Tag: tragedy

Sloppy Fred

636183

Sure, you think you know all about the Sloppy Joe, but I knew Joe, and he wasn’t sloppy.
No, the real problem was the waiter Fred.
We called him Sloppy Fred.
Joe would make beef sandwiches and smack the bell. Fred grabbed the platter, and all hell would break loose.
Sauce this way. Sandwiches that way.
Sure enough, by the time he got to the table, he’d gotten them all messy.
Fred tried to blame Joe, the chef.
But he didn’t count on these things being a hit.
Joe killed Fred. Covered his tracks really good.
Not sloppy at all.

The Kidder

636182

My dad, the kidder.
Every time the old man tried to tell me his favorite joke, something interrupted him.
Usually, it was the phone. Or a knock on the door.
The last time I talked to him, I asked him again.
He stared out the window, just smiling. “I’ll be with your mother soon,” he said. “Anything you want me to tell her?”
He was calm, relaxed. Maybe a little tired from the pills.
This morning, he was gone.
I opened the envelope and read the note.
“I forgot the punchline,” it said. “But, trust me, it was really funny.”

The Chart

636181

My doctor put down the chart and did a little happy dance.
“Does this mean I’m cured?” I ask.
“No,” says the doctor. “You’re not in fact, it’s terminal.”
“I’m going to die?”
“Yes, but not soon. In fact, it will be a long, painful, agonizing death.”
“Then what’s the dance for?”
“Nobody’s seen what you’ve got before.”
“Why is that good?”
“I’ll get it named after me,” he said. “I’ll be famous.”
He asked a nurse for a bottle of champagne. “Drink up, it can’t hurt. At least, I don’t think so.”
And he toasted to my bad health.

The Play

636180

Every Thursday, the neighborhood kids gather up at the local church and put on a puppet show for the town.
This week was different.
You see, someone burned down the shed the kids used to store their arts and crafts.
Years and years of handcrafted puppets, up in smoke.
So, the children used cheese. They put hunks of cheddar, gouda, and havarti on sticks and a bedsheet curtain rose to thunderous applause.
Hamlet had never been so… delicious.
When the curtain fell for the last time, we gave them a standing ovation.
And then, got out our wine and crackers.

Billy the Kid

637596

Feelin’ lucky tonight?
William Bonney over in Accounting was a renegade CPA who settled down and went corporate.
But during Audit Season, the Call of the West got in his blood, and he became Billy the Billing Kid.
Forms? Ledgers? Books?
He’s put them all away and reached for his sixguns.
He’d shoot down lawyers and tax agents and all sorts of credit service representatives.
Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable became Accounts Dead when he faced off with them on Main Street at High Noon.
Billy wasn’t killed by no sheriff.
Downsizing, man. It gets us all in the end.

The Rainbow Eyes

636188

Every time Jesse blinks, her eyes change color.
From blue to brown to green to yellow to red…
“Is it some kind of newfangled contact lenses?” I ask.
She laughs. “I was hang gliding and flew through a rainbow,” she said. “Apparently, there’s some kind of magic in rainbows that does this.”
You’re supposed to wear goggles, but Jesse’s broke and fell off, leaving her eyes unprotected.
“What about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?” I asked.
“I wish,” she said, sighing. “Just the eyes.”
She picked up her cane, and her dog led her away.

The Bard

636180

We locked up the bard for his own safety.
If the king heard these nonsense rhymes, he’d certainly cut off his head.
I mean, here’s an example of his madness:
When an elephant coughs and sneezes.
It bends and falls to all four kneeses.
It wipes its trunk on what it pleases.
Then coughs things up in wheezes.
Bugs and germs upon the breezes.
Covered with disgusting fleases.
It’s how they spread such bad diseases.
Until the cough and sneezes eases.
The king is fond of his elephant herd, and to insult them in such a manner is certain death.

Calling Myself

636186

I know it sounds weird, but I put myself on speed dial.
That way, when I don’t know what to do, I can always call myself.
Sometimes, I’m the one calling myself. And other times, my phone rings and it’s me.
Usually, it’s nothing important, like directions somewhere.
But the other day, I swear, I heard crying in the background.
“I can’t find the chainsaw,” said my voice over the phone.
“It’s in the shed,” I said. “What do I need it for?”
“Thank you,” I said, and I hung up.
I took myself off of speed-dial and blocked myself.

The Boat

544804

He puts her in the ground and plants a tree on the spot as he promised.
Years later, he takes a branch and whittles a small boat from it.
Places a candle in the center.
Go to the water, light the candle, and let it flow downstream.
Every night, you can see dozens of candles floating by.
At sunset, it’s so beautiful. And yet, every light is someone lost.
And someone who has lost.
When it is my time, promise me.
Plant the tree.
Carve a boat.
Light a candle in the center.
And remember.
As I have promised you.

UFO

636175

Hubert was bored, so he picked up a camera and hucked a pie tin through the air to make a UFO photograph.
After sixteen reports to the FBI, they stopped taking his calls.
Later that month, gigantic pie tins floated down from the sky and landed in Hubert”s cornfield.
Hubert remembered The Boy Who Cried Wolf and realized he was completely and totally fucked.
Then, he remembered” he was the pie-eating champion of Bucktooth County ten years running.
Hubert ran towards the pie tins and… was blasted into smithereens by alien robots.
Come Fall, someone else will be pie-eating champion.