Flash Fiction by KJ Stevens
Touring a 1940’s brick home. Dreaming. More space. Fireplace. A den filled with shelves for books. Then we see the coons. Three of them. Mange has them. They wobble and shake thirty feet up. Broad daylight. January.
Ada and James press their faces to the window, steaming it up. “Oooh, ahh, wow.” Naming them—Momma Rosa, Ralphie, Roscoe the runt.
Sophie’s eyes water. Watching. The babies shiver and sway.
“They’re trembling,” she says, and ushers the kids toward the door.
“They’re just a little cold,” the realtor says.
“They’ve got mange,” I say.
Later, sipping wine, watching Walk the Line.
“I think we’ll get the loan,” I say.
“I think so too,” she says.
“We’re good people, I think.”
“We are good,” she says. “But I don’t want that house.”
“It’s everything we want.”
“It was the mange,” she says. “I don’t want the kids seeing a slow death play out in front of them like that.”
“The kids won’t see it, honey.”
She puts her head on my shoulder.
“Kids see everything.”
“Even if it’s not there?”
She whispers, “Especially when it’s not there.”
Text © KJ Stevens
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