<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Testing, Testing<\/strong><\/p>\n I awoke sweating like a<\/p>\n A. Mormon at an anti-bigamy conference. I assumed I’d had a nightmare, but I couldn’t remember anything. It could have been about<\/p>\n A. losing my job as an apple picker at Claire’s husband’s orchards and having to tell Norma. I knew I should<\/p>\n A. get my lazy ass out of bed and make Claire a nice breakfast, even though I sucked in the kitchen. Instead, I guess I’ll<\/p>\n A. take care of my hard-on myself like I do most mornings. (Like grandpa used to say about playing cards, with a good hand who needs a partner?) <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Testing, Testing I awoke sweating like a A. Mormon at an anti-bigamy conference. B. farmer facing down a rabid donkey. C. truck driver steering his semi down an icy road. I assumed I’d had a nightmare, but I couldn’t remember anything. It could have been about A. losing my job as an apple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2817"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nB. farmer facing down a rabid donkey.
\nC. truck driver steering his semi down an icy road.<\/p>\n
\nB. someone figuring out that was my boot print on the mayor’s car door. (He should have known better than to say I was a no good SOB at last Saturday’s town picnic. How was I to know his adopted son was one of those “Mexicans who take all the jobs?”)
\nC. the heart attack I knew I’d have if Norma found out about Claire and me.<\/p>\n
\nB. start looking for a new job.
\nC. forget about breakfast and have Claire help me with my morning hard-on.<\/p>\n
\nB. apologize to the mayor and his son.
\nC. pray to God that Claire doesn’t leave me. (She’s the best thing in my life, and I am a no good SOB.)
\nD. do all of the above.<\/p>\n
\nJim Harrington<\/strong> discovered flash fiction in 2007, and he\u2019s read, written, studied, and agonized over the form since. His recent stories have appeared in Microstory a Week<\/em>, Flashes in the Dark<\/em>, UnCut, Powder Burn Flash, Thrillers, Killers N Chillers,<\/em> and others. Jim’s Six Questions For . . . blog (http:\/\/sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/span>) provides editors and publishers a place to \u201ctell it like it is.\u201d You can read more of his stories at http:\/\/jpharrington.blogspot.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n