I pray to the patron Saint of Redirection, who shows up juggling sardines and a large red apple he takes a bite out of every revolution or so.
“This life,” I say. “The sheer weight of it…”
“Is that you?” he asks, letting the silvery circle collapse at his feet — slipping the apple in his pocket. He’s pointing to an old photo. “No, that’s my older brother, when we were kids. I’m the one…” I turn and see he’s now rowing across the living room in a small boat. “Calm seas,” he announces, skirting the TV. “I think it’s going to be a magnificent voyage.”
“I’m worried,” I tell him. “This crazy world. It’s so lopsided with evil ballooning out—I sometimes feel it’ll slip right off its axis and hurl…”
“Nice drapes” he says, crawling up them like a cat. I look for tears, but there aren’t any.
“And what’s all this about an afterlife? Holy crap — who could ever know…”
“What’s for lunch?” he asks.
“Humm… I hadn’t thought about it. Chinese, I suppose.”
He tosses a TV guide over with a startling cover, and I catch it. He turns for the door. “Oops,” he says, as the enormous sombrero he’s suddenly wearing gets wedged between the frame. “Hey, could you give me a little shove?”
“Hey, thanks,” I say as I push, and he pops out, audibly — heads off down the street on a wobbly tricycle.
I call Yet Wa’s — order the Tangerine Beef. Get a cold one from the fridge and begin leafing through the guide. There’ll be time enough later to clean up the fish.
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Robert Scotellaro’s flash fiction and prose poems have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Gargoyle, Flash (The International Short-Short Story Magazine), Fast Forward (A Collection of Flash Fiction) Vols. 2 & 3, Houston Literary Review, 6S Anthology Vol. 3, MicroHorror, Willows Wept Review, Ghoti, Dogzplot, Clockwise Cat, mud luscious, Storyscape/Storyscape Journal Anthology, Tuesday Shorts, Battered Suitcase, Boston Literary Magazine, and others. He is the author of several books and chapbooks, and the recipient of Zone 3‘s Rainmaker Award in Poetry. Raised in Manhattan, he currently lives with his wife in California.