15th Post: A short story Pt. 1

The End Starts Here (<--- tentative title)

“Does the line form here, do you know?”

“Yeppers.”

“Ok, good. Thank you.”

“Excited to meet Avia Walker? I heard her speak at a literary summit in Boulder last spring. It was such a treat.”

“Wait, I thought this line was for Anthony Spencer.”

“Oh that was yesterday, hon.” She crinkled her nose a bit. “I didn’t much care for him, though. He kept looking down my shirt.”

“Yesterday?!? I could have sworn the notice said today.” He exhaled a mixture of coffee and bran. “Now what am I going to do?” He held up manuscript. “I brought my novel. I knew Spencer would appreciate it.”

“Oh, Yeah? That’s kind of rude, don’t you think?” She gave him that look like his Mother used to, a mixture of ‘really, that was your decision?’ and ‘why am I not surprised.’ It felt wrong for a complete stranger to seem so familair. “To bring your own stuff to a book signing? I mean, it’s all so very, ‘Hey look at me everyone, I’m a writer too. I’ll just set up my table next to yours, Avia. Scoot over, honey, your hogging the masses.” She looked at him again, and repeated her thesis, “A little rude, don’t you think…ah…”

She held out the ‘ah’ inviting him to proffer his name. He obliged, “Roman. My name is Roman.” Clearly she wasn’t a writer; she had used the word ‘stuff’ and the wrong ‘your’, but she did use the correct ‘too’ so she had potential to be a literary agent. Roman scanned the scene. This line is at least three hundred people long and that means I will be stuck next to this beneficiary of public education for at LEAST 2 hours. If that happens I’ll snap, plain and simple.

“Roman, huh? What a manly name.” She actually looked impressed, and that made her instantly more attractive in Roman’s eyes. “So, Rrrrroman…” Rolling the ‘r’ in his name made Roman have impure thoughts, “…my name is Ahshleigh. The first ‘h’ and the ‘gh’ are silent.”

Roman had to think about that for a minute……………………, “Do you mean to say that your name is spelled in a non-traditional fashion?”

“Yeppers. My Momma wanted her little girl to stand out in a crowd.”

“How is that possible? Unless everyone were to wear name tags all the time…” Roman stopped because he thought there was short story in there somewhere. Something allegorical about social status relative to how non-traditionally the name was spelled, perhaps?…He instantly named his protagonist ‘Roman’ and the antagonist ‘Grrrrtrood’, then mentally filed it away.

“Hello? Anybody home?” She waved her hand in front of Roman’s face and the saccharin sweet smell of cucumber and melon made him simultaneously hungry and nauseous.

“What!?” He snapped.

“Don’t be snappy, you zoned out there for – like – 30 seconds. Anyways, you aren’t seriously going to hand over that stuff to Avia Walker, right Roman? I mean, that’s just rude, don’t you think?

I cannot be around this repetitive negativity…also, she’ll probably tip off Walker that I’ve got a manuscript and then I’ll get tossed, or worse, Walker will take my work and dump it off to her assistant. He shuddered at the thought. I need to buy some time…He caught another whiff of puke-cumber melon...and some space. What to do, what to do…(!)…Fake Phone Call. Brilliant! He jumped a little and reached into his pocket, “Excuse me, I need to get this.” Then, in a further flash of genius, he gave her a ‘what can you do’ look, “I’m expecting my Doctor. The lab results were coming back today and I’m waiting to hear if it’s contagious or not. Save my spot?”

The look on her face made his morning. He stepped out of line and slowly walked further down the concourse with the phone by his ear saying just loud enough over his shoulder, “But Doctor that can’t be right. How can a person be expected to not breathe on someone else? Well, yeah…I guess I could quarantine myself for a month.”

He took a seat at a Café around the corner from the bookstore and motioned to the female employee who was clearing off cups and saucers. When she approached Roman didn’t look at her, “I’ll take a large tap water with a lot of ice.” Then he deigned to glance at her name-tag, “Thank you…uhhh… Krystaphania?” He looked at her and was about to say ‘Seriously?!?’, but then thought better of it as ‘Krystaphania’ was once upon a time probably known as ‘Christopher’. Instead he quickly looked down and muttered, “Thank you.”

When (s)he brought the beverage, Roman didn’t touch it.

The plan was to wait about 20-30 minutes until Ahshle-whats-her-face was sufficiently further up the line before trying again. The plan also included a couple of quick re-writes so as to make it more palatable for Avia Walker. Roman had not read much of her work, but knew she was no fan of strong male leads and he had made a point of portraying his hero, ‘Roman’, as both virile and commanding, something Anthony Spencer’s leads all had in common. What to do…what to do…

Part 2 coming soon...I welcome your thoughts/suggestions. If you are having trouble leaving comments, just email them to me at: highspeed81@hotmail.com. Thanks!