THE FIRST WRIST (#fridayflash)

It was on a Saturday. He didn't think of the man he killed when he went into the joint. Come to think of it, he didn't even think much of him during his stint. He'd used a hammer and, at the time, claimed it was self-defense. No one really knew.

But time passed and lawyers did what lawyers do. And he was released with time served.
More than half a million people in the country are released from prison every year. And they all need work.

Monkey wrench number two? He couldn't snag a job that required any kind of licensing. So that pretty much left out working as an accountant, ambulance driver, attorney, barber, nurse, physician, pharmacist, real estate agent or teacher. The world could breathe easier.

Eventually, he stumbled across an ad for a day laborer position at a profitable restoration company that specialized in religious statues and sculptures. The biggest outfit in the country. He appeared strong to the owner and was more than willing to work -- that's all that mattered and
he was hired on the spot.

They say the man upstairs works in weird ways. He started that job on a Saturday. His sole responsibility? To use a hammer and drive wooden spikes into the limbs of Jesus Christ on the hundreds of statues that needed repair.

He may not have thought about the man he killed before this job, but as he slammed that hammer into the first wrist, he knew that he would.

And every day thereafter.