The scene below is when our main character, Emory Hughes becomes aware that Jeffrey Dahmer has been arrested in July of 1991. It’s a snapshot of our main character and reveals his fear of the world and, a little, what will become a sick fascination.
Emory Hughes stared at the picture of Jeffrey Dahmer on the front page of the Chicago Tribune, the man in Milwaukee who had confessed to “drugging and strangling his victims, then dismembering them.” The picture was grainy, showing a young man who looked timid and tired. Not someone you'd expect to be a serial killer.
Emory took in the details as the L swung around a bend: lank pale hair, looking dirty and as if someone had taken a comb to it just before the photograph was snapped, heavy eyelids, the smirk, as if Dahmer had no understanding of what was happening to him, blinded suddenly by notoriety, the stubble, at least three days old, growing on his face. Emory even noticed the way a small curl topped his shirt's white collar. The L twisted, suddenly a ride from Six Flags, and Emory almost dropped the newspaper, clutching for the metal pole to keep from falling. The train's dizzying pace, taking the curves too fast, made Emory's stomach churn.
Or was it the details of the story that were making the nausea in him grow and blossom? Details like how Dahmer had boiled some of his victim's skulls to preserve them…
Milwaukee Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen said authorities had recovered five full skeletons from Dahmer's apartment and partial remains of six others. They’d discovered four severed heads in his kitchen. Emory read that the killer had also admitted to cannibalism.
“Sick, huh?” Emory jumped at a voice behind him. A pudgy man, face florid with sweat and heat, pressed close. The bulge of the man's stomach nudged against the small of Emory's back.
Emory hugged the newspaper to his chest, wishing there was somewhere else he could go. But the L at rush hour was crowded with commuters, moist from the heat, wearing identical expressions of boredom.
“Hard to believe some of the things that guy did.” The man continued, undaunted by Emory's refusal to meet his eyes. “He’s a queer. They all want to give the queers special privileges and act like there’s nothing wrong with them. And then look what happens.” The guy snorted. “Nothing wrong with them…right.”
Emory wished the man would move away. The sour odor of the man's sweat mingled with cheap cologne, something like Old Spice.
Hadn't his father worn Old Spice?
Emory gripped the pole until his knuckles whitened, staring down at the newspaper he had found abandoned on a seat at the Belmont stop. Maybe if he sees I'm reading, he'll shut up. Every time the man spoke, his accent broad and twangy, his voice nasal, Emory felt like someone was raking a metal-toothed comb across the soft pink surface of his brain.
Neighbors had complained off and on for more than a year about a putrid stench from Dahmer's apartment. He told them his refrigerator was broken and meat in it had spoiled. Others reported hearing hand and power saws buzzing in the apartment at odd hours.
“Yeah, this guy Dahmer… You hear what he did to some of these guys?”
Emory turned at last. He was trembling, and the muscles in his jaw clenched and unclenched. He knew his voice was coming out high, and that because of this, the man might think he was queer, but he had to make him stop.
“Listen, sir, I really have no use for your opinions. I ask you now, very sincerely, to let me be so that I might finish reading my newspaper.”
In The Man from Milwaukee we hear the story from more than one point of view. The Man from Milwaukee tells the story of how Emory Hughes and his sister Mary Helen’s mother is dying from Aids. Mary Helen stays home with their mother during the day while Emory works to support all three of them. Mary Helen sits on the sofa all day watching TV not once going in to check on their mother. Emory comes home after a hard day at the office to clean, feed and take care of their mother.
Emory is a man who hides who he is from the world. Emory likes men but is not ready for the world to know. Not being able to be who he truly is is very hard on Emory, Keeping everything locked up inside of himself is beginning to take its toll.
After hearing on the news about the arrest of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his horrendous crimes Emory starts to feel for Jeffrey, understanding how he may feel. Emory believes that Jeffrey probably feels the same as he dark lonely and misunderstood with no one caring about him. Emory starts to corresponds with Jeffrey in prison letting him know how he feels and that he is not alone in this world that there is someone out there who cares about him.
Emory starts to hang out with a guy from work who like Emory likes men too. Emory goes with Tyler to a gay bar. Tyler likes Emory and would like to see if they could take their relationship to a different level but Emory informs him very quickly that he is not gay.
Emory is a man who has hid his feelings from the world for many, many years. Emory just wants to be true to himself and the world but is afraid. Emory is just like everyone else who wants someone to love and someone to love him. Emory is hurting so much that he finally breaks.
Emory feels as if he is a nobody. He feels all alone with nothing inside of him like he is hollowed out inside like a canoe. Emory is a man with deep feelings. A man who feels things deeply and a man who cares deeply.
When Emory broke the person he was the person who hid who and what he was is no more, dead, that person has been killed. Now Emory must create a new person a person who has accepted who and what he is, a person who can now be honest with himself and the world. Is Emory strong enough to create himself all over again to be the person he can love and the person someone else can love? Can Emory clean out all the old remnants left inside his canoe/soul/heart and then create a new person?
The Man from Milwaukee grabbed my attention from the first page and never let up until I had read the last page. The Man from Milwaukee will stay with me long after the last page has been turned. I can understand how Emory connected with Jeffrey as I believe that many people can make the same connection on many different levels/ways.
Come join Emory on his journey to finding himself. One click your copy today!
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