Hallelujah Station and Other Stories by M. Randal O'Wain

Author:M. Randal O'Wain [O'Wain, M. Randal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781938769597
Google: gDftzAEACAAJ
Publisher: Autumn House Press
Published: 2020-11-14T18:30:00+00:00

Marly was fifteen minutes late. Walter sat in his recliner but felt too complacent, and so he walked to the kitchen, wiped the stove and sides of the refrigerator with a rag and drank tap water. He stood, as men do in films, with one hand rested on the counter, and studied the glass as if it were filled with scotch. His counter was shorter than most and the ceiling was dropped and so the angle of his lean felt awkward and hurt his shoulder. From his cabinet, he pulled out a wine bottle, twisted the top, and drank. Two gulps in, and he focused on the fuzzy warmth rather than the cool tremors that tickled his loins. Marly had looked good today. Her act was hilarious, and they were drumming up the truth behind Gloria’s disappearance as a team.

A knock. From across the hall, though, and Walter sank against the counter and checked his watch wondering where Marly was until he heard her voice in conversation with Belinda.

“Honey! Are you back? You know, Walter has been a moping mess since you left.”

“We’re just having dinner. I’m still exiled.”

Walter watched from the eyehole as the two women spoke. Marly wore a dress, black with tropical birds in blues and oranges that had once been his favorite. She’d gone to the salon and gotten dreadlock extensions that were now wrapped in a large hive atop her head. Walter knew this was an expensive and arduous undertaking, and he hesitated thinking the work had been done for him; Marly often changed her hair. Belinda, too, was dressed up in gray slacks, boots, and a gray blazer-blouse combo. Marly made sure to compliment Belinda, something Walter would have never done because those sorts of interactions always seemed to continue into long explanations of where the clothes had come from and why they were bought and why they were worn at this very moment.

“Bird’s got this seminar over in Emeryville. Thinks he’s gonna write a TV show.”

“You read my script, Lin! It’s damn good. You know it’s good, too.” Bird yelled.

“Oh, wow,” Marly said, barely hiding her initial shock at the idea.

“Hmm-hmm. Gonna be about how Gloria was snatched by the mob and about he, or the protagonist, as that fool keeps correcting, an out of work janitor, turns detective and solves the crime. Says he’s got three seasons outlined.”

Marly laughed. Her nervous laugh, Walter knew; the laugh that came when she was anxious or scared and often did not stop until she’d calmed down. He watched her briefly, hoping she would contain the laughing, but she kept stammering “I’m sor—” never getting the full apology out.

“You’re here, Marly. Come in.”

He was still holding the bottle of wine, half full now, and both women eyed him suspiciously. Marly’s laugh slid into little coughs. Walter ushered Marly to safety. When the door was latched, she slid against his body, wrapping her arms around his waist, her face buried in his neck. She mumbled apologies over

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