Part 29 (2/2)

Once in the elevator, just the three of us, I curled into a ball on the ground.

”Get up, Mick. You're embarra.s.sing me,” Octavia said.

But I didn't. Not until we were near the ground floor. Not until I could laugh about it. I picked myself up, giggled my way out into the lobby.

”What's so funny?”

”She was right, you know. All you had to do was let Pamela squash the deed.”

Octavia hit me in the arm with her cane. I could feel the bruise on impact, reached for it. She took her sungla.s.ses out of her handbag and snugged them on, done with tears and on to crus.h.i.+ng the weak again.

She said, ”I told you we would punish the b.i.t.c.h didn't I?”

I stood speechless, rubbing my arm, as she and Jennings made their way to the front door, people all around staring at them as if she were some sort of wretched queen, able to curse them with a single glance. I mumbled under my breath, ”Mirror, mirror on the wall...”

Octavia stopped, turned, and shouted, ”Dinner at Manny's to celebrate? Move your a.s.s, Mick,”

I followed after them and sighed, knowing I would be a few steps behind.

Anthony Neil Smith is currently the Director of Creative Writing at Southwest Minnesota State University. He earned a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers in 2002.

His first novel, Psychosomatic, was published by PointBlank Press in 2005, and was later translated into Swedish. It is also now available on Kindle and other e-formats. His second novel, The Drummer, was published by Two Dollar Radio in 2006. His third, Yellow Medicine, was published in 2008 by Bleak House Books. Yellow Medicine was one of January Magazine's Top Crime Novels for 2007. The sequel, Hogd.o.g.g.i.n', was published in June of 2009. Smith has published over forty short stories in venues such as Murdaland, Exquisite Corpse, Bellevue Literary Review, Thug Lit, Natural Bridge, Crime Factory, Beat to a Pulp, Needle, Connecticut Review, and many others.

Dr. Smith is co-creator and editor of the internet noir zine Plots with Guns, which attracts a wide audience from both the crime fiction and literary arenas. Stories from PWG have been featured in Best American Mystery Stories, and one was nominated for an Anthony Award in 2003 You can find him at:.

anthonyneilsmith.typepad.com.

end.

<script>