A bleak afterthought

Paolo in the evening: amphetamines, gambling in the back room at the Estilo Barber Shop, whiskey, a hundred cigarettes. Paolo in the morning: eyes burning, the stagger to his Impala, looking back at a squirrel he’d run over. The squirrel spinning like a record in his rear-view mirror. The pavement slick with rain. Paolo in the afternoon: asleep on his mother’s couch in Passaic, the dog whining at his side for a walk. He woke with the thought of high school. He wished he’d finished Moby Dick. He remembered Jenni Silverman, crying, squirrel-like in her cheerleader outfit.

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Title by: dcdave
Story by: Ross White

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