Palm Reader (short, short story) P1

- some words and stuff -

Gloria - palm reader - Apt 21   }20:15

"You can't ask me to read this hand!" 

"Why not?" 

"It's covered in blood!" 

"And that's exactly what I've come to you for." 

--

Gloria had a certain avian quality about her, a corvid like propensity to seek out shiny things. Her nest could be classified as either A) a tacky abomination, cluttered with shoddy miscellany and paraphernalia or B) an interesting, unique habitat - an eclectic assemblage of carefully curated oddities... bewildering and fascinating. This depends wholly on the perspective of the viewer, of course. 

Alex, a 19 year old man, paced around the room (to be more specific, a corner of it.) An adolescent stubble bristles up around his jaw, the promise of a beard to come... still slightly out of reach. The room smelt, to him at least, like the oppressive stink of those places which are seldom met with fresh air; the lingering souls of long dead cigarettes, the inky emissions of battered books and various liquor aromas mixed with Gloria's otherworldly lady-potions and lotions to form a nauseating blend capable of overwhelming the most oblivious olfactory observers. 

--

"Alex, whose blood is this?!" 
Her face - an awkward amalgam of penetrating wrinkles, canyons, speaking of the power of the passage of time and youthful, attentive, alert eyes, bulging out from the sunken sockets (meteor crater-esque) - was full of genuine alarm. 

--

A vinyl wobbled, as vinyls are known to do, drunk on the record player - singing an old and sombre tune:
"Hold your heart, for me girl

Gone, a not a long, will I be

Don't be blue my darling, trueee
For even in my absence, I love youeee" 

Alex remembered that he loved Chet Baker. 


*[AWAIT P2]*

Reviews

[hvysmker]

Good snapshot story, a moment of time captured for posterity.
I saw no errors.

I checked and have 131 Chet Baker songs.

Charlie, hvysmker.

[C Peril]

Thank you so much for the review Charlie - genuinely appreciate your words. Chet Baker is Canon. read moreThank you so much for the review Charlie - genuinely appreciate your words. Chet Baker is Canon.

Hope I get the chance to read some of your work soon.

[hvysmker]

It's on here. Added several stories today.