clusterlizard » Under the Sun

9. High Contrast

clusterlizard — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:33:10 +0000

Black hair, black fishnets and a black dress, between her thin fingers a cigarette was as burnt as the evening. A street lamp and a neon sign in the distance combined to give her pale skin a faint greenish cast. Her eyes, two pools of liquid night, searched the damp streets for anything of interest, only to find the same blandness she had tried to leave behind in the club. Men, rolled off an assembly line with mechanical precision, escorting women from the same cookie cutter trying to distinguish themselves with a different color of candied glitter. The crowd filtered out of the club into a fleet of imported sports cars that sped off belching poison and pretense.

8. Fireflies and Honey

clusterlizard — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:00:00 +0000

Jimmy Johnson was born into the cold of a late fall morning, in his single mother's bedroom. Aided by his three aunts, with old rags and a tin bucket of warm water, he opened his eyes to a new world. He, his mother and his aunts all cried, each for different reasons. Thirty four years later, Slimmy J closed his eyes to an old world. Nobody cried.

Leonard sat on the hillside overlooking the park, finishing a half-pint of whiskey in the damp grass. The night was clear, he wished his mind would be that way. He'd come here many times in his years of homelessness. He always came alone--always, and only when he'd lost one of his friends. The park was as empty as Slimmy J's alley. And that's why he came here. He took the last shot of whiskey and, dropping the bottle, laid back waiting for the ghosts to whisper in his ear stories of a life past.

7. The Guardian Angel

clusterlizard — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 07:47:03 +0000

The bedroom was nearly barren, nothing but brown carpet and white walls, with a single night stand. Peepsite didn't care as he lay in bed, settling down into the indent his large body had formed in the mattress over the years. He slipped his headphones on and they instantly filled his head with synthesizer music he'd fished out of some dollar bin at K-Mart. He smiled back at the Panasonic Girl staring at him from atop his cassette player. She was his "guardian angel"--she was the only woman, other than his mother, he really knew. She came from the cardboard backing that packaged his headphones and was as flat as his life.

6. Dandelion Wine

clusterlizard — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:00:00 +0000

Lisa sat at the window, her drawing pad sitting on her lap, softly illuminated by the Hummel lamp her parents had brought back from Germany. She sketched a dandelion with her colored pencils, bright and yellow, while her sisters, nieces and nephews drowned her father in animated noise downstairs. Quiet as she was, she wouldn't silence them for anything, it let her know there was life in the house.

5. Anthony

clusterlizard — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:21:42 +0000

Anthony lay naked in bed, stuffed between the red satin sheets like a bratwurst between two buns. The bedroom had no windows and it was black as pitch. Anthony hated it. It forced him to be alone with his thoughts. He looked at the clock, its faint glowing numbers flickering from being thrown at the wall too many times--4 am. It was a blatant smack in the face. He knew Lynda was cheating on him. He wished he knew with whom, so he could beat the shit out of him.

4. A Crack in the Alley

clusterlizard — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:04:11 +0000

Slimmy J awoke from a dream of a time when he was a boy, sitting on the green sofa with his momma, watching the rain fall onto the city. It was the first time he remembered seeing rain and it was like magic, water falling from the sky. It was supposed to be sitting in the tub or sink, the toilet. Ever since that afternoon, he'd been fascinated with water. Walking home from school in the early spring, following rushing streams of melting snow. He liked to put bottle caps or anything else that would float in the streams and follow their path with the water.

3. Peepsite

clusterlizard — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:00:09 +0000

Peepsite sat in the cafe sipping on his hot chocolate while watching Nikki, one of the lesbian co-owners, prepare his sandwich. Something about her reminded him of a teacher he'd had long ago--Ms. Snodgrass. The mixture of hot cocoa, incense and John Lennon singing "Across the Universe" lulled him into a trance that carried him back in time.

Ms. Snodgrass was the bane of many a fifth-grader, for as long as she had been teaching--however long that was. It was impossible to determine her age. Some of her features, like her hair style, were that of an older woman. She had no wrinkles, but her body was shaped like a wax pear left out in the sun too long. Attributes that might pique interest if they belonged to someone remotely attractive seemed as though they were haphazardly stapled onto Ms. Snodgrass to dangle and jiggle like a cow's udder.

2. Frankie the Butcher

clusterlizard — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:55:24 +0000

Frankie Ancona shifted his weight onto his good leg. It was more tiring, but less painful and Frankie was determined never to take any sort of pills. They made him lose his edge, and an Italian can't afford to lose his edge. That was even more important than a leg. He lit up a Lucky Strike and inhaled deeply, holding the smoke in his lungs, hoping it would absorb his worries and carry them away when he exhaled.

It didn't work. A wraith of smoke drifted away, taking nothing with it but a few soft glimmers of moonlight. But Frankie wasn't disappointed--it had never worked. He looked at the cigarette, its tip glowing orange in the night, just a few inches from his fingers. That did calm him. He'd seen what that orange glow could do to a man--a man held in place by a couple of other guys. Now, he was playing with it, in full control. With the flick of a finger, it would be suffocated by the puddle of dog piss ten feet away.

1. Leonard

clusterlizard — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:02:53 +0000

Leonard shuffled down the red brick sidewalk, leaving a trail of loneliness, defeat and body odor behind him. The air was soggy and warming up fast. It would be another hot day. It was far better than the freezing cold, but why did spring and fall have to be so short? It seemed to Leonard that the extremes were far more common. And if anyone would know, it was Leonard. He'd been living on the streets for... some years... he'd lost track of how many. He rubbed his eyes and paused for a few seconds to let the blur fade away. Then the most important thought of each new day: Where am I going to get the money for a bottle? I just need a half-pint to start. He felt deep into his pockets and scooped up everything that his fingers could find--mostly bits of paper and gravel. Thirty-seven cents in change. It was a start.