Tiny Short Stories
#3 "Evie"
She was hungry.
She walked down the sidewalk on the dusky side of the street. The sea air making that moment between day and night hazy and blurred. She walked that way you walk when you owe a schedule to no one, when your time is your own, when no one you’ve known knows where you are. Tight trios of teenaged girls passed by, heads tilted down, licking ice cream cones, and liking Instagram posts; a bicyclist riding with a dog on a leash alongside; a homeless man, drawn to the miles and miles of sandy beach bed on which to sleep every night, muttered to himself on the bench. She could hear some people then, a couple, arguing in the skateboard shop there. She went in to hear them better.
“He has a pair exactly like them.”
“Huh? What are you even talking about?”
“Last Christmas. They still fit him. That should be enough.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“What? Fuck. Do whatever you want.” The woman turned to go, then turned back. Her voice low and vibrating through her body now. “I spend so much goddamn time trying to save money for us and then you make these decisions, buy things we don’t need… Fuck. I’ll be in the car.”
