by Patti Abbott
"My Paul has been gone for so many years... We have such a small window to cherish our souls."
She nodded, leaning in for a peck. "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Topalian."
The woman's stare chilled the back of her neck as they ascended the stairs, buzzing unit 314. Buddy gnawed on his fingers as Mindy craned an ear. She heard shuffling inside.
The door flung open. Mindy was startled at first. Last thing in the world she expected was Santa Claus ho-ho-hoing with a fistful of candy canes. She smiled as he bent over to kiss Buddy. Jello's eyes met hers for a quick moment; Buddy stared on, quietly amazed. She handed him over.
The living room was bursting with ornaments. She approached the metal tree by the television, remembering it in the shop's window—then that scary Saint Nick. "Sonny let you have all this…Santa?"
"Just borrowing it for tonight."
She bent down to the four presents underneath. Each was wrapped with construction paper, random doodles intricately drawn. She reached into her purse, pulling out a thin, rectangular box, and placing it amongst the others. "Mrs. Topalian looked nice today."
"Yeah, I told her you two were coming over."
"She was waiting for us."
Jello set Buddy on the carpet. "We should open the presents, since you gotta go soon."
"We can stay a while."
His beard shifted. "Buddy, you want mommy to play Santa's helper?"
Mindy animated, clapping to retrieve a gift.
They both helped Buddy unwrap.
Her heart sank the moment she saw the coloring book, made from scratch. Every page was filled with wondrous animals, trains, planes and boats. Buddy lit up, markers in hand, spitting, smiling; same as earlier, amongst the new toys. "Your turn, Santa."
"You first."
He watched as she tore out a pink Sonny Bix tank top.
"You shouldn't have."
"Oh, it wasn't any trouble."
"Well, thank you!"
"My turn." He cracked open the thin box. A chrome pencil glistened.
"Thought it'd be good for work."
"I love it, babe. How thoughtful." He paused, then pointed. "Got one more there."
"Don't know why, haven't been the greatest girl lately."
Her face was perplexed as she opened the ornate construction paper. A leather bound notebook, every page overlapped with sketch upon sketch.
"First one I've filled so far. Wanted you to have it."
"It's beautiful—amazing. You've really gotten a lot better!"
"Had my first client too."
"No way!"
He grabbed their camera, showing the picture of Max's neck.
"Whoa! Nice cans." She squeezed his hand. "I'm so proud of you, babe." Her eyes fell to the floor. "I… I'm…"
"Me too."
They embraced, lips locked, before laughing at Buddy, doodling blue marker onto his forearm.
"Uh-oh."
"Wants to be like Daddy." Her fingers tugged his sallow beard.
Before he could stop her, the swollen jaw was exposed.
"Oh my God! What happened!"
"Nothing—it's nothing. Got mugged earlier—funny story."
"What…where?" She pulled off his hat: maroon bandages, eggplant knots. "We should go to the hospital!"
"No."
"No?"
"Looks worse than it is. I'm fine, baby—really."
She was trembling.
He kissed her again, pulling her close. "It's Christmas. Let's just stay like this, okay? Right here."
She wiped an eye, and they returned to Buddy, lost in pure joy.
Her body brought warmth, ear nestling to his heart. He sniffed her hair.
Thanks Max—for everything.
AUTHOR BIOS
PATTI ABBOTT Patti Abbott's recent stories have appeared in The Huffington Post, Pank, the anthology: Reloaded, and Malfeasance Occasional. Forthcoming stories will appear in Needle, Crimespree Magazine, and Underground Voices. Her e-books, Monkey Justice and Home Invasion are available at Amazon. This is her fourth appearance in Thuglit. She lives outside of Detroit.
The short fiction of CHAD DUNDAS has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Journal, Sou'Wester, The Sycamore Review and Camas. He lives in Missoula, Montana and writes about mixed martial arts fighting for ESPN.com.
Mystic, Servant of the Most High, founding member of the Low Writers collective, and 1/5 of Zelmer Pulp, ISAAC KIRKMAN, was born in Greenville, SC and is currently living in Arizona. He is a student at the Tucson Branch of the The Philip Schultz founded Writers Studio. His work has been previously published in Menacing Hedge, Apeiron Review, Counter Example Poetics (w/Jamez Chang), Zelmer Pulp Anthology: Hey! That Robot Ate My Baby! (Vol. 1), Out of the Gutter, Shotgun Honey, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and the Zelmer Pulp Anthology: Five Broken Winchesters (Vol. 1).
NOLAN KNIGHT: Loud, Livid, Los Angeles.
Works: Thuglit, Needle, Plots with Guns…
Peep: NolanKnight.com
MARK PRUETT has written articles and reviews for Commonweal magazine, The Seattle Times Book Review, and The Oregon Statesman, but "Extras" is his first piece of short fiction. His crime novel Dead Wax was published as a Kindle book in May of this year.
CALEB J. ROSS has been published widely, both online and in print. He is the author of Charactered Pieces: stories, Stranger Will: a novel, I Didn't Mean to Be Kevin: a novel, Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One, and As a Machine and Parts.
Visit his official page at www.calebjross.com,
his YouTube channel at calebjross.com/youtube
his Twitter feed at calebjross.com/twitter
Facebook calebjross.com/facebook
and his Google+ at calebjross.com/Google.
DAVID SUMMERS was born and raised in a small town in the Midwest, corn and soybeans for miles in every direction. He headed out of town at the earliest opportunity and eventually ended up in the Pacific Northwest where he keeps his head down, does some writing and enjoys life.
BUSTER WILLOUGHBY is a twenty-nine year old series of grunts and sighs that works and lives outside Nashville, Tennessee. He has had works published by Thuglit, Metahuman and Future Quake Press.
TODD ROBINSON (Editor) is the creator and Chief Editor of Thuglit. His writing has appeared in Blood & Tacos, Plots With Guns, Needle Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Strange, Weird, and Wonderful, Out of the Gutter, Pulp Pusher, Grift, Demolition Magazine, CrimeFactory and the anthologies Lost Children: Protectors, and Danger City. He has been nominated for the Anthony Award, three times for the Derringer Award, short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, selected for Writers Digest's Year's Best Writing 2003 and won the inaugural Bullet Award in June 2011. The first collection of his short stories, Dirty Words, is now available and his debut novel The Hard Bounce is available from Tyrus Books.
ALLISON GLASGOW (Editor) Makes you co-op-er-ate with the rhythm, that is what she give em. Reagan is the prez but she voted for Shirley Chilsholm.
JULIE MCCARRON (Editor) is a celebrity ghostwriter with three New York Times bestsellers to her credit. Her books have appeared on every major entertainment and television talk show; they have been featured in Publishers Weekly and excerpted in numerous magazines including People. Prior to collaborating on celebrity bios, Julie was a book editor for many years. Julie started her career writing press releases and worked in the motion picture publicity department of Paramount Pictures and for Chasen & Company in Los Angeles. She also worked at General Publishing Group in Santa Monica and for the Dijkstra Literary Agency in Del Mar before turning to editing/writing full-time. She lives in Southern California.
BETH STEIDLE (Cover designer/artist) is a writer, illustrator, and book designer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has appeared in Drunken Boat, Diagram, Hot Metal Bridge, and several print anthologies. Her first full-length book, The Static Herd, is forthcoming from Calamari Press.
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Table of Contents
A Message from Big Daddy Thug
McFerrin and Black
The Rightful King of Wrestling
The Higher the Heels
Cocaine Starlight
Three Days Ahead
Nothing To Lose
Extras
Not Even a Mouse
AUTHOR BIOS
Other Titles