I was dealing with some six-legged home invaders this afternoon, when an idea hit me: Wife’s gone for a week,let’s use it for self-promotion!So the deal is, I’m going to post new writing every day this week while the wife’s away. I’m hoping for all new(to you) writing, but I may get behind and have to rewrite something and throw it here. What will it be: Rant? Poetry? A screenplay? Probably not the last one,unless meth suddenly becomes available at Best Buy. So here goes… something.
Day 1
I was watching the Lions lose again when my brother appeared on my screen. Like someone had changed a channel, but to his laptop. He looked down at something,the right at me. The bruise and bandage over his left eye made a mockery of his happy face as he spoke.
“Hey, little brother, need to talk to ya!”
“I have a phone,and Skype if you needed to see me.” Dave had always had the knack of popping up in weird situations, like calling me once from Greenland to tell me he’d gotten married and divorced in the same day. But this was weird, even for him.
“Please tell me the other guy lost.” I pointed to my own left eye.
He shrugged.”I’d say ask him,but he’s got this whole dead thing going on right now.” The view on my screen swung wildly ,then down to a pale man lying on the floor. The bullet hole and badge said that my Sunday afternoon was about to go sideways fast.
“What the fuck,Dave! You killed a cop? and you hijacked a TV signal? I don’t know who’s going to hurt you more, the PD or the FCC.”
Dave just smiled that million watt smile of his. “The FCC doesn’t know I hijacked a signal, and it’s only to you. But there’s no time to explain that now. I need you to pack up Tammy and the kids. Grab some clothes,supplies, and guns, if you have them.Then get to the folk’s place.”
Our parents had died two years before. Dave had missed the funeral, and I hadn’t spoken to him but once since then, annoyed at this typical Dave act. He’d gained some measure of forgiveness by paying off the folk’s bills and the funeral. It’d sat empty since then, victim to my memories and a soft house market.
“And why would I do that, Dave? The days of me listening to you were over twenty years ago.”
He smiled again.”I could tell you it’s the end of the world, but it isn’t. It’s the beginning.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me. Who put you up to this? Was it the guys from game? I swear I’ll kick Harold’s bald ass all over this town.” I’d played RPGs with the same bunch of guys the last few years. Some men build cars, some work on their house. I sit and pretend I’m a sorceror, or a superhero .
Dave laughed.”Nope, not a joke. If I’m wrong, well, you can always blame me. Frida never liked me” Frida didn’t dislike my brother. She despised him. Something to do with my bachelor party starting in St. Louis and ending in Toronto. Also, the whole absent at time of death thing. Frida was old school about family.
“You still haven’t given me one reason to believe you.”
Dave stopped smiling. “You want reasons? OK, here’s several. The Lions will win today,with a fumble by the Packers at 3:34 this afternoon. The Giants will beat the Bears 17-9, with two Bears points coming from a safety on Manning. And New England’s Offensive Coach will have a heart attack at 6:43, causing the game to be called due to forfeit. ” Dave then leaned forward, and was gone off my screen.
By 9:00 I was on the road to Antioch, kids crying ,wife fuming, and scared out of my mind.
Whaddya think, folks? Want more? Does it suck? Let’s hear something, anything!