Ready for another aaduna tease? You know you are!

Here are a few unedited [mostly] excerpts from Gillick, Murray, and Backer…three intriguing writers coming to the aaduna readership in the summer 2014 issue:

 from Matt Gillick’s “Swim Practice”

Dad was supposed to pick me up on time but he didn’t.  He was late again. He’s always on time right at five.  Mom said he sometimes took a long time putting on his green clothes and be late for his flight when he left.  I kind of wished he lost them so he could stay longer and tell me jokes.  They’re funny jokes like: “J.P., what happens to a…”  I forget the rest but I always laugh at the end.  The way he tells jokes is funny but I’m not laughing at him.  He just tells them well like I knew I would understand if I were smarter.  Mom told me not to laugh at kids at swim practice, so I laugh at them in the locker room.  One of them cried and I felt bad and I stopped for a bit.  She didn’t come back so I couldn’t say sorry.  Where was Dad?  He didn’t have another flight to catch.  I want Mom to tell me more about what Dad does.  I kind of know.

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from Mike Murray’s “Stage Fright”

As Lila lay on the floor of the janitor’s closet, running her fingers over the raised flesh on her face still hot from being burned, she considered all the choices she’d made, not because she was Jewish, but because other people knew she was Jewish.  She couldn’t ignore the choked screams of the dark figure next to her, who had curled herself into the fetal position. Her screams became sobs.

*

Everyone felt the closure of summer.  Lila no longer heard the punctual cackles from her mom’s friends on Sunday nights while they killed a bottle of Sutter Home merlot on the porch.  The air had begun to fill with the smell of burnt leaves during Lila’s walks home from school, on weekends the white smoke from charcoal grilled hamburgers floating leisurely through her neighborhood, riding on the sound of leaf blowers.  The new beginnings of fall brought an omniscient sense of foreboding for Lila.

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from Tom Backer’s “Fear”

I walk away, push through the swinging doors to a short dark hallway, and then turn the knob on the heavy metal door to the outside.

A grey limo, like a whale out of water, stretches across the No Parking zone about thirty feet from the entrance.  Both doors on this side of the main compartment are spread open, exposing a plush grey interior with two six packs of Bud on the floor, the legs of a guy and a girl in the back seat and those of a guy facing them.

My pool buddy, George, stands off to the side smoking.

Short and trim, always calm and dignified looking, he is black and his hair is just starting to grey at the temples.  There’s no cover charge at the Wild Goose and he is recently retired so he spends most of his evenings here, picking up free beers from chumps like me and some serious cash from guys who think they are pool sharks.  He doesn’t seem to notice that there are a lot of girls walking around in very abbreviated outfits, while I, despite what I said to the blonde with the nice ass, am an easy mark for the  girls and my factory job doesn’t pay me enough to spend a lot of time here.

aaduna's  Summer/Volume 4, No. 2 issue will have a lot for everyone…you’ll see!  Diversity in writing is wonderful!

aaduna-Inc  Visit regularly for updates !

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