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One day feeling sad and bored he turned on the TV. There was an old World War II movie on. As he watched the movie Eric started to reflect on the Holocaust and why it happened; it boggled his mind. He couldn't understand how human beings could be so cold and vicious. Eric's anger quickly turned to rage. Eric started having violent thoughts.

(Flashback to Eric's childhood)

Most of Eric's childhood was actually quite nice. In fact, just before turning on the TV to watch the movie Eric had been reflecting on how good his early life had actually been. The trajedy was that these thoughts vanished forever and Eric would remember the happier times no longer. He was too filled with rage, despair, and sadness to realize that there was still some hope for a better day.

Before turning on the television Eric thought about all the good times with his family. For seven years his mother had always been there for him. Although he was only seven when his mother died, Eric had a lot of fond memories of his mother... of how she was there when he hurt himself playing softball with his brothers. Of the delicious meals that she used to prepare for him. He cried when he thought of the fairy tales that she used to read to him. Such warmth and love eminated from her as she read him the stories in her soft voice. Suddenly, one day she was no more. She had been killed in a terrible car accident. He would see her no more; nor would he see the car which she used to take him places . When his father told him about what had happened, Eric felt as if someone had kicked him in the stomach. He felt as if a knife went through his heart. Fortunely one person could see the pain Eric was in. His sister tried to comfort Eric, but it took years before she could reach him. After that the two became quite close. Eric helped his sister get through her own grief, also.

When Eric was in High School he decided not to date any girls. Neither Eric nor anyone else understood his indifference to finding a girlfriend. He also had no close friends who were male. After he graduated he did become friends with someone named 'Tom'. Tom always seem to understand how Eric was feeling and always knew the right thing to say. Both Tom and Eric's sister told Eric that his reluctance to date was because of his terror of being abandoned by them the way he was abandonded by his mother. It didn't register in Eric's mind however. The wounds from his mother's death were too deep. They would never heal.

As a young adult Eric was always lonely, bored, sad, or angry.

(flashback to the present).

The trajedy of Eric's situation was that although he tried to explain to a number of people about his feelings nobody whom he had chosen to speak to his problems about took him seriously; besides they were all way too busy to concern themselves with Eric's trivial petty problems. The sad thing is that there were a number of people Eric could have turned to.... if only he had had faith in them. He spoke to his father and brothers but not his sister. Eric's sister loved him; if only he had gone to her when he first started having violent thoughts. He also had a very good friend living in a different part of the country; if only he had called Tom.

Eric had planned to borrow a gun from a neighbor. Thoughts of killing a lot of people entered his mind. He would be in the news. Someone would finally notice that he existed. Something, Eric didn't know what, stopped him. Eric could no longer control himself. He had to stop himself from hurting anyone. There was only one thing to do. Eric had to take his own life.

There was only one way of killing himself that Eric could think of. As he climbed out on the ledge of a tall building Eric had one last wish. He knew that nothing and nobody would stop him from jumping, but he wished he could understand why. Why had his mother left him so early in his life? Why was he where he was in life? As he wondered about why his life had become so awful he started hearing voices from below. 'Jump' 'Jump' the voices said. So he did.

So ends the story of a lonely man named Eric. He was one of millions of lonely people. Nobody would ever understand why Eric jumped off that building. Do you?