Johnny Smith's Blog, page 4

Dog Heavy – Chapter 4

[image error]Sandy lay on the hotel bed with her eyes closed listening to the evening news on the television. The man showering in the bathroom was chubby, balding, and married. A regular. He had left the door open while he urinated. Sandy could hear as he scrubbed the smell of their sex off of his thick slabs of flesh.

She reached up to her eye and tenderly prodded its puffiness. The ugly blueness of the bruise scarcely hidden by her makeup. This was the same room where he had beat her and stolen what...

Dog Heavy – Chapter 3

[image error]Light flitted into the motel room through the cheap Venetian blinds casting geometric shapes across Sandy's limp body. The morning's growing heat woke her. She groaned and gingerly reached up a hand to her swollen face. She winced painfully and rolled over onto her back. Her breasts, pink and bare, poked upwards. Her mouth felt cracked and dry. She opened and closed it several times working saliva into her gums and the insides of her cheeks, then turned her head and spat onto the nylon...

Dog Heavy – Chapter 2

[image error]They sat at a table in the back of the bar. Olivia Newton John's voice quirked from the jukebox in the corner behind them. The rest of the place was near empty. Two truckers were playing a game of nine-ball while a hazy blond looking to turn a trick watched from a stool at the bar. She wore a blue tube top and tight denim mini-skirt that she kept hiking up her thigh trying to get the attention from any of the men there. Her face was sunken and sallow. The only other patron was an old man. He ...

Dog Heavy – Chapter 1

[image error]The whole of the landscape was devoid of life or movement. The dry scrub of the country unable to absorb the sun's vehemence belched the heat back into the atmosphere. A thin, evil film of road grease clouded the windshield of the Pinto. Carl dragged the ragged squeegee across the glass and watched as the murky water streamed under the hood, leaving dark trails of sludge and grit. From time to time, he looked up and scanned the length of I-20, squinting into the distance towards Odessa. The h...

Zombie

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The fourth story in the collection Timekeeping on Mars now available at Smashwords.

Wu opened his eyes slowly. Morning light streamed in through the shattered glass of the porthole above him and he could smell the distinct odor of rust and sea and shit. Sitting up, he looked around the small cabin. Sang Jin lay against the wall opposite him and was dead. Wu sucked the salt ridden air between his teeth. His mouth dried. Sang Jin's eyes stared sightlessly. His right eye hemorrhaged, bloated and...

Start with the South; Drop the Big One on the South

[image error]That was the valediction of my mate's last email to me before departing Louisiana for Ireland, where he has exiled himself for the better part of 10 years now.

But it's not going to save him.

The number one risk factor for a stroke is "being a born-and-bred Southerner" according to some such study done by scientist-types.

And it don't matter if you'd got the hell out years ago. And it don't matter if you only go back for weddings and funerals. And it don't matter if you've muddled your accent...

Dear Evie

[image error]Dear Evie,

This is a special week for you –you started dreaming. As you get older, those dreams will become amazing and fantastic and beautiful. And sometimes, a little scary.

But for now, I imagine that your dreams are about simple things. Warmth and shades of color. The rhythms of your mommy's heart or maybe even daddy's voice calling your name from some place completely unimaginable.

You don't yet have any stories of your own to dream. Those will come later. So for now, I will tell you one o...

The Silent Film Star

[image error]The camera rolls for the long shot. One of the crew cranks the 35mm film through the camera's casing. Margo can hear the clicking of the film's perforations on the sprockets. She sits on a plush, leather sofa. Affected tears slide brightly down her cheeks. The hot white lights burn down on her like a magnesium flare. Desmond sits beside her, stroking her hair. The cuff of his crisp suit jacket chafes her ear. He stops to light a cigarette. The acrid smell of tobacco fills the air. Its smoke c...