Category: Editor’s Pick

I was Dish Pig, my lot to scrape, wash, polish, repeat. No customer interaction for me, save for pouring Mr. Evans’s Guinness pint.

Joe told me that they chained him to a hospital bed so he wouldn’t escape. Flight risk. Young male. Tested positive for COVID-19. It seemed so unlikely. What were the chances? And that’s when I realized that they were pretty high.

In just his boxers, he sat straddle over the plexiglass wall. Paul carefully steadied himself to bring his leg round and face the water. As he edged off he counted down numbers twice and then made the drop.

Underneath, it was deadly quiet except a faint hum, likely the pool’s heater. Paul wanted to go right down and feel the bottom. It was unpleasant when he didn’t.

Isabel sautéed the onions, garlic, and ginger she’d chopped before adding the curry spices to the pan. When the aroma was right, she stirred in coconut milk and added the chicken. It would be highly seasoned, the way Alex liked it. How much peanut butter would it take, she wondered, to ensure that he’d suffer a fatal allergic reaction? Not just swelling and discomfort, but cardiac arrest.

“If we’re going to do this, I kind of need you to do something first.  Or during.”

“Like what?”  I leered at him, trying to make my voice sexy.

“Throw me out the bedroom window.”

I was twenty-four when this all happened. In my late forties, I’d have friends who’d watch their parents die, put kids in ICU, euthanise their cat; you get the last gift of adulthood then, when it, or something like it, happens. You start thinking about people differently.