Forgot I wrote this
In looking through my emails for something completely unrelated, I found this bit of flash fiction that I wrote for the heck of it. I re-read it and like the darned thing. So here you go.
HIS NAME WAS BUD
By Roy L. PickeringJr.
Hisname was Bud. He hated when random strangers addressed him as"buddy", so close to accidentally guessing his actual name. Ofcourse, they did not know that his name was Bud, much less that it wasn't shortfor Buddy. It was an abbreviation of “Rosebud” and his mother picked the namefrom some old Black & White movie that he had never bothered to watch. Hedidn't know if his mother had expected a girl or decided on Rosebud as herchild’s name regardless of gender. What mattered is that he could not very wellgo around allowing himself to be called Rosebud, so for better or worse, Bud itwas.
It had mostly been for theworse. Life had been hard and mean to him so far. His father had not botheredto stick around long enough to find out that his mother would die giving birthto him. This meant being raised by an aunt on his mother's side until he turned5 and she turned and took him to an orphanage, done with being responsible forthe mistakes of others, family or not.
At 18 he was officiallya man, out on his own, no direction or plan or clue as what to do next. Robbinga convenience store seemed like as good of an idea as anything else. Next time,if there was a next time, Bud would do a little more research to find out inadvance if the guy behind the counter was likely to have a gun back there, and ifhe would be inclined to use it.
Getting shot in the guthurt like hell because of course it did. Bud's big plan collapsed on itself andnow he had nothing better to do than to sit on the floor, press against therapidly leaking hole in his stomach, and wait to see if the cops or an ambulancewould arrive soon enough to do him any good.
Bud looked towards thewindow for whoever might be coming to his rescue, but most of the view wasblocked by stuff for sale, and the bit of glass he could see was too filthy tobe transparent. His eyes were growing heavy, but he refused to let them closefor good reason and fixed his sight on a rack of DVD's. Maybe one of the movieswas the one his mom had picked his name from.
Wouldn't that besomething?
