Posts by Geoff Miller

The hum of incandescent flood lights held my pulse soberly. I pulled my eyes back from the window, returning to the dull baby blue hospital ward. The social worker waited for my full attention.

I tried.

Consciously, I rotated my torso back to face her, put down the rubber band I’d been fiddling with and tried once again.

‘Jim, we’re going to have to make it quick today. I’m running low on time today’. I called out as I swung my bag into the trunk and sat down into the passenger seat.
‘Well have you ever run out of it?’
‘What?’
‘Time. Have you ever run out of time?,’ He glanced over briefly.
‘No but that’s not what I- ‘. I was interrupted by a burst of laughter. I know few people who laugh as openly at their own jokes as Jim. You’d always know if Jim were happy with a joke he’d made; the whole room would.

I didn’t see the truck until I was already halfway down the street. Nestled between just behind the neighbours house was a refrigerated truck filled with chunks of meat hanging from the ceiling. I saw the outline of a small body with a few scraps of greyish skin still attached.

My stomach churned. I turned away.

Dismounting, I walked my bicycle down our driveway. I didn’t want to look at the neighbours again, but I heard the woman call out ‘There were prints in the driveway this morning so I figured it was time to get the shipment.’

‘No one really knows what happened to Alberta.’
‘Has it always been that bad?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ He hung his head.
A few seconds later, he mumbled; ‘Fucking DC. I nearly lost it all for that.’’