Jazz Fiction
Interruptions On A Christmas Eve
by Arthur R George
The small restaurant and occasional music bistro was closed for Christmas Eve. Its owner Ernie DiVitale had darkened the room. There was light enough, from the Christmas tree in the corner and spilling in from a lamp over the prep area in the kitchen, to relax with his wife Veronica at a back table over cappuccini and frutti di bosco tortas, ricotta cheese cake with fresh fruit toppings, a special treat in winter. For Ernie and Veronica it ...
read moreHoliday Notes Across A Hallway
by Arthur R George
A knock on the door of Augie Cannataro's apartment. He peered through the security window to see the single mother from across the hall. They had always nodded politely at each other when passing in the lobby or hallway. He was respectful but didn't want to approach an involvement in whatever her life was with her son, who Cannataro had also seen in passing and had heard through the walls of their apartments making painful attempts at saxophone practice.
read moreBetween The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea
by Dan McClenaghan
When the wife invites the ladies over for Mahjong, I get out of the house. They're a great bunch, but they play the game like it's a blood sport. Fractious trash-talk melodies. Clacking, tile-smacking-the-table percussion. Wild ear-piercing laughter... So I drove down to the beach, Ella Fitzgerald singing about the devil and the deep blue sea on my sound system. I parked and hobbled with my quad cane to the beach access and sat my old butt halfway ...
read moreTonal Warriors
by Peter Rubie
New York City, July, 1983 “Man, it's like walking with lead shoes on," I complained. Roger, our drummer, smiled, shook his head and muttered, “I may just take off in a minute." Eddie said to me, “You're a miserable motherfucker sometimes, Phil. You know that?" The three of us sat on the stone steps of the waterless fountain outside the Plaza Hotel. We were dog-legged across from a horde of street vendors by Central ...
read moreWhat A Little Moonlight Can Do
by Dan McClenaghan
The birthday bash for my granddaughter Marisol went down at my son's house, on the other side of town. And since her other abuelo was on the patio cooking chicken taquitos in a makeshift deep fryer, I'd offered to buy the pizzas. I phoned in the order: five pepperonis, extra cheese all around. They wouldn't take my credit card info. They said they'd been hacked, their customers pulled into financial danger, so they'd send in a drone with a card ...
read moreBye Bye Blackbird
by Dan McClenaghan
Carter Johnson quad-caned his way out to his patio with a glass of whiskey and water in his hand, ice cubes tinkling like piano notes as he did his damnedest not to spill a drop. The cane steadied his unsteady gait. The whiskey had been measured out parsimoniously by Carter's wife, Olivia. In her mind, a weak drink or two wouldn't hurt her husband, and it might help him wrap his head around his situation of diminished verbosity and mobility. ...
read moreVintage 31
by Robert Slentz-Kesler
Max marched through the front door and looked at his watch. “Where's Louie?" “We still have ten minutes." I was setting up the music stands. “Yeah, but we need time—" “Maxie! Mad Max! Max the Mad Hatter!" Louie walked in with an extended open palm, his upright bass case strapped to his back. “Hello, Louie." Max shook his hand. Louie looked at me. “Amos the ...
read moreAnother Story
by Matthew Michael Sweeney
Spencer said, “This is going to make you very angry, but you need to go the bathroom right now and smile into the mirror. Just remember I'm doing this because I love you very much. Don't talk to or look at anybody until you do that." They stood facing each other, Spencer and Diane, very close together, in the sprawling kitchen of her parent's ranch house overlooking the choppy rain and wind-swept waters of Lake Martin. Across the ...
read moreFly Me To The Moon
by Dan McClenaghan
The birthday bash went down at my son's house, on the other side of town, for my youngest granddaughter, Sofia. And since her other abuelo was in the backyard cooking chicken taquitos in a makeshift deep fryer, I'd offered to buy the pizzas. I made the phone call, gave them my order. They wouldn't take my credit card info. They said they'd been hacked, their customers pulled into financial danger, so they'd send in a drone with the pizzas and ...
read moreTurn Out The Stars, Part 1
by Dan McClenaghan
Jolene pressed “Enter" to buy her husband Frank a baboon's heart on Amazon, from a lab in jny: Amsterdam. Two days later a guy pulled up to the curb in a white van and ran the purchase up to the front door. Jolene had been tracking it. She was on the porch before the driver was back in his truck. She found the heart inside a small brown box, bubble-wrapped and surrounded by shards of dry ice, ready for transplant. ...
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