Trumping Trump

Flash Fiction

I finally worked up the courage to answer:  “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

“Of all the hoary clichés…  Just tell me what happened!”

Glaring past the distraction of the magnetic car’s holographically enhanced dash, I narrowed my eyes at the “driver.”  She was busy swiping through her…I had to grant…truly impressive research results.  The mag car drove itself.

“Context,” I continued, dripping sarcasm so acidic I imagined we’d soon be looking at thin air through the holes it left in the floor, “is de rigueur if one actually wishes to understand what one researchs…”

Predictably, she rolled her eyes.

I gulped.  Even my not-inconsiderable disdain for her was inadequate shelter.  Did I really, finally, have to tell someone this…thing…that happened all the way back in 2020?

“Def stalling,” she spat.  “Let’s make it simple:  Did you, or did you not, kill your previous wife?”

“What diff can it make now?” escaped me before I could catch myself.

Mistake.  She even stopped swiping long enough to nail me with those impossibly, unrealistically green eyes.

“I mean…”  Fuck.  Without the advantage of my far, far superior grasp of nuances about which she was utterly clueless, how could I make her see?  “You have to understand the time and place…and circumstances.  I know this can be hard for you but…”

“Yes or no!”

“Well…  Yes.  But you have to understand!”

“Understand what?”

I looked down from those impossibly green eyes.  Sure, she was gorgeous; I was about to pay a fortune for an android of the very highest quality.  Goddamn all those android-rights do-gooders that granted her any fucking choice in the matter!

“Understand what?” she repeated.

Finally I just shrugged.  “My previous wife…  She voted for Trump.”

Must Read

You May Also Like

Guest Posts

Genetic God

Recently I had the great pleasure of meeting author Matthew Alper, who describes a fascinating book of his below: It is not a coincidence that all humans have a nose in the middle of their face or that all cats have whiskers or that all Monarch butterflies have the exact…
Read More
MY BOOKS

Check out my newly released sci fi novella, Ships!

SHIPS:  Yet another sci fi novella I had a lot of fun writing, though this one’s a bit of a “soft” sci fi…slipstream, as they call it…with large parts set in present time and ordinary circumstances that are equally accessible to non-sci-fi readers.  (Still, along with my usual snarky/politically incorrect…
Read More
Barnett Berger

Barnett Berger: Six A.M.

The poem below is by Barnett Berger. Six A.M. The river sends its chill The stars above are incantatory Wishing me well Creation of sound is my purpose Heard or unheard Harmonious or distant Taut with dissonance Or flowing with the signals Calling sweet love I am a wingwalker And…
Read More
Barnett Berger

Barnett Berger: No Two Snowflakes

The poem below is by Barnett Berger. No Two Snowflakes No two snowflakes are alike No object from sky to earth Could possibly be identical We don’t know the sky’s influence in formation We don’t know the objects encountered on the downward ride And we don’t know the impact on…
Read More
Barnett Berger

Barnett Berger: For Losers

The poem below is by Barnett Berger. For Losers Quest for a vision The morning of awareness Dawn of the ocean The sweet, loving spaces of intimacy Whispered caresses Suntanned kisses Words calming and mirroring faith Now replaced by grunts Harmonic ostinatos Shouting through hollow bones Anger carrying stormy divisions…
Read More
Menu