"Your red lips are saying that death is a dream"

[Peter McNiff]

He was doing his best to brush litter into a corner outside the bus station but the breeze was getting the better of him. Seeing me, his face brightened as he staggered forward to gabble a greeting that made no sense; a man of fifty, bent and lame.

I had known him in his thirties when he opened a white goods emporium twenty miles south of here in the county town, on Main Street then, three years ago he vanished after the shutters on the premises went up for good and soon after, he split with his wife. Most of all I remembered his light brown voice at parish concerts doing sentimental numbers like Macushla, as good if not better than McCormick or Patterson, and in a way that would take the heart out of you when it came to the lyric, Your red lips are saying that death is a dream.

Shaking my head and smiling, I put out my hand to shake his but he read my expression as puzzled, reached into his pocket with his good arm, fished out a plastic card and placed it in my palm. It bore his name, an organisation and a paragraph that began, “This man is a stroke victim….”

[Peter McNiff]

Thank you friends, for your kindnesses. To address Gita's point, ( "if it's not fiction", well, actually it is) the sum of this story amounts to several elements of different human beings I have known in my life, some of whom are living and some dead, including Frank Patterson, who I met and who famously sang Macushla in Texas; apart from which he was most certainly not the man in the story, but he may have been the voice. My thesis belongs to the economist Keynes, if I remember correctly, who said: "In the long run we are all worthless, because we die...."

[Sandra Davies]

Haunting in the way that his present seems to presage our own future.

[Michael Brown]

You must know at this point you could write, "Splat!" and we would find the literary merit in it. You are a 6S laureate, however, and you never do something like that. And we love you for always offering your polished gems for our perusal.
Here we have the story of a man who could once "take the heart out of you" with his voice, told by a man who can take the heart out of you with his writing. I, too, anticipate each new post and am thrilled to have you back here in fine mettle.

[Teresa]

Oh you are so good. This is definitely one of my favorites, too. Every time I hear a train's mournful whistle I think of one of the poems you wrote on your blog. I get giddy when I see you've posted something new. Excellent.

[Angela]

The many reasons for people to appear as they do.... thank you.

[Kim Soles]

Sad, and lovely Peter. Glad you are sharing more of your work again.

[Bob Clay]

Looks like we're all looking at the dark side tonight .....

[Mike Handley]

Great job and story, Peter. It's now my favorite of yours.