Ode to Ninkasi by Arthur Shattuck O'Keefe
****The voice of the speaker drones on as the presentation stretches into a grim, unrelenting eternity.
****One member of the captive audience is mildly distressed, for despite having decided to take a break from drinking for a few weeks, he has begun to experience an intense craving for a cold beer. This, he assumes, is a stress reaction activating a pleasure-seeking reward mechanism, or something like that. As he has countless times before, he resigns himself to this state as an occupational hazard and decides to simply look forward to the beer.
****The colleague on his left is playing solitaire on her tablet computer, something he would never have the nerve to do during a meeting. Instead, he begins writing on his legal pad about how bored he is, assuming this will be mistaken for taking notes on the presentation, or at least a work-related task. Anyway, there are about two hundred people in the room, so it’s unlikely he’ll be singled out for scrutiny.
****Beads of condensation form upon his imaginary glass of beer as the colleague on his right nods off.
****He pauses to check the presentation handout, finding the slideshow frame corresponding to the one on the projector screen. Number 17 out of 47. With any luck it will be over in half an hour. The beer is waiting.
Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe was born in New York and lives in Kanagawa, Japan. His debut novel The Spirit Phone was released in 2022 by BHC Press. His short fiction has appeared in Johnny America, ScribesMICRO, Ragazine, The Stray Branch, and Flash Fiction Magazine.
Instagram – arthurokeefe_author
Facebook – Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe
Tags: