Home
About
Current Issue
Archive
Contact
Submissions
Links

email this link
print-friendly

 
Random Haiku Generator
Poem of the Day
Flash Fiction

 


Motels and Vodka
by Hannah Sward

 

.Chloe and Dimitri sat across from one another in a dark red leather booth at a vintage bar on Santa Monica Blvd.
........Dimitri leaned back, placing his fists on the table. “So, ask me anything you want.”
........Chloe was silent, inscrutable.
........He handed her a photo out of his suede wallet. “A picture, my son.”
........“Smart looking boy,” Chloe said. “He's here with you?”
........“In Moscow. Eleven he is. Seventeen I was...very hard...I miss him.”
........Dimitri waved down the waiter. “Bring more vodka…and dessert. Whatever you have, but nothing peachy.”
........He dismissed the waiter with a flick of his hand.
........“What you want out of life?” he asked, leaning in close to Chloe.
........She smiled softly.
........“I know. Love... you want,” he said.
........“You’re making fun of me.” Dark blonde curls framed her smooth face as her head tilted down, just slightly.
........He stroked her pale cheek. “Oh, baby.”
........The young amateur jazz band in the bar began to play. Chloe pretended to be interested in them.
........Dimitri knocked back his vodka. “What, no love in your life?”
........“What about you?” she asked.
........“Not in this lifetime, baby.”
........The waiter brought two desserts to the table.
........Chloe took a sip of her drink. “You're kind of young to give up.”
........“Not giving up,” Dimitri said, sticking a straw in the chocolate dessert, swirling the sauce around. “I don’t want any love.”

........They left. Driving east on Sunset Blvd.
........“We get hotel room.” Dimitri waved his cigarette in her face towards the slightly seedy hotel on the right hand side of the street.
........“Oh, do we?” Chloe asked, somewhat amused.

........Chloe followed Dimitri up the stairs into the motel room. Fully clothed, Dimitri stretched out on the bed. Feet crossed, he lit a cigarette.
........“You go shower now,” he said, watching his smoke rise to the ceiling.
........Chloe closed the bathroom door behind her. She undressed, hanging her pale pink slip and stockings on a metal hook. Then she turned on the shower and sat on the toilet. A foggy, full-length mirror was opposite her. She stared at herself, naked. Her hips appeared fuller in this position in comparison to her narrow waist. The crack in the mirror distorted the reflection of her breasts. She stuck her feet in the shower, lathering each one up with a bar of soggy soap. Then she wiped them off and walked out of the room. Dimitri was laying on the bed naked. He didn’t look her way, staying concentrated on his smoke. She just stood there, motionless.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Hannah is currently completing her first full manuscript which will have about 21 stories when they are completed by next January. She has work forthcoming in "Other Voices."