Dead Animal People

by Marina Nguyen

Chapter One

The peach horizon along the skeletal cornfields slowly reddened, dissolving pockets of fog lingering over icy creek banks. Leafless oak branches creaked in the winter wind. A broken Budweiser bottle lay frozen in the gravel parking lot.

Harold Klummer dumped a scoop of sugar into his coffee and stirred it, clinking his spoon against the mug.

“Our waitress is the mother of that dead animal boy,” he said.

“I know,” Sylvester Jackson replied. The rising December sun cast shadows from the window’s Home of the One Pound Burger stenciling across their booth… (click here for more!)