Your Love, The Night: And Other Dark Tales by Novak Ellis

Author:Novak, Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spektra Media
Published: 2023-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

The End

Part Four

Graphite

Chapter 1

Unhealthy Thoughts

I been around the world and I seen a lotta people and places. I seen the hell o' combat and things some folks might call paradise. I seen things what look like people but ain’t. But in all my time, I never seen anything like Alejandra.

My shift at Rubin’s started off like any other. This was just after Thanksgiving and it was colder than cold outside. The days blend and sometimes I don’t even know if it’s Monday or Friday, but the holidays make it a little easier because those days are like landmarks. As usual, I spent the first hour gettin' ready for the lunch rush, but that day it was real light ‘cause o' the snow. Rubin’s mostly gets foot traffic, and this is a big shoppin' area, but when it’s hell outside, we get damned slow. That’s alright because you’re not rushin', but the trade-off is the tips dry up. It’s worse when we get snow. Winters up here’s cold, rainy, but snow ain’t too common.

My legs were achin’ in the cold and the damp, and my knees were just the worst. It was gonna be a cold, wet winter, and I wasn’t lookin' forward to that. I told Tony I was gonna take my fifteen. Tryin’a get him to wait tables when he was balancin' the books was un-doable, but there weren’t no customers just then. I had a black coffee I started the shift with, cold by now, but that didn’t matter too much. It was still wet, so I used it to toss down three o' the big-ass horse pills the VA sends me. They’re 800’s. I hate to see my liver but I gotta be able to walk, you know? I spent the rest o' my break stretchin' in the back. If I sat down, my joints would go all stiff and it would take a hell of a lotta willpower to get back on my feet again.

With just another minute left on my break, I heard the little bell jangle over the door, so I clocked back in. I know some people’d make sure they got every second of a break, but I never been afraid’a work. I looked over the service hatch to see if Beth was there to wait, and that was when I saw the girl for the first time.

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Before I go any further, you should know that I ain’t never believed in God, but how else could somethin' this beautiful exist in this shitty world? And “beautiful” isn’t even the word I want because it’s not big enough. It don’t mean what I mean, only I ain’t so good with words. But, listen, I been all around the world, like I said, and I had more than my share o' women, and I never felt this kind o' gravity in my life. Not even close. Most women today try so hard, what with all the makeup and the colored hair and the attitude, like they want you to think they live way up on a pedestal like a stone goddess.

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