t meant for me, you know, that life, I… I don’t know. It was a tough pill to swallow, I guess. I felt lost but when I finally picked myself back up again and started working at the bar, I started to feel like myself again and everything seemed to be going great, until I got fired and now… now I don’t have a clue where to go next. I feel like I have nothing, just absolutely nothing.”

  “You have me, and you will always have me, just know that. But, why have you never talked to me about this? Why always act like everything is fine when it isn’t?”

  “I just didn’t want to bother you with my problems, I mean, you have a company to run and you’re always so busy that I just didn’t want to distract you. You know, I’m so happy for you but at the same time, I’m jealous of you as well. I mean, everything is going so great for you and you make it all look so easy while I’m drinking myself to sleep every single night.”

  “It hasn’t always been easy for me and you know that, but listen, Roy, I don’t mean this to put you down even further, but I feel like you never really took life seriously. From an early age you were always joking around and expecting that everything was going to come onto your path without having to put the work in and surprisingly, for years it was like that, but now you see that if you want something in life that you have to work hard for it. You can’t expect everything to just fall into your lap.”

  “I know that, I really do, trust me. I messed up a lot of things and I’m aware of that.”
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br />   “That is good because trust me, you have such a beautiful singing voice and if you had worked harder then there is no doubt in my mind that you would have become an immensely popular artist. And to be honest, I still think that you can accomplish that, but you can’t be afraid to ask for help and to be willing to work your ass off.”

  “True, but I’m not so sure yet if I still want to try that. The reason I called you is not only to apologize but also to ask for another chance. Now, I know that I really don’t deserve it but just know that if you are willing to give me another chance that I won’t screw it up this time, I promise.”

  “I… I don’t know, Roy.”

  “Please, I need this, I really do. I promise that I will show up and that I will do my absolute best, okay?”

  “Fine,” Nathalie sighs. “But this will be your last chance, just be aware of that. If you screw up again then that’s it.”

  Roy takes a deep relieving breath and says, “Thank you, sis, thank you so much.”

  “Just be sure to show up, okay? Don’t let me down again.”

  “Just tell me when and I will be there.”

  “Tomorrow at two, can you do that?”

  “Of course, thank you, Nat, I really appreciate it.”

  “It’s fine, just know that if you ever need someone to talk to that I’m here, okay? This was actually really nice to finally have a real conversation with you, so, thank you for that.”

  “It was, and I promise that next time I will call you if there’s something on my mind.”

  “Good, well, have a nice evening still and don’t drink any more whiskey, okay?”

  “I won’t, don’t worry. Alright, see you tomorrow. Love you.”

  “Love you too, always. Bye, Roy.”

  With a smile on his face, Roy hangs up the phone and gets out of the phone booth. But then he realizes that he still has a bottle of whiskey in his hand and after staring at it for a while, he puts it down on the ground and walks back to his apartment complex. But right before he gets there, he notices that someone is walking closely behind him and that, that person is following him!

  “Hold up, Roy Tabby here. Yeah, I know my last name sucks, by the way, it’s actually embarrassing. I guess you can blame my grand grandmother and father or whoever is responsible for that. To this day I still don’t know how someone thought that Tabby would be a good last name. Anyway, you’re probably confused as to why I so rudely interrupt the story here, but what is about to happen completely changed my life, but before we continue, I feel like I need to do some more explaining about who I am, or was. You see, I wasn’t always such a mess and drinking wasn’t always a bad habit of mine at all, well, I did drink a lot over the years, but that’s just part of life, isn’t it? You know, parties, having fun. Anyway, before I get all off track, as I said, I wasn’t always such a mess. In fact, just like my sister said, my life was pretty relaxed, I guess. Everything always fell into my lap and I didn’t have to work for anything really. And that was a good thing since I always preferred to be lazy than tired anyway from an early age already. I never cared much about anything nor was I ever serious about something. I didn’t care about school, I didn’t care about my health, and I didn’t care at all about my career. Well, actually I did care, but I always thought, since everything always fell into my lap, that everything would… well, fall into my lap. You know, I always wanted to be a famous artist who would have two beautiful models around each arm, who would get swarmed by crazy fans, who would perform around the entire world, and who would have so much money that he could swim in it. And well, since I had a very good singing voice, at least, that’s what everyone around me said, I thought it wasn’t going to be a problem and that since it was my destiny, I was going to accomplish it anyway, whether I worked hard or not. So, I made a video of me singing, uploaded it on the internet, and it got a lot of views. So, I thought, now I just have to wait until a popular record label contacts me and gives me an amazing offer. So, I put my feet up on the desk and waited, and waited some more, until I realized that, that offer was never going to come. At least, it wasn’t going to come that easy and at that moment, reality hit me right in the face. But instead of getting myself back together and give it another shot, or another million shots, I immediately gave up. I know, stupid, right? But anyway, it brought me down to my knees, to say the least. I felt like my whole life was a lie and all of a sudden, other things didn’t come as easy anymore as well. I went from living the relaxing life to… the real life? I guess you could call it that. But it was hard, it really was, mainly because I wasn’t used to it at all. Never in my life did I have to work for anything and… I already said that, didn’t I? My God, I guess all that whiskey did actually cause some brain damage. But okay, moving on. I was down and I didn’t want to do anything anymore. If I wasn’t going to be a popular artist than I was going to be nothing at all, that’s how I thought. Until I met a girl named Jessica. She worked at a bar and not only was she beautiful, she was just… perfect. I can’t find any other word to describe the angel she was. Hah, who am I kidding, she later on cheated on me with multiple other men but hey, at least I got her job at the bar, don’t know if that’s a good thing, but it’s the only positive thing I got out of that relationship. Anyway, to my surprise, I actually really liked working at that bar. I made some new friends, whom I later lost, and everything went great until my boss fired me. Such an asshole, right? Well, it was actually my own fault. As you may have already expected. Like I always did in my life, I didn’t take my job seriously and I drank every single night, without paying for it. So, yeah… I messed up once again. But after that, I became a mess. Just like my father, who is an alcoholic, I started drinking even more and decided not to care about anything anymore. Well, I did care about one thing, and that one thing was being jealous of my sister who build a company from the ground up and who now is a multi-millionaire. And yeah, she tried to help me countless of times, she even offered me a job at her company, a very well-paid job, but as you already know by now, I messed that up by not showing up. But hey, she did give me a second chance, although something else came up. And speaking of that something else, you’re probably tired and annoyed of me already so now that you have a little bit more information on who I am slash was as a person, let’s get back to the story, shall we? Yeah, I think that’s the best thing to do.”

  Roy carefully looks over his shoulder and tries not to show that he notices the man that is walking behind him. The man has a hood on and has his head held down with one hand in his pocket and the other behind his back. Roy feels his heart pounding in his throat and as he starts to breathe heavier, he looks around to see if there are more people around, but there are none. Only a couple of cars that occasionally pass by. Roy then picks up his pace a little bit and as he looks over his shoulder, he notices that the man behind him picks up the pace as well! “Oh God, why does this have to happen to me,” Roy says while taking a shaky breath. But then, Roy stops and for a moment he closes his eyes, inhales deeply through his nose, and turns around! “What do you want?! I have nothing,” Roy says.

  The man comes walking up to Roy and as he grabs his gun from behind his back, he looks around and aims it at Roy’s chest! “I need money, now!”

  As Roy raises his hands, he says, “I… I don’t have anything. Please, don’t kill me, I beg you.”

  “Stop lying to me or I’ll put a bullet through your chest, man!”

  “I swear I don’t have anything, please!” Roy says, as he goes down on his knees.

  “What the fuck are you doing?!” the man replies, as he anxiously looks around. “Get back up!”

  “Please, don’t kill me, I beg you!”

  “Stop screaming!”

  Roy then notices that the man pulls the trigger a little bit back with his shaking finger and with tears in his eyes, he says, “Please! Somebody help me!”

  Right at that moment, the man is about to pull the trigger, but then Roy’s eyes all of a sudden shi
ne bright blue! With a confused expression, the man takes a step back but then he sees that his gun starts to shine bright blue as well and within seconds, the gun turns into a potato! The man immediately drops the potato and as Roy’s eyes stop shining, the man says, “What the fuck are you, man?! What is this?!”

  “I… I—”

  But before Roy can finish his sentence, the man runs away as fast as he can, leaving Roy behind very confused! Roy then stares at the potato for a while with wide open eyes and carefully picks it up without saying a word. “Uhm, sir? Are you alright?”

  Roy looks over his shoulder and sees a woman with her dog standing behind him. He then gets up and with the potato in his hands, he replies, “It’s… it’s a potato.” The woman doesn’t hesitate for a second and quickly walks past him with her dog and with a confused and somewhat frightened expression on her face. “No, wait, you don’t understand!” Roy continues. “I… it… never mind.” He then takes another good look at the potato and says, “Okay, what the hell just happened?”

  About thirty minutes later, Roy is walking back and forth in his apartment while the potato is laying on a little red blanket on the floor. “It… it was a gun but then poof! How? How did it turn into a potato? Did I do that? What the hell happened? And why did my eyes feel like they were burning? My God, I’m losing it. There is no other explanation for this. Either that or this must be a dream because this can’t be real.” But then Roy stops walking and with a serious expression on his face, he looks at the potato and continues, “Or is it real?” He then picks the potato up and holds it in front of him. “If I was the one that turned the gun into this potato in the first place, then surely I should be able to turn it back into a gun. Alright, concentrate, Roy, you can do this!” He then stares at the potato with a profoundly serious stare and does this for a good five minutes, but nothing happens. With a deep and disappointed breath, he throws the potato on the couch next to the remote control of the television. “Stupid potato. I knew this wasn’t real.” But then he looks at the remote control and as he picks it up, he continues, “Or maybe it is. Let’s try this one more time. Let’s see if I can turn this remote control into a gun.” Roy looks at the remote control with a serious stare and right at that moment, his eyes start to shine bright blue again and so does the remote control! The remote control then turns into a gun and then Roy’s eyes stop glowing. “Holy shit!” Roy says, as he throws the gun down on the couch! “My God, I did it! This… no way! What… what am I?! What is happening?!” He then looks around and as the television catches his eye, a bright but at the same time naughty smile appears on his face. His eyes start to shine bright blue again and so does the television, which then turns into a huge flat screen television! “Oh my God, I am God! Why do I keep saying God so much? Anyway, this is amazing! Holy shit!” Roy then goes ahead to turn his couch into a big and expensive leather couch, he makes his bathroom and kitchen very luxurious and modern, he transforms his bed into a king-sized one, and he changes the lamp on his ceiling into a beautiful chandelier! After that, he drops down on the couch and with his feet up on the coffee table and with a bright smile on his face, he takes a deep breath while wiping away the sweat on his forehead. “This… this is amazing! But why am I so tired right now?” And right after he says that, his eyes close and he falls asleep.