Good-bye, Audrey

-- She’d break out the jug, her homemade gin – ‘thimble-full won’t hurt’ – set two shot glasses on the counter and fill them to the brim, ‘neat.’ He’d raise his glass to her, ‘Prost.’ ‘Prost,’ she’d say and they’d knock them back and slam the glasses down on the counter. God’s fire wrapped him up and burned all the way down. ‘You don’t need a wash with that, do ya?’ He was speechless at the counter, burning. ‘Nah. That’s a good boy.’ --

The short fiction of Jonah Rye. Tales contemporary and historical, of harmony and tragedy, discord and comedy, purgatory and hell. Love and murder.

-- Skinny girl with fine flyaway hair cut close, tiny topknot tied with blue ribbon, sits cross-legged in the yard, holds up pop-eyed mop-haired yellow pup in front of her. Pup's head is cocked, ears pricked up, tiny topknot of fur tied with blue ribbon. Sunny summer day, smell of fresh-cut grass. Skinny girl and pop-eyed pup look up, smile. --

Includes: What I Mean -- Rightly -- Cock and Bull -- Teacher -- Romantic -- So Damn Fat -- Lonnie's Divorce -- Tradition -- Waiting -- Kid at Play -- Poop Jewelry -- Year of Misfortune -- Promise -- Prevention -- Exhibition -- Beach -- Debt