THE VEGAN DOUGHNUT SHOP By Tony Macklin Comments welcome:
[email protected] Additional fiction and film reviews: http://tonymacklin.net This work was originally published at http://tonymacklin.net/the-vegan-doughnut-shop.html (PDF version: http://tonymacklin.net/the-vegan-doughnut-shop.pdf) This entire work is copyrighted (2011) by Tony Macklin. All rights reserved. Chapter 1: Reader, Beware Please be skeptical. Don't jump to conclusions. Everybody always seems to jump to conclusions, and they're often wrong -- in literature and in life. Let's see how discerning you are. We'll start with one morning. I was nudged awake. I opened my eyes, focused, and saw brown eyes looking into mine. Morning, sleepyhead," Gale murmured. Ok, what's the situation? Who am I? Who is Gale? What am I doing in Gale's bed? Ok, Gale is a woman. It's a woman's name. No, wrong. You mean Gale is not a woman's name? Sometimes. But not this time. Gale is a man. [ed. Gale was named after a football player, not an old sitcom star or Oprah's friend.] Then I must be a woman. Wrong again. "Nic, you look like hell," Gale said. "Gotta shave that beard," he laughed. I'm a bearded lady? Of course not. We're both guys. What am I doing in his bed? Uh oh, we're gay. No, wrong for the third time. Sometimes guys just share the same bed. [ed. Quequeg and Ishmael shared a bed in Moby Dick.] Sometimes when Gale and I are out on a case or in a bar, we come home and share Gale's bed; it's king- sized so there's plenty of room.