EARTH ANGEL (#fridayflash)

Press play for some mood music


My conscience was beginning to hold me hostage and the ransom was my future.

Despite what we were taught by Father Flynn, some people were expendable. They just didn't matter. I was a crook born and raised in a cold, Catholic orphanage and quickly learned that even I didn't matter. She was no different. I could tell she didn't exactly have a high opinion of her own footing in life.

It was easy for people like us to fall off the map. Bus depots, train stations, truck stops, ports of call - they were all breeding grounds for skirts with lonely hearts and creeps with one eye on their drink and the other on the door.

I met her at one of these destinations and, to be honest, it really didn't matter which one. I sold her a bill of goods and she bought them willingly. All I had to do was wink my wink and promise a little cabbage when our grift was done.

A suitcase of diamonds. That's what the road to kismet thought she was worth. And it worked. Greed tapped me on the shoulder that day and I figured one less future whatever-she-was-gonna-be didn't matter in the grand scheme of the universe. She already had one strike against her looking down the barrel of my gun.

But I remember that even in death, she looked like an angel - even with the Lucky Strike hanging from those puffy rosebud lips. Three hours later, she slept in the Earth.

Some people are expendable. At least that's what I told myself as I patted the dirt with my shovel.

The problem with that logic is that eventually, if we live long enough, guys like me develop a stab of sympathy. Our damned wisdom gives us a frame of reference. And then it all becomes clear.

I have to chuckle because the man upstairs cursed me. No, he didn't get me pinched. I have all my limbs and I can see through both my eyes. I felt snakebitten by Ol' Totem because I met the woman who would be my wife not one day after I put that sweet young thing down.

I've lived a lie my whole life and now when I look at the face of my teenage daughter I hope that my earth angel doesn't take it out on her.

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'BOARDWALK EMPIRE' SEASON 3 TEASERS

Nothing like simple, but effective teasers... Enjoy these very quick black and white spots for the third season of 'Boardwalk Empire' on HBO. Recaps, as usual, will come Monday mornings at NJ.com in September.

Prep your bourbon...





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THE KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

The Flash Fiction blog Liminal Fiction and its owner, Richard Bon, was kind enough to bestow upon me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Mucho thanks for that, Richard! Thanks, as always, for reading.

In order to accept the kudos, I have to share 10 things about myself with my basement dwellers and pass it along to a few blogs that I feel are worthy. OK ... So here goes:

1) I can only watch noir films at night.

2) I'm a sucker for old radio dramas.

3) I still maintain that my favorite job was my first - in the stock room at Barnes & Noble. Oh, the books...

4) I hate the warm weather and all that comes with it.

5) As a child, I never had a pet.

6) I certainly have pack rat tendencies but obvious Rat Pack style.

7) My first REAL shot of any kinda hard booze was after a fight with an old flame well into my twenties. No worries, I've more than made up for lost time.

8) On my first and only Boy Scout camping trip, me and a bunch of the other young scouts got tied to a tree. Um... Yeah. Never went camping again.

9) If there's a marathon airing anywhere on TV, I'll usually watch. That said, I try to avoid VH1 on Sundays.

10) I once did a ridiculous amount of freelancing for Men's Health magazine and as someone who now covers many facets of entertainment, lemme just say that it's easier to get celebrities on the phone than doctors.

Now that THAT'S out of the way, I'm passing along the Kreativ Blogger Award to three completely different animals:

Bish's Beat: One stop shopping for pulp, noir, hard-boiled and retro goodness. Bish, a retired cop, has been at the blog game a while and more than brings the goods.

Alt Disney World: I've said it before. I'm a sucker for the Americana of Walt Disney and his theme parks. For an alterntive look at life within the parks and Disneyana, this is the only blog you need to read.

Drunken Absurdity: The blogger blog of counter-culture madman Adam Schirling, founder and editor-in-chief of Drunken Absurdity, the revolutionary ezine that features alternative literature, poetry, art and movies. Soon to be a print venture.

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