Laughs Best

[M C Funk]

As seems a monthly occasion these days, the heat in the Big Easy has all the burners on high, so I’m cooling it down on the seaside porch at the Silver Slippery Casino in Waveland, just across the Mississipp.

“How’s your balls, son?” I ask Ray Ray, ‘cause while I’m gazing into the sleepy endlessness of the Gulf tide washing the cheek of the shore, Ray Ray’s scratching at his skin like he was making the bed for a case of mange.

It takes the space of a long pull of my complimentary Bourbon and a couple bites of my jumbo-scale, 99 cent shrimp cocktail before Ray Ray comes back, “We doomed for sure this time, Stagg.”

“How you figure that you can see doom from here, Ray Ray?” I say, kicking up the loafers—no socks, mind you—on the back of the chaise lounge in front of me, and really liking the feel of those casino coins rolling like coolness itself against my thigh.

“Got the cops running felony arrest warrants,” Ray Ray scratches away, “the lawyers all hungry for billing hours, the pipelines to Jamaica drying up and every thug on the street smelling the blood in the water.”

I think on this for a time, just enough to pull in the musty Casino stink with the fresh sting of Gulf water brine, and I tell him on the way to another free drink, “Well, they might got all that, but I got comped bourbon and an all-you-can eat buffet for the price of sitting at nickel slots ‘til I keel over, so who’s laughing now?”

[M C Funk]

@ DD - Sweet! Voracious is both a favorite word and a great way to be. Glad to serve you up something that hit the spot and kept it hungry still.

@ Ellie - That line was a dilly to write. It came to me out of nowhere, thinking of when I last gambled, and begged to be tossed in, humble little sucker it was. Good to hear you liked it, and the rest.

@ Peter - Thank you very much. I had really been aware of weaving those atmospherics, so I'm happy to find that the air had the proper currents running through it.

@ Gita - You are welcome to hop into a convertible any time with those two. I hope you know how to aim that shotgun, though.

@ teresa - Heh heh. I like "forever adventure." He certainly keeps whisking me away hither and yon.

@ Mike - So cool you think so.

[Joe Gensle]

the mange line jumped off the screen at me, too. your imagery, dialogue, turns-of-phrase continue to impress and are the ilk that keep my appetited for 6S two notches above voracious.

[Ellie Garratt]

I could really feel the atmosphere in this story. Loved the last line and this one, 'liking the feel of those casino coins rolling like coolness itself against my thigh.'

[Peter McNiff]

Great atmospherics while characters play off each other's concerns and unconcerns. Nice portrait, great technique.

[Teresa]

I like a guy who survives the name, Stagg, and not wearing socks. He sounds like a forever adventure. Fun 6!

[Mike Handley]

"making the bed for a case of mange" ... is awesome