“Harve?”
“What?”
“You seen Winston lately?”
“Yeah.”
“I ain’t seen him in a week.”
“Bastard. Borrowed fifty bucks. Said he’d settle when his check came in.”
“He’s been having tough times since Clara passed.”
“Mebee. Don’t look to get that fifty back.”
“He might come up with it.”
“Not likely.”
“Well, anyway, I ain’t seen him.”
“Sommich had the balls to ask me to take him fishing.”
“You’re the only one has a boat.”
“Fifty bucks!”
“Oooh! Got something big! Get the boat closer… Don’t wanna break this rod… Wait… It’s coming… Oh. My. God! It’s Winston!”
“Yeah. I know.”
Originally published on the Prose website https://theprose.com/ May 22, 2020. Republished on spwilcenwrites November 13, 2020.
SP Wilcenski wrote system software for fifty-three years before retiring to start salvage operations on fifty-odd years’ creative pieces moldering in a file cabinet. Today, he struggles against the enormity of that reclamation task. He is unpublished except on theProse and in his blog spwilcenwrites.