The One That Got Away- Flash Jab Challenge #6

AJ Hayes lives in a small town east of San Diego California. Nothing much happens there, so he makes up stuff that should. His stories and poems have been published in Pulp Ink (a noir anthology full of crackerjack writers edited by the heroic Chris Rhatigan and the suave Nigel Bird -- available now at Amazon. Com.) A Twist Of Noir, Eaten Alive, The Black Heart Noir Issue ( on sale at Amazon,Com also), Yellow Mama, Shotgun Honey, Title Fights, Appolo's Lyre, Muck and Muse, Flash Shot, Bloody Knuckles, The Killing Pandemic and the upcoming anthology, Off The Record, edited by Luca Vestre.

After Ever
by AJ Hayes

They said his mama was a Voudoun princess, bride of Lord Legba. They said he was born in the middle of a crossroads corner in a howling midnight storm. They said all that, but I discounted their words because, after all, they were just alley kids in an orphanage jostling each other for scraps the white folks threw.

I wish I had listened. I took him home and raised him proper. I dressed him in sailor suits and read him bedtime stories every night. We were, in every way, a normal family.

Until, one night, I read him The Three Little Pigs and he went outside and blew our house down.