Stuart walks to work. On his walk he sees pink insulation like guts hanging from the cavernous chest cavity of the black dumpster. He sees dozens of flies crowding on a flattened squirrel who has something green leaking from one intact eye. The flies scatter at his approach, the buzzing a soft warning.<\/p>\n
The walls of the restaurant where Stuart works are an off-white stucco. There is a sewage leak in the parking lot and Stuart holds his breath as he enters the building through the back door. It\u2019s 11am and there are few customers; the old ladies who get a coffee each (no tip) and nurse it and gossip for three hours most Thursdays, a couple teens playing hooky, and Moe.<\/p>\n
Moe is a homeless man with yellow-tinged eyes and only one hand, the pinky and ring fingers necrotic black. He has five or six teeth and wears a flannel trapper hat in all seasons. The hat is waxy with grease. With him is always a pink floral suitcase and five or six plastic bags full of dirty napkins, used takeout containers stained orange, and old coffee cups. A few weeks ago Moe asked Stuart to fill up his coffee cup with hot water. Inside was a spider and a web. Stuart was busy that day and couldn\u2019t be bothered to clean the cup before he filled it. The spider spun floating around and around the steaming water, legs curled like frayed wires. Moe didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n
Moe isn\u2019t allowed in the restaurant anymore, not after he clogged the men\u2019s toilet with some of his clothing. But the opener is this sweet college girl who\u2019s only been working here for three months, and more often than not Moe shuffles in anyways because she doesn\u2019t have the heart to kick him out. Jes\u00fas, who\u2019s worked here 13 years, says that Moe has been around forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invited him to our house parties back in high school. Got him real fucked up. It was funny seeing him like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart sets his stuff down, double-ties an apron around his stomach, and affixes his name tag. Great flavors. Great Staff. Stuart Kobanski. He does his first loop of the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want some more fries?\u201d he asks the teens.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey man, can you get that homeless guy out of here? He reeks like piss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart buses the greasy plate.<\/p>\n
Moe gazes out the window at the empty parking lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Moe,\u201d says Stuart. \u201cReady to get a move-on?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot like I got much choice in the matter,\u201d grumbles Moe, stuffing bags into bags. Stuart walks him to the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Moe, maybe you should get those fingers checked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot like you care,\u201d says Moe, the door shutting softly behind him. The other patrons visibly relax.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou handled that so gracefully,\u201d gushes one of the old ladies.<\/p>\n
The next morning there are millions of flies by the dumpster, swarming over a long and narrow log. The pink suitcase, jaw torn open, hangs empty from the dumpster. As Stuart walks by, the flies part to reveal Moe\u2019s lavender face weeping green, a look of pure rage frozen in his eyes. Stuart stops and stares for a moment, then walks again quickly. He feels guilty but profoundly relieved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On his walk to work he sees ink insulation like guts hanging from the cavernous chest cavity of the black dumpster. Dozens of flies crowding on a flattened squirrel who has something green leaking from one intact eye. The flies scatter at his approach, the buzzing a soft warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":23958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3530],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","writer-susan-flint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23960,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23104\/revisions\/23960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}