Tom by Denis Bell
The call came at 11:30, just as Rog was getting ready for bed. Tom, picked again up for “wandering.” Early onset Alzheimer’s and still they couldn’t leave the poor sod alone. Rog swore under his breath as he gathered up his wallet and his keys and headed out the door.
Outside it was must have been 85 degrees and the air in the city was muggy and thick. Rog felt the sweat start to pour off his brow before he had made it half a block down the street.
Rog turned the corner at Cork and Main and headed for the precinct house. Through the neighborhood where once stood the convenience store where the two of them did their first work together. Work. Apprehended within two blocks of the store with their grand haul of $183.40! Past the street with the foundry where Rog’s long gone wife Debbie broke the news that she was pregnant and later, after bridges were burned, turned out not. Past the street that led to the park where he was set upon once by a gang of louts who broke his nose and stole his bike.
There was some extra paperwork to fill out this time and it took more than an hour and a half to get him out. Tom was silent on the way back to his place and when they got there Tom turned to him and said, Well, that’s that, then. That’s that. Not a word of thanks. Nothing. Hell, what are old friends for?
Denis Bell is a maker of mathematical formulas and small fictions. His writing has appeared in The Maine Review, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Literary Orphans and many other journals. A collection of his work titled A Box of Dreams was recently published by Spartan Press.
A Box of Dreams by Denis Bell is available on Amazon – here in UK and here in US
Illustration by Louise Freshman Brown
Louise Freshman Brown is a mixed medium artist whose works have been featured in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe. Solo exhibits include; Piirto Gallery, Helsinki, Finland, Everson Museum, NY, The Deland Museum of Art, FL, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL and Monique Goldstrom Gallery, NYC. Group exhibitions; Galleria Retro & Arte, Venice, Italy, Advice Konsthall, Sollentuna, Sweden, Jane Haslem Gallery, Washington, DC, New York Academy of Art, NYC and Boca Raton Museum of Art. Her works are in over 500 collections and she is a Distinguished Professor of Art Emerita at the University of North Florida.
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