Double…Two…2…Twice…one immediately after the other

Double, a word that is multi-hued with many dimensions.  It’s grammatical landscape and nuanced personality can exist as an adjective, predeterminer, adverb, noun, pronoun, verb (transitive or intransitive – remember those terms from high school,) or used in idioms or verb phrases.  Double, “having some essential part or feature twice…,” “twice as large, heavy, strong.”

Now, we may know the phrase “double down,” [especially as a component of the current American presidential race] that means to become more tenacious, zealous or resolute.  We may forget or not know the original use of “double down,” which is a singular feature of the card game, Blackjack.  No matter how you approach “double” its essence connotes more than once, twice as strong, tenacious and resolute, double. 

Persecution Avenue (photo provided)

 It is in these contexts that we present excerpts from the fiction work of Persecution Avenue, a prior aaduna contributor.  His words flow.  His short stories, heavy and strong.  His attitude, tenacious and resolute.  More importantly, he will have two…one immediately after the other…stories in aaduna's upcoming summer 2016 issue.  



Double…do we need to say more?!  Here are two different excerpts from Persecution Avenue’s two stories, summer issue 2016…aaduna.       

Flood Day

A Friday night Charles St. is a strange thing to eyes weighted by two pitchers of Killian's red: foggy, cloudy, deserted. The trees lean further over the sidewalk, lurching closer to the gutter. They cause a thick layer of darkness which consumes everything beneath their wavering green canopy. As he walks down the street, he notices that no one is going the same way.  Even though others are also leaving the bar, Aaron barely senses them getting further away from him. The faint murmur of random conversations catches his ear from behind, he’s not alone, no matter how it feels.  The amber glow from the street lamps dances between the cars, across the pavement; reflecting off every piece of glass in the buildings and cars passing by or parked out there. None of the yellow light catches Aaron’s ground turned face; his brown features stay brown amidst a sea of yellow. None of the light breaks through the canopy; and so, Aaron stumbles along the dark sidewalk.  Step by step, he clumsily makes his way toward his car; the noise from the bar's closing drifts backward, disappearing from earshot. Soon he is alone. 

***

Modernized Warfare

Around one more corner and he was finally in his own block. He was met by several police cars, a police wagon and a platoon of officers on foot.  Their cars lined both sides of the street; sirens blaring, lights spinning in the daytime. Some were even parked on the sidewalk. Without running, the police circuitously chased the normal neighborhood stand- abouts. They didn’t catch anybody and nor did any of them leave the block, so the chase kept going.  Marco continued unaffected by the chaos. Without removing his bag from his back, he pulled his key from the small pocket on the front. He was completely in the house before raising his glance from between his feet.

 *   *   *

aaduna - a timeless exploration into words and images - is a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.  Visit us at www.aaduna.org where we put measurable actions to our words.

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