Fiction: Another Story

By Karen Crawford

In another story, Mike and Karla might be doing beer chasers at the English Pub before going to an Elvis Costello concert on Christmas Eve. In this story, Karla’s head is practically in the toilet from too much tequila while Mike sits on a bean bag exchanging incoherent texts with his best friend, Dan.

 

In another story, Mike and Karla might be renewing their vows at the chapel of love to replace the wedding ring Mike lost a few months earlier. In this story, Mike’s best friend, Dan, still wears his wedding ring even though Dan’s ex-wife Jane wears an engagement ring from someone else.

 

In another story, Mike and Karla might be celebrating their fifth anniversary by having a dinner party with friends. In this story, Mike and Karla are knocking down Dan’s door, who’s a party of one; all tremors, sweat, and tears, with a refrigerator that smells like a dead body in an old basement and a bathroom that looks like the Bronx zoo.

 

In another story, Mike and Karla might be buying their dream house and adopting an 8-year-old rescue. In this story, Dan’s rescue is losing its hair, and the detox center can’t hold Dan against his will. In this story, when Mike tries to intervene, Dan says, “you don’t get it; I don’t care if I die.” In this story, Mike and Karla hide Dan’s gun.

 

In another story, Mike and Karla might be inviting Dan and the nice woman he met at a meeting over to their house for Easter Sunday Dinner. In this story, Dan drinks the body of Christ all the way to rehab while promising his resurrection.

Karen Crawford currently lives in the City of Angels, where she exorcises demons one word at a time. Her work appears in Anti-Heroin Chic, Rejection Letters, Potato Soup Journal, Five Minutes, Flash Fiction Magazine among others.