Suicide Attempt

The shattered hope in the red flannel shirt drinks to keep from feeling. The wild night has beaten the tired day unconscious. Fat raindrops fall hard onto the jagged white rocks like suicidal tears. He wonders how much time he has before his wrecking ball soul goes on autopilot. A grimy claw fumbles a denim hell for Sig Sauer salvation, but the gun is gone. He knew that shiny little b*****d was nervous. Must’ve ditched him at that 7-11 on Woolbright. That place has claimed many souls. So, without his mighty firework display, he climbs the drainpipe up to the roof of Morey’s Lounge, a one story shack of a bar, and threatens to jump.

“Somebody ought to call the cops,” shouts a four-eyed part time lit professor in between shots of chilled So Co, and hot stories about a blonde film student.

“Nah,” says Vera, the bartender, “silly sumbitch crawls up there every Friday. He’ll come down in the morning, hungover, ranting about a lost gun and a long-lost woman. Then, he’ll go on home and try to explain his shortcomings to his pissed off ole lady. She thinks he’s got sporadic amnesia, brought on by low blood sugar. Really, he’s just a drunk with a PTSD heart. We get some winners in this joint.”

The professor laughs out loud, but only because he understands how the poor guy feels. He wakes up a few mornings a month in the girls’ locker room at the local community college, choking on anonymous white cotton panties with a little pink bow on the waistband.

Vera senses his pain, and, in a chain-smoking motherly voice, says, “God has a plan for all of us.”

And, the night passes by successfully; without anybody learning any hard moral lessons.

Vera has been slinging painkiller long enough to know that moral lessons are lousy for business.

Reviews

[EMF]

Crackling with a hard wire to the squidgy bits. But in reference to the Sig Sauer, I always prefer the cylinder in a Roscoe. Pure electric Noir. Blue lit with Insect Killer Charm

[roarke]

Interesting piece. Tight storyline.

did you mean Sig Sauer as in the pistol instead of Sig Sawyer? or am I missing something?

the city has a million stories, and this is one of them. Good write.

[olla]

this touched me in many places.. well written and gripping..

[Emily B]

so many people walk too close to this place