Per Diem.

The old man was dead when they brought him in.

 

I was smoking a cigarette with one of the x-ray techs, Tim, when the bus brought him in. People seemed to die more, closer to Christmas. It was my second Christmas here at Vassar Brothers, and it was only solidifying the theory I had formed last year.

 

" Guy looks like he's been dead a decade." Tim let out his smoke. He was on the business end of a 16 hour double, and looked half a decade under himself.

 

"Quiet man, " I started walking waway from the ER doors, hoping Tim would follow suit out into the snow. " his family is right behind you."

 

" S**t man." Tim took another drag and followed me out into the fresh Poughkeepsie powder to admire the beautiful grey of the northeast. "How's your writing going?"

 

" Slowly, painfully." I had once, unfortunately, told Tim that I wrote, poetry mostly, and the occasional short story. " I'm putting together a little chapbook, couple of poems and a short story. Gonna print it up and hand it out."

 

"What the f**k is that?"

 

"Poetry? Ah, an ancient relic of the lost world of literature."

 

"A*****e, what's a Chap's Book?"

 

"Not Chap's. Just chapbook." I decided against explaining the entire thing, and went for simple. "Just a cheap way to publish."

 

"I'm telling you man," he was exhaling his smoke and furrowing his brows like he had just found a new pyriamid scam. " You've got to write one of those Dan Brown books man. Something really powerful man." He flick the smoke in to the powder.

 

"You think Dan Brown is powerful?" My mind went across my humble bookshelf; Balzac, Bukowski, Fante, Micheline, Celine, and yes, my Stephen King collection, but i found, Dan Brown, no where around.

 

" The man's a genius. He's rich as hell." I flicked my smoke out into the snow, and we started back into the ER. " You need to give up on that poetry shite, and write something real like The DaVinci Code. That's where the money's at Din."

 

"Have you ever read anything aside from the books at checkout in Shop Rite, Tim?" He seemed to think for a solid minute.

 

" I read that Hemingway book about the bulls in college." Another ambulance pulled in with a Medic in the back, and no lights on. Dead on arrival.

 

Merry F*****g Christmas.

Reviews

[Touché Armada]

One mans treasure is another mans trash, but its all an escape all in all.
I like the... we have nothing in common but for the things we have to do aspect about this story. I mean who can relate to even family most of the time why they write and enjoy it.
Ta Em for the send, a great read.

[Ed Hart]

emily asked me to drop by...this is enough for me to send you an e-friend request...

[W.k.kortas]

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen indeed. It's a solid Hemingway takeoff-- the pacing, the sentence length is just about right--but it certainly stands on its own as a slice-of-life piece itself. Solid piece of work.

[Emily B]

aw, s**t! This is quite a story. Good stuff. When the folks who live around us don't understand that literature stuff we run back here. I'm glad you shared this.