Charlie: A Short Story

Right from the start of when Charlie became smarter, I never knew why or how it could have happened. It was like he increased his IQ overnight. When Charlie was not smart and didn’t understand most things, Frank Reilly and I thought it was fun teasing him. The way Charlie looked clueless always made me laugh. He didn’t look offended so I didn’t feel an ounce of regret! Soon, all the guys at the factory made up the saying, “Don’t pull a Charlie Gordon!” This was our way of making fun of Charlie whenever someone did something that only Charlie would do. I still remember when we made him show off his skills as a janitor and he thought it was a good thing! I couldn’t stop laughing that night, but every since Charlie started to understand everything, everyone felt weird around him.
Like I said, it was like he grew brains overnight!
He understood what everyone at the factory was saying and was able to figure out a new way to line up the machines in the factory. Donnegan was overjoyed because Charlie just saved him thousands of dollars and gave Charlie a bonus. All the guys at the factory and I felt weird and maybe a little afraid of Charlie. We had a bad feeling about Charlie because there is no way that someone like him could all of a sudden be this smart. Even though he seemed smarter, he still saw us as his friends and invited us out to lunch in celebration. Frank and I declined the invitation by giving really bad excuses, but he shrugged it off. After that, we stopped making fun of Charlie because how is it fun when he knows exactly what we are saying. All of the changes Charlie is going through concerned everyone at the factory, so we started a petition to get Charlie fired. Everyone and I mean everyone at the factory signed the petition except Fanny Girden. She has always been the odd one and even after many threats and persuasions, she still didn’t sign the petition. I still didn’t feel any guilt because Charlie’s changes is very strange. How is it even
possible?
Soon after Charlie left the factory, I guess I started to feel bad. Maybe I didn’t know what has been happening to Charlie, but he never lost his personality. He still was caring and friendly to all. Once I heard that he came back to the factory to ask for his job, Frank and I knew that we wanted to keep him around. Once I saw the new guy make fun of Charlie, I jumped at the chance to stand up for him. I remember saying “Leave him alone or I’ll break your neck.” Charlie looked surprised when I did that, but soon smiled. When this newspaper company wanted to dedicate a whole paper to the Algernon-Gordon Effect and asked me to write about what I thought about Charlie, I accepted it. I felt this as a way to correct myself for all the wrongdoings I did to Charlie. I know for sure that Charlie Gordon is a nice man, maybe not very bright, but he sure has guts.