Here
it is, the first page to my new short story, In Roswell, Re-visited.
Danny takes first place as a suspect in the murder of a local hero and
champion of people with disabilities. Cinnamon and Burro know the
hero, Juan Bueno, and doubt Danny killed him. Burro repeatedly has
visions of an abandoned trailer, and the two traipse the city looking
for a culprit amid tourists, a blond, director of the UFO museum and
other alien characters. UFOs appear.
Billie Rae’s Bar and Grill stays
open ‘til 2am, and that’s when Danny headed down
Main Street in Roswell, fighting the March wind. Tuesday is payday at Billie Rae’s and Danny drank Bud
Light (half price for employees) all night every Tuesday.
Danny jumped, and then saw an empty KFC tub bouncing into the
sunken doorway of a thrift store.
The noise reminded him of a fight at the bar. He walked faster. Next, he heard a high whistling sound,
followed by a rush of dirt to his eyes.
He stopped and turned around. People whispered in the dark street. It sounded like old people, following
him at a distance, and spying on him. He knew they planned to tell his mom
about the Bud Light and the two toques on a joint with Rosalita. Martha
accepted Danny, and she didn’t care
about his problems or the rules his mom made.
“No drugs and no drinking,
Danny. Understand? I love you
Danny.” He hated Mom when she talked like that.
“Sure Mom.” Danny always lied. What else could he do? There’s no way he planned to
stay sober every single goddamn day.
No way.
Danny heard the old
people whispering again – now
the voices came from down the street….no,
maybe from up above. The whistling
again, then the voices. He looked
up the street at the UFO Museum, thinking the sounds came from Juan’s apartment on the second
floor. No lights,
though. Juan usually left a light
on when he was reading or watching TV, and then it was okay for Danny to knock
on the door, and maybe come in for a cup of tea. He had to be sober and the light had to be on. Those were
the rules, and Danny managed to follow them because Juan talked to him and
never gave advice. Advice fell
hard on Danny.
A quick gale sent a Big Mac container sailing in the air, dancing in a circle. Danny's eyes followed it up under the streetlight, watching it twirl and turn in the desert night air. Oval black eyes, painted for tourists, spied on him from the cool green rim on the lights. That's when he saw, for real, a luminescent saucer, the kind people talked about in the UFO Museum. The saucer hovered in front of the UFO building, a block from the house where he and his mom lived and right under Juan's window. Long thin green rays shot out from the edge of the saucer, beeping words at Danny. They were after him again, and they wanted to transport him into the alien body of the ship.
Are you curious? Let me know. Available in July on Amazon Kindle.
