Kevin disappeared the evening of their second anniversary. The following week, Leo picked up a house on the cheap at a police auction after it’d caught fire during a meth lab explosion. His brother helped him remodel it. Linoleum flooring. Mismatched doors. Junkyard toilet. Leo’s sister was dating a city inspector and she got him to rush it through approval.
With the house in top notch condition, Leo went to a pet adoption center next to a cemetery. Leo tried to hug Rocky, and he thrashed Leo with his tail. They both liked rainy Sundays, jigsaw puzzles, and hanging out at tapas bars.
Rocky opted for the master bedroom because of the chaise lounge and backyard view of the squirrels. Leo moved into the bedroom off the kitchen with a twin bed and a dresser he’d made of recycled magazines.
That evening Leo dished out his homemade stew on his granny’s Texaco bowls. The doorbell rang, it was Kevin. Said he’d joined a crew selling magazine subscriptions and traveled all over Florida learning the intricacies of the door-to-door trade. Rocky scoffed off to his bedroom after sniffing Kevin’s red shoes he’d removed at the front door.
Leo offered Kevin a 7-Up, but he wanted tequila. “Let’s do some shots like the old days.”
After five shots Kevin began crank calling some of his high school teachers, daring them to meet him at the Dairy Queen to tell him why they flunked him. Leo remembered the old days and laced up Kevin’s shoes and held the door open for him.
Rocky returned to the kitchen to finish the crossword puzzle of a grizzly bear with Leo as they shared a jar of bacon bits and waited for the nightly rerun of Mary Tyler Moore to come on at nine-thirty.
Jeff Harvey lives in Southern California, USA. His work has appeared in Five South Lit, Bending Genres, MoonPark Review, 10x10 Flash, Blink Ink, and The Metaworker, among others. He tweets @Jeff__Harvey.
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