All Her Diamond Rings

by C. W. Blackwell

About the Author: C.W. Blackwell's recent short stories have appeared with Reckon Review, Shotgun Honey, Tough Magazine, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, and Fahrenheit Press. He is a 2021 Derringer award winner and 2022 finalist. His fiction novellas Song of the Red Squire and Hard Mountain Clay are available where books are sold.

Excerpt

Markeem was replacing the master cylinder on an early model Chevy Camaro when he sensed someone watching him. He always thought of the feeling like a sixth sense—a sudden coldness on the back of the neck, a faint ringing in the ears. When he was a child, his mother would say someone walked over his grave. The saying never made much sense to him until she explained while he didn’t have a grave, an anonymous patch of dirt existed somewhere in the world, waiting to receive him—and sometimes people crossed it.

He set his ratchet on the tool tray and glanced around the shop. It was just past noon, and the other mechanics were out at their typical lunch spots. Bruno’s BBQ, Wendy’s, the noodle joint around the corner. He turned to the front of the shop and spotted a middle-aged woman standing at the open bay door. Salon hairstyle, designer purse clutched tight. The sun was at her back and he couldn’t make out the face.

“Markeem Kennon?” she asked.

He came to her slowly with a shop rag in his hand, casually scrubbing the grime from the webs of his fingers. He pointed to the cursive letters embroidered into his navy blue shop jacket as if he’d just learned of his own identity.

“I guess that’s me,” he said.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” she said.

The cold sensation grew colder yet as she bore her pale blue eyes upon him.

Then he knew. All at once, he knew.

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