“If I Was Still Alive”–flash fiction, Difficult People

If I Was Still Alive
 
 
          Don’t even think about life much anymore. But if I was still alive, I’d have a damned fine day despite the rain, despite the depression, think of something you like doing and do it! Oh yes, you think you should sit around and mope, huh? No. Look, don’t wait for [...]

“See Through Ways”–flash fiction, Difficult People

See Through Ways
 
 
          I fell for her watching big league baseball on TV. She was the waitress for the exclusive corporate box seats just behind home plate. She looked Italian, Greek, Spanish, whatever…definitely Mediterranean in extraction. There was her petite hourglass figure, the little white blouse with her nameplate, a silver rectangle over her left [...]

“World Travelers”–flash fiction from Difficult People

World Travelers
 
 
          Mired in lovemaking, Don couldn’t see straight. His personal affairs were in disarray as he barely had time between job and seductions. Certainly he was sure that Kelly was the one…after that wedding night free-for-all party of their mutual friends Janice and Howard. What happened was more than a little boozy enthusiasm.
          Fact [...]

“Sammy’s Question”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Sammy’s Question
 
 
          “Don’t know, Sister Sarah, but I got a tremblin’ in my guts.”
          “Is it a tremblin’ pain, Sammy, or is it just a kind tremblin’ nervous like?
          “Nervous like.”
          “You been drinkin a lot at night late?”
          “Uh, yeah, a little.”
          “Cut back, Sammy, alcohol’s eating at your colon. Got your first stage [...]

“Jacob Blackmur”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Jacob Blackmur
 
 
          In the mirror Jacob Blackmur saw an aging gray visage, slightly stooped in the shoulders, the long white hands on the railing. He saw the man pat his pockets in search of a cigarette, then worse he saw the creepy guy smile, a slow undertaker smile. Who was this guy? He felt like [...]

“Proud Flesh”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Proud Flesh
 
 
          Cut your finger, get infected, get blood poisonin’, red vein up your arm, son…yes sir. Clean that scratch…here let’s pour some methiolate into that wound. Make it burn. You killing them germs, uh huh…oooh…that hurts, don’t it? That ol’ Mercurochrome, that’s no good it don’t burn, see. Don’t cry now…blood poison’s lot worst…get [...]

“Big Legs”–flash fiction from Difficult People

Big Legs
 
 
          Roger was single again, second time. And when he got the final papers from Louise he went on a Casanova tear.
          First flight of the following day he talked a stewardess, Ginger, into having dinner in Tampa at the new Doubletree Hotel. They fucked half the night, and he ended the bacchanalia by [...]

“Cold”–flash fiction from Difficult People

Cold
 
 
          Born on a day with every frame of the house frozen, the walls groaned as the cold shrank the skeleton while the muted fire within expanded feebly the inside spaces. In the air the breaths of the dwellers exhausted through the chilled air. Hands avoided banisters and walls and especially metals of any kind. [...]

“Busby”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Busby
 
 
          Busby saw the contrails as an encrypted message inscribed across the snowy cloud banks, blossoms really…the sharp edge advancing mightily, the arrow evaporating into blue emptiness, the joy of going forward without being anchored to any simple hope. Busby, Busby, such a dreamer. To fill an ideal day with beautiful thought, nothing wrong there. [...]

“Rutting Season”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Rutting Season
 
 
          Anna was like a bad habit. An addiction Thomas couldn’t shake. They just had sex together. Sex. That was it. They didn’t even talk that much after the first year or two. Yes, through the years the frequency went down, but there was still a fundamental rendezvous cycle.
          Pure lust, they whispered.
          [...]