For the boys.

Hush, hush.

Wet slaps and lowing. We jeered, us boys. We stood in a line, us boys. Waiting for our turn at the mobile whorehouse in a rural somewhere. Name excluded—preservation of future idyllic excursions, you know, post-war.

One night only. Hush, hush. We’re good boys.

Behind me, Private Dunn. In front, Private Kent. We called him Clark Kent, though his name was Steven. Shot through the heart nine days later. Guess bullets were his kryptonite.

I watched the wild mustard in the field bowing to the moon. I wanted to wade out to the center and hide in it. Never rise. They’d call it desertion, but I’d never hear them.

Private Dunn shouted over my shoulder, “Get that pussy, boys!”

I nodded, but felt sick, my eyes lingering on the wild mustard. I wanted to drown in it.

“I need to piss,” I said. “Hold my place.”

“If you ain’t back in time, you’ll be on clean up.”

“Yeah…”

I walked through the field until I could barely make out the lights from the mobile whorehouse.

I didn’t see him prone, waiting. Popped up and grabbed me by my shoulder.

I’m not a large man, but I’m quicker than most. I spun around, smashed his nose with my palm. Blood sprayed warm and sticky. It made the wild mustard stand on end and blush.

Flashes of foreign eyes: I strangled him. Hush, hush.

The summer moon reflected off his balled up parachute, soiled sheets in the wild mustard. Hush, hush.

I walked back and reclaimed my place in line beneath the lethargic stars.

“You just made it,” said Private Dunn. “Kent is inside—listen to him howl!”

---

This was created using three words given to me by

Edith Bow

: desertion, lethargic, rural. It was supposed to be a stream of consciousness exercise, and it was at first, but I decided to sculpt it a little. I couldn’t help myself!

Story inspired by Jacques Brel’s Au suivant.

Looking for a good book?

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• "Ouija Bird" by EJ Trask

• "The Palimpsest At Hook Wood" by Jon T

• "The Tasteless Death Of Lance Green" by Sean Thomas McDonnell

• "A Feathering" by A.P. Murphy

• "Outnumbed" by William Pauley III

• "Corvus And Crater" by Will Boucher

• "Ravens" by Michele Bardsley

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