Stolen Perfume

Two people meet across a gap of weird

100 Words - Corn Dogs

Too many beers find me once again in line at the corn dog stand. The bad calliope music and midway heavy metal fight for supremacy. Hot babes of all persuasions wander by, ignoring me. “I’ll take two please?”

As I eat my two more corn dogs I watch the crowd go by and wonder about myself. My brother and I look alike. He gets all the women he wants. I don’t. I know it all comes down to attitude, but have never found that confidence that I know lives somewhere deep down inside me.

Maybe just one more corn dog.

100 Words - Joy and Herzog

Stan always laughs when Joy Division comes on the car radio. If there is anyone else in the car he’ll try to make a joke about how the lead singer of Joy Division killed himself after watching Werner Herzog movies all night long. No one ever laughs.

The maze of Stan’s sense of humor rarely meshes with the rest of society. He takes their blank stares as a sign of victory in a contest of his own design and singular participation. 

A woman once laughed at one of his jokes. Their eyes met. She ran. She knew she had sinned.

100 Words - Consumer Punk

 

Dave the punk-rocker is an anarchist to the core. He hates the establishment. He hates conformity. He hates the society of entitlement that holds down anyone who doesn’t fit in. He uses Crest toothpaste because he’s always used Crest toothpaste.

Every time he brushes his teeth he’s reminded once again what a poser he is. He tried not brushing his teeth, but women don’t like that, and he rather likes those women. He tried alternatives; natural, cheap, expensive, spicy. None of them worked as well.

He told the group at Posers Anonymous about this. He found out he wasn’t alone.

Outside

100 Words - Lite Brite

 

Andy used to say that his bark was worse than his Light Bright. We became friends because I’m the only one who laughed at that. We both thought the world was absurd. Something to be mocked. Then we discovered punk rock and we were hooked.

Then things changed. The absurdity remained, but our responses diverged. I fell into my writing, trying to create my own world. Andy fell into the pills. Escaping the world he couldn’t control.

The last time I saw him he was on the nod, laying on the sidewalk with the needle still stuck in his arm.