To Envy the Muse by Arthur Shattuck O'Keefe

She is young and beautiful, her long black hair tied in a ponytail. She is writing. Bruno sits three tables away as a soft cascade of modern jazz drifts through the café. He cannot tell what she is writing. He sees her in profile, and a loose lock of hair partly obscures her features. He envies her.

She refers to a small book of some kind, then writes into what looks like a notebook. The romantic in him wants to think she is working on a novel, poem, or short story, but it could be a budget plan or a meeting agenda.

Bruno is envious because she writes with such intensity and drive, while he has long been stuck, his mind a repeatedly stalling engine. There is no such thing as writer’s block, said Bradbury, Pullman, and Pratchett. Maybe I’m just making excuses.

He and the beautiful mystery writer are both drinking iced caffe lattes, which he interprets as a sign that they are kindred spirits in the quest for creative expression. Iced caffe lattes shall fuel our endeavors, as unrequited love did Dante’s, sugarless daiquiris Papa’s, and amphetamines Philip K. Dick’s.

She leans over to use the touchscreen of a tablet computer, then picks up and ruffles the pages of what Bruno had assumed was a notebook. He now sees it is a schedule planner. His illusion of a literary effort all but shattered, he doesn’t mind. He removes a pen and a yellow legal pad from his backpack.

She gets up, gathers her things, and leaves the café as Bruno begins to write.

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.

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Illustration by Jennifer-Li Scarlett Beeler

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