Thursday, February 16, 2012

Blue Notes


Ray Donovan sat in the parked car and watched the passersby on the sidewalk.  Every few seconds he turned on the ignition and the wipers in order to get a better look.  Four bodies in the last six months and not a single clue to be had.  Well that is except for the marks on the necks – the press was guessing piano wire. 

Ray was pretty sure about where the bad boy was coming from.  In fact he’d followed him from Broadway for the last three nights.  Tonight he’d decided to wait for him instead.  The guy was pretty consistent, leaving the Alvin Theater shortly after intermission and making his way over to the jazz clubs on 52nd. Donovan was getting tired of Jazz.  He just wasn’t able to get his head around it - too much smoke and too many pauses.  How the hell do you even dance with someone with that stuff playing?  I guess somebody likes it though; the clubs are packed every damn night. 

He turned his head and watched a cab pull up in front of the 3 deuces.  A sharp dressed guy and rich from the looks of it stepped out of the cab.  He took a wallet from his jacket and snatched a few bills from it which he threw through the passenger’s window.  Tossing his cigarette into the gutter, he buttoned his coat and headed into the club. 

Donovan looked in his rear view mirror and seeing the sidewalk empty, closed his eyes for moment.  He opened one eye when he heard the sound of a woman’s laughter.  She was tottering her way up the sidewalk on a pair of black stilettos, hanging on to some guy who was just as tanked as she was.  They were hanging on to each other pretty tight, as they staggered up the sidewalk.  The guy pulled her in for a kiss which she didn’t seem to object to.  The two lingered alongside Donovan’s car, eventually leaning against it as things heated up.  Shit, Donovan thought as he turned on the ignition and revved the engine.  He smiled and raised an eyebrow as the two stumbled off of the car.

“Sorry bud” said the guy as the two continued on their way.  

The sound coming from the clubs could be heard up and down the street and through the closed windows of Donovan’s car.  Ray watched as a couple of teenage boys ambled up the street, their eyes looking from the parked cars to the row of clubs just starting to hit their stride.  Probably checking to see which one offered them their best chance of getting in.  Oops well they seem to have gotten lucky he thought as he watched the two boys walk into the Club Carousel. 

Donovan looked in the driver’s side mirror and watched as a black and white cruised slowly down the street.  It stopped for a few seconds about block away from where he was parked and then continued.  The door to the club opened and one of the teenagers walked out in the company of a woman most mothers wouldn’t care to see their sons with.  She was putting the cash in her purse and he was grinning like an idiot as they passed by the car on their way to the nearest dark corner for some schooling. 

Donovan had foolishly drunk too much coffee before setting out tonight and was feeling the need to relieve himself.  He looked around the car for a jar – anything to empty his bladder into, which by now was beginning to thump louder than the trash coming from the clubs.  Stupid, he thought as he stepped out of the car, closed the door and looked up and down the street before walking down the sidewalk in search of an alley.  He passed one which was being used by the teenager and his new best friend and continued down the sidewalk a ways until he found one behind a restaurant.  He walked back into the dark and away from the music and relieved himself of a pint of caffeine.  He zipped himself up and was about to turn around when he heard a piece of gravel crunch under foot. 

“You waiting for me Ray?”

Donovan turned his head just in time to feel the wire dig into his neck.   

Tuesday, February 7, 2012


A Guide for the Newly Married Debuts at #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List

By Lisa Penniman

Kennebunkport, ME – Newlywed Kimmy Pemberly attempts the exercises shown in Chapter Four of local writer Buffy Fitzpahtee’s latest book Marital Harmony From This Day Forward.  The chapter entitled “Ways to Sooth Your Man” helps newlyweds effectively deal with those new and often raw emotions that can arise from such things as “I Just Had to Have It,” “Adventures in Third World Cooking,” and “How I Learned to Love the Junior League.”

Kimmy especially likes the photographs and easy to read diagrams that accompany each chapter.  “Pictures make it fun!” she says.
 
Here’s Kimmy following the steps to sooth her man as he recovers from a recent altercation with a local fisherman.  Jeffrey, calmer this time as a result of Kimmy’s ministrations, examines the statement which arrived in the morning mail itemizing last month’s lobster dinner for forty-eight of his wife’s sorority sisters.

Kimmy, with her elbow firmly planted directly into the soft spot above Jeffrey’s collar bone, gently holds her husband’s head while singing a soothing African song, known among the natives to calm area wildlife after being shot at by tourists.

That a girl Kimmy!