Short, Fast, and Deadly

Short, Fast, and Deadly
Issue Ten
"What Did I Dieu to be so Black and Bleu?"
Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela
14 February 2010

Featuring:
Greta Bolger
Alan Gann
H
Bruce Harris
Neila Mezynski
Christina Murphy
AJ Pearson-VanderBroek

Copyright © 2010 by Individual Authors
All Rights Reserved

The Arrival

A dark cloud sighs heavy over the local salvage yard. It had been there since yesterday, the new arrival on lot B.

"It wasn’t her," they tell him. "You haven’t even seen her for five years."

But he knows. The silver Celtic cross and chain that hangs from a mangled rearview mirror tells him so. He wants to melt it into a smooth tonic that will cure fever chills and low self-confidence. But it only tastes like closure.

by AJ Pearson-VanderBroek of Nebraska City

A Dark Day at the Office

My partner lay face down on his desk. Nearby, a cop calmly blew specks of skull off his uniform.

"I’ve been thinking about that Bea Dark divorce case," he said. "Quite a settlement you two shysters won for her."

He pointed to a suicide note on the brain splattered blotter.

"Here’s a clean pad. It’s time to write your own suicide note, pal."

As the man in blue approached, I caught a glimpse of his name tag - DARK.

by Bruce Harris of Scotch Plains

Marseillaise

Mon dieu! I’m bleu.
All my French beside kissing 
teeth & tongues at war
taste of blood & bruises rising
flag of rapture
red and blue.     

by Greta Bolger of Benzonia

Blue Gingham

Petticoats, pointed toes, cinched in waist. Holding court, the visiting queen. A starlit drive. She wanted to stop and dethrone, too rough on her curves. He went faster. A real thrill. In the middle of the desert and starlit night they opened the door. Her door. The tiara on the dry ground. Sparkly.

by Neila Mezynski of Campbell

Einsteinian Friday Night

wingman sipping vodka-
stationary observer
watching two singularities
(roommate and bar fox)
spiraling toward collision

by Alan Gann of Plano

Dentistry

He tied a string to his aching front tooth, tied the end to the door knob, and kicked the door shut. The door knob flew off and ripped the painting on the wall, exposing a small heart beating. Terrified, he ran. Somewhere a voice was screaming. Was it his own? Then he felt it-the door knob smashing into his face, leaving him unrecognizable but for one blue eye and a front tooth lying in a puddle of his blood.

by Christina Murphy of Huntington

3 Words

He'd only come out here to prove his manhood to her. She shunned him for the loose and louche pool hall crew. They were all the same age, but their sins and misgivings grew them into men. In her eyes he was a college-boy.

She went with the others to pay their last respects and witnessed his mother, wretched in sorrow shouting 'only a boy' over and over again. The dignity and aims of his sacrifice negated by 3 words.

by H of London