You're A Daisy If You Do

by Ken Brosky

About the Author: Ken Brosky has two novels published through Timber Ghost Press. He is also published in Tough Crime Mag, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Mystery Weekly Magazine.

Excerpt

William Bloom stinks of minoxidil.

It molds his thinning hair into wet clumps, glistening in the light of the TV. He puts it on in the bathroom and leaves it in the medicine cabinet next to the bottles of antidepressants prescribed to everyone in the Squire house. Nicole Squire takes them because her husband died six months ago of a violent heart attack. Connor and Beth Squire, her children, take them because their father died six months ago of a violent heart attack.

Every night, Will Bloom sits on the couch with this broken family, watching Netflix. Beth, Connor, their mother, and Will Bloom. Nicole and Will hold hands on the couch, newlyweds. Beth sits on the far end and folds her legs so she doesn’t touch her new step-father. Connor sits on the beanbag chair on the floor so he can read a paperback Western he bought from Goodwill.

But the TV blares, disrupting the narrative voice in Connor’s mind. Their mother is losing her hearing and she’s only 44 years old. Normally, one of her children connects the little earbud set that amplifies the sound. But Will likes the volume loud when he watches TV. Will wants the living room dark, like a movie theater.

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