“Out at Sally’s”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Out at Sally’s
 
 
          “I’m telling you, there’s something strange going on out on Beach Road.”
          “How do you mean, Jack?”
          “I was over at Smitty’s…looking over his old den, the one with the small window and almost a view of the Beach Road houses. I was working up an estimate to open that flat bunker [...]

“Granger on the Loose”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Granger on the Loose
 
 
          Nobody knows the trouble Carol Wilson has had with her husband Granger. He just got out of the Dedham prison, stole a woman’s credit cards at Chestnut Hill Mall, bought some cocaine off a cash advance, got busted in Mattapan as a repeat offender, escaped into Canada, holed up with an [...]

“Right On Cue”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Right on Cue
 
 
          Thunder and rain coming. She could smell its earthy perfume billowing through the lace curtains.
          Come here, she demanded and grabbed his penis and squeezed it until it was hard. He was standing up in the hallway of her apartment and she was hot for him. Her nightgown was see-through and her [...]

“Pastoral Scenes”–flash fiction from Difficult People

Pastoral Scenes
 
 
          Rough. Rough. Rough.
          And that’s no dog barking at you, Buster Brown. Mr. Simplicity himself. Back in the cradle. Farm animals. Vegetation green gold on the Horizon, like a Pilgrim’s Progress. No Slough of Despond hereabouts. Miss Talent was seen walking down by the cow pasture today; there was a wonderful loose wayward [...]

“The Elvis Trance”–flash fiction, Difficult People

The Elvis Trance
 
 
          I guess it was when Tanya moved to Memphis I knew she was serious about The King. Eating Memphis ribs and riding around in a ‘55 restored Oldsmobile, windows down, Philco radio blaring on the hot summer streets, crickets crushed under the big fat whitewall tires, wind muggy from off The River. [...]

“Home Now”–flash fiction, Difficult People

Home Now
 
 
          Moses had loved Zoë for so long he didn’t think of time.
          He kissed the apple blossoms in her cheeks, he pleasured in the cranberries of her full lips, the chocolate nipples, the seafood of her private parts. He reveled in her Venusian rhythms, the dark lunar surges, ebbs and returns, this gorgeous [...]

“The Answer”–from Difficult People

The Answer
 
 
          Perhaps you’ve found The Answer. Maybe you carry it around like ancient ancestors carried fire, an ember kept alive in a clay vessel, fed tenderly like a hungry child, here with just the right tender. The fire was warmth, protection, cooking…the fire was life hard-earned. So, you carried it like a sacred duty. [...]

“Hamlet in Hollywood”–from Difficult People

Hamlet in Hollywood
 
 
          Lamar “Heineken” Hamlet, cursed by his surname into his destiny as actor, strode Sunset Boulevard looking for food, drugs, sex…jeez, and even a job! Sometimes catching a glimpse of his watery elfin figure in a shop on Rodeo Drive, he knew it was a future just simply delayed, a virtual parallel universe [...]