Marking Time

by David Stier

About the Author: David Stier's recent publications include: Obsessions: An Anthology of Original Fiction, Stark Publishing, Nov 2020 “The Tooth Fairy”, "Postcard" in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, et al.

Excerpt

The day dawned cold, wet and windy. Typical for Jersey City in October. I turned up the collar on my trench coat and tugged the rumpled fedora lower to keep the rain out of my eyes. The .45 rested snug under my right arm, both holster and gat lending a little warmth. I sucked in smoke off the nail dangling from the side of my kisser which helped keep the blood pumping in this autumn ice box. Jersey had always been home but why I put up with it now was maybe the biggest mystery on my plate.

My Plymouth was in the shop again so I’d decided to hoof the five blocks to my office. As soon as I’d left my two room walk up, it really started to dump, as though God’s helping hand was just the ticket needed to douse my hangover. I really wanted to thank him, but all’s it reminded me of was the mud of Monte Casino and how trudging up and down that goddam mountain had nearly punched my ticket. As a reminder, my left knee started to ache. Krauts were damned good at drilling ground pounders—especially when popping slugs downhill. Sometimes I wished I’d got the full Monty and not just the bum knee. One benny about the rain though, was that it soaked the sidewalk and kept the Jersey dirt out of my schnoz.

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