Photo by Sara Cervera
Winning entry of Micro-Fiction/Nonfiction Fridays Challenge.
8 challenge words used:
1. nut
2. kittens
3. snore
4. freeze
5. yellow
6. execute
7. wander
8. effervescent
Pecans, Cognac, and COVID
My pets don't mind me working from home during the Coronavirus pandemic. As a personal snoop, the need to execute my cases did not go away with the introduction of social distancing. It isn't ideal, but consulting with clients over the internet does have the perk of saving on expenses. There are other issues beyond the mechanics of working from home: my kittens like to climb onto my desk and snore, video calls freeze, and being a detective online just doesn't sound as sexy.
It was 11:34 AM on Friday when I accepted the video call from a nervous young man named Charles Real, whose name sounded fake. He'd rag my partner about a threat to his life, but my partner only handles threats to property, so Charles ended up in my cue. Life, death, and the transition between are my specialty. From the sound of it, Charles felt like his transition would be any moment.
I sipped an effervescent concoction of cognac and champagne while Charles explained everything. The yellow car parked across the street for days, the emails and calls from people asking about his health like he was dying, and the strange sounds that seemed to wander around his mansion as if someone stalking him.
I thought about the details of his case while I ate the last pecan nut from the tin on my desk. I bought them to keep from smoking. I missed the '80s.
I informed Charles that the car most likely belonged to his neighbor social isolating in the mansion across the street. His friends were reaching out about his health because that's what people do during a pandemic. The sounds in his home were the sounds a large house always makes, only he was noticing them more because he was bored.
I wished him a good weekend and ended the call, billing my standard rate plus enough for a new tin of pecans.
Another job well done.
Jason Gaidis earned his MFA from Ashland University. His writing has appeared in Black Fork Review and is forthcoming in the Adrift anthology from Third Street Writers.