Day of Rest

07/20/12

I heard Lou Murray beat his girlfriend blind on Thursday and I spent the next three days not sleeping, not showering, just driving the unlit streets.

I saw Lou on Sunday morning buying a case of Miller Lite and some franks for the Saints game. I got him to my car by flashing my badge.

“I’m clean as a pastor’s sheets, Jari,” Lou tells me.

“I got evidence on you right here,” I said and opened the cruiser’s trunk and when he looked into the empty space, I hit him with a brick until his eyes quit trying to open.

By noon, I had him set up in his one-barrel shotgun house.

I laid him by the gold skirt he’d bought his girl. I taped his neck down next to the cell phone he’d sent 200 threats and 400 apologies from. I spread under him the flannel comforter they’d slept together through 5 domestic battery charges and 2 hospital visits.

By six, I took Lou apart.

I dumped the scalpel I’d slit his knees’ tendons with into the sewer grate where the kids splash around in sepsis. I kept the blowtorch that burned his fingers off. I washed the pliers I’d removed his eyes with.

By eight, I joined Hakk on our couch.

“I taped the game you missed,” Hakk said.

But when he offered me a beer, my mind couldn’t stay blank. When he paused the game three times to ask what was wrong, I couldn’t tell him. When he slid his arm around me, it felt like a flannel comforter, and I shrugged it off.

“I’m going to sleep,” Hakk said at last, headed for our bed.

“You would,” I said.

I lay down on the couch and stared at the unlit streets until my eyes were sure they would stay blank and finally closed.

~ fin ~

Matthew C. Funk

Matthew C. Funk writes for a living because range fees don’t pay themselves. He stores his online writing and other live rounds at his Web site. http://www.matthewfunk.net/fiction.html

Well done. Every word counts.
Naomi Johnson
August 12, 2012
Nicely pared down to the bone. Is this a recurring character?
Peter McGann
July 21, 2012
mr. funk does it again - just like he always does. good stuff. not a wasted worn and a hundred vivid pictures.
Bill Baber
July 20, 2012
Brutally efficient. Jari and the story.
Erik Arneson
July 20, 2012
Lou got more than one day of rest. Whew, good one!
Bruce Harris
July 20, 2012
Jari's so damn unique I'll bet she would go great in a novel. True dat, Mr. Funk?
AJ Hayes
July 20, 2012
Whoa - intense. Packing a wallop there, Matt. Loved it.
Andrez Bergen
July 20, 2012
 Beautifully written.
Aa2579
July 20, 2012
Jari gives in a little. I like that. 
Benoît Lelièvre
July 20, 2012
Nothin' better than a Funk short.  It's nice to read a story and not realize until after that not a single word is wasted.
Jeff Begley
July 20, 2012
Holy crap. When Jari goes for it, she really freakin' goes for it. But what's one more dead turd in NOLA?
Ryan Sayles
July 20, 2012

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