Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Entry #52

Another Evening Like the One Before
by Wayne Scheer


In my romance novels, no one ever stares at a sink of dirty dishes.

Buddy would be "a strapping young man eager to make dreams come true." But he's just a boy remembering his high school football glory days. Although it's been nearly five years since he graduated, he still sees himself as the quarterback calling plays and expecting me to cheer him on. Damn, I don't even have the energy these days to do the dishes.

He's full of piss, vinegar and dreams. He plans on owning his daddy's gas station someday. He wants to add on a restaurant and put me in charge.

It sure would be better to run a restaurant than work as a waitress the way I do now. But I know it's just a dream. I don't know anything about ordering food and paying taxes and bribing food inspectors. Buddy knows less than I do, and his daddy knows less than both of us combined.

Mr. Landrum would be happy to just fix cars and grab at my ass. He humors Buddy, but no one's going to take over his business until a car falls on his head and turns him into one of those cartoon pancakes.

I used to imagine some millionaire polo player sweeping me off my feet and flying me to his world. Now I just read my paperbacks and fall asleep while Buddy dreams.

The dishes will have to wait for tomorrow.


(After teaching writing and literature in college for twenty-five years, Wayne Scheer retired to follow his own advice and write. He's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net. His work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, The Pedestal, flashquake, Flash Me Magazine, Apple Valley Review, Stone-Table Review, The Potomac and Triplopia. Wayne lives in Atlanta with his wife and can be contacted at wvscheer at aol dot com.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I, too, went with someone who didn't have a problem with it. Great character and story.

Jaye Wells said...

You did so much with so few words. I'm especially impressed with your ability to fit so much character in such a short piece.

chong y l said...

I am a dreamer too, but I couldn't squeeze such an reverie into such compactful telling!:) Welldone, do you want to wake up now?

Anonymous said...

"Now I just read my paperbacks and fall asleep while Buddy dreams."

Man, I wish I had written that.

Joni said...

Wow, I'm getting more intimidated with each entry.

Masterful.

briliantdonkey said...

I really enjoyed this one as well. Really liked the 'now I just read my paperbacks while buddy dreams' line like someone else said. I DO think I would go with "his dad knows less than either of us" instead of "less than both of us combined", but other than that I liked it a lot. Nice work.

BD

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that you've captured within your story... how story (in this case romance novels) allow us to escape our reality for a while.

Anonymous said...

The romance novel motif comparison was a nice engine for the piece. A good deal of characterization was accomplished in a short space.

Very high marks overall!