Rejoice with me, I have beaten depression. There’s this trick I have of remembering that my mother used to carry gems in her pocket as a teenager. No thieves suspected! This is more biography. She and her friend were making deliveries on Jeweler’s Row!
Despite her early training, my mother did not become a gemologist, instead a lab tech and occasional phlebotomist. Some of her friends call her Blondie.
Grace prefers emeralds. Once in Charleston, we picked out a ring for her birthday, and if I follow the memory, we walked a long pier and looked at Fort Sumter, a Yankee and a Rebel in love.
Someone I know stole this jewel detail about my mother when I held it out to be admired. She lied and applied it to her own life, which really would have been impossible by then, the city had gotten so dangerous.
When I got my ears pierced at twenty, the girl at Claire’s was impressed that I didn’t flinch. The holes are still there if I ever get rich. See below.
There’s a dog missing in town and the reward is $5,000. Her name is Ruby, which is not a lie meant to enhance the overall theme, but rather, reflects the breed of the dog, a Red Tick Hound. I don’t know where the dog is, but it occurs to me that searching for the dog might be a lucrative hustle. If I were to go looking, I’d put some treats in my pocket and check the dumpster at Sonic. Eventually, I’d check the highway’s berm, which doomfully attracts dogs like a magnet.
Of course, Ruby has been stolen. Her picture on the posters show a beautiful and desirable animal, no doubt, capable of love one could not put a price on.
SEAN ENNIS
Sean is the author of CHASE US: Stories (Little A) and his flash fiction has recently appeared or is forthcoming in New World Writing, Diagram, HAD, Bending Genres and X-Ray. More of his work can be found at website, below.
WWW: seanennis.net
IG: instagram.com/Seanennis110
