Fiction by Christine Gentry
June 28, 1979
The discordant sound of clanging dishes, flirting waitresses, and complaining coworkers dulls his mind as he watches the sweat lazily bead and slide down the beer bottle. He’s drinking slowly on purpose; he sure as hell doesn’t want to go home. Tracy has been on a rampage since he stumbled in late Tuesday night. Why it matters to her what time he gets home is a complete mystery. Isn’t that one of the few good things about being separated? Something about the kids, it being hard enough on them already. But she was the one waking them up. Who knows. Doesn’t matter anyway. He winces at the memory of his lumbering riposte: informing her of a date he had set up for Saturday night with Marcy. Marcy McKeenan. He said her whole name just to drag out the effect.
Download “The Tidal Pool and the Sea” by Christine Gentry.
Christine Gentry joins BBQ on the short list of good things to come out of Texas. She lives in Harlem with her Greek Tortoise daughter, Delphi. In what little spare time she has, Christine likes to write very short stories, two of which have been published in Word Riot and Flashquake magazines.