Character: Police station clerk
Action: Tightening a knot
Setting: A meeting for a subversive group
Prop: Decorative songbirds made from vinyl records
***
Blue Hair and Songbirds
by Joaquin Lowe
Seamus Mcaffey was an ordinary cop. Actually, he was a station clerk—a secretary—but he was the son of an ordinary cop. He kept his desk immaculate and sparse: coffee mug of sharpened number 2 pencils, stacks of forms, organized by frequency of use and color, a keyboard, and a monitor that always showed a half finished game of minesweeper, the timer stuck at “99”.
Seamus could never be an ordinary cop like his father, or his father before him. He was tall, wide shouldered; yoga made him lean and strong. The female officers cat-called him to show off his stomach—perfect even with the constellation of dangerous looking moles—and he blushed a deep shade of red that made the women laugh amongst themselves as they walked away. Seamus looked the part of the beat cop; in a different time he may have even been a strong-jawed detective who played by his own rules but always got his man. Seamus looked the part except for one thing. Seamus had blue hair.
Filed under: 2012 Submissions | Tagged: Joaquin Lowe, Portland, prizes, short story, Sledgehammer, writing contest | 1 Comment »
Sledgehammer Writing Contest 