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About the Author: Craig Terlson's fiction has appeared in literary journals in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa. His debut novel, Fall in One Day,(Blue Moon) brings his quirky, dark sense of humour and an ear for the dialogue he heard growing up on the Canadian prairies.
If I believed in God, I would thank him for making me lose my milk delivery job. Mom used to say that God made good things happen out of bad things. She told me that was in the Bible somewhere, or possibly Reader’s Digest. Maybe it wasn’t some man in the sky that pushed me to take the corner too fast, a move that busted three cases of product and ran a white river behind the truck. Dear Old Dad (D.O.D.), would call me a doofus for thinking it was anything but my own stupidity that tipped the truck. But he was worm food now, and he’d left me and Mom to fend off the creditors years before that. I didn’t give a fat rip what he or anyone else thought. Good things came out of that bad thing. Life took a much better turn after the truck took the bad one.
Mom was in the ground too, but thankfully in a different cemetery in a different part of the country than that asshat. Both parents gone by my thirtieth birthday—not sure if that made me an orphan or just an adult. I think Mom would have liked where I ended up. Here I was, washing a sink full of dishes, pot of chili brewing on the stove and a couple of cold ones in the Westinghouse for Debbie when she got home. Deb was the sole bread-winner, bacon-bringer-homer now. So what if what she did wasn’t legal in the strictest sense? Or really any sense. Everybody’s gotta do something.
I like the language and that the ending is unclear as to if it is a happy ending or a sad ending.
Only have time to read half of it so far but love the voice and the clever writing. I'll have to check out your books.
Craig- you've done a brilliant job of striking a tone that draws the reader through the piece. And I really enjoyed the way you turned the typical setup around, turning the housewife into a house husband and the housewife into the perp. The running Westinghouse gag was fun, too.
What clever and engaging writing! I was going to only read a little, but I couldn't stop until the end. Very smooth and funny! Dang, to engage a reader as you do, is a hat's off to you, Craig!
I enjoyed how the suspense of the story built, especially using the jump cut as the MC watches a television movie while seeing another movie in his head. Very effective. The ending was excellent-clever & satisfying. It tied in nicely with the opening paragraph.
A great read from a very talented writer. Well done.
Thanks very much - I really appreciate the kind words. This is one of my favourite stories, and I was really pleased that Mystery Weekly picked it up.
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