Competition Thirty-Three Highly Commended: Gravel by S.A. Greene
He’s been at the precinct the past three Wednesdays, trying to sell driveways made of gravel and resin. Kathy and I discussed him in Birds. Who’d want a job standing out in the cold like that all day? ‘Poor sod’ I sighed and Kathy teased me, said I fancy him, like we’re teenagers or something. What would she know about fancying anyway? She’s been married since the Ark.
Kathy’s made one of her excuses so today I’m having lunch in Birds by myself. I can see Resin Man from my table. His cheeks are pinched, white and pink like the viburnums shivering in the concrete flowerbeds. Everyone he approaches hurries past. Maybe I should bring him a cup of coffee…
I don’t, of course, but after lunch I find myself walking towards him on the way to Supersavers. He stares down at his chunky circular samples as if he’s decided I’m not the kind of person who owns a driveway. I grab a leaflet anyway. Diagrams show how the resin binds the gravel to the ground, stops it rolling away.
I think about that sometimes. Rolling away.
He’s nice looking, Resin Man, I’ll grant Kathy that. Youngish, clean-cut. But she’s wrong about me fancying him. I don’t. I wish I could say I did but it’s something different. Smaller. I want to make him supper. That’s all. Oh, nothing posh – shepherd’s pie, probably, or spag Bol. Daffodils on the table, a glass of cheap wine. Some chit-chat. Nothing deep. Nothing off-putting.
After pudding and coffee I’ll show him the spare room and say ‘see you in the morning’ and then go straight to my own room and I’ll fall asleep easily without the nightlight on because that would be enough. Enough just to say it. ‘See you in the morning’.
S A Greene’s short fiction has appeared before in Free Flash Fiction, as well as in trampset, Temple In A City, Gooseberry Pie Lit., Blink-Ink, Mslexia, Fictive Dream, New Flash Fiction Review, Ellipsis Zine, The Phare, Flash Flood, Reflex, Funny Pearls, and other fabulous places.
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