genesisFall2016.pdf


26  genesis fall 2016

Free Falling
laire ri

 “Thanks, sweetheart.” He looked up at her 
from his booth, eyes level with her chest, grinning 
like a hungry wolf. “You haven’t got any of that 
pecan pie back there, do you?”
 “Just apple, I think.”

her notepad back into the pocket of her apron and 

 “Oh, so now we’re staying for dessert. 
Didn’t you say you’ve done this kind of thing be
fore?” Dick’s companion, a noticeably smaller and 

ly with the crumpled bills in his cheap pleather 

cent bulb threatening to burn out overhead. “This 
was a bad idea—not just some restaurant, but a 
truck stop diner? What do you think this is, 
Fiction? We’ve been the only customers in here for 
the last hour, if you haven’t noticed.”
 “Look, Sam—can I call you Sammy? If you 
can keep your mouth shut and do what I tell you, 

 The waitress returned to the table with the 
wedge of apple pie, a waxy slice of neon orange 
cheese congealing onto the crust. “Y’all ready for 
the check, boys?”
 “I’ll take care of it”—Dick snatched the 
receipt from her hand—“Brandi,” he added, ap
praising her nametag with a salacious eye. Before 
she had the chance to return to the kitchen, Dick 
drew a small, gleaming gun from inside his jacket 
and slammed it onto the countertop with an uncer

emonious thud. “I hope I won’t have to take care 

with terror as she stood frozen in place, shaking 
her head fervently. “Good. I didn’t think so.”

a shot into the ceiling. Broken glass rained onto 

between her shoulder blades. A bright blossom 
of blood bloomed onto her starched white blouse 

eyed as ever.
 “What’s going on out here?” The cook, a 
large, toothless man with a paper hat and a child
like face, bumbled out of the kitchen.

against the unsuspecting man’s neck. “Where’s 
the cash register?”
 “I, uh, I don’t have a key; I’m just, you 
know, just the cook, and—”
 “You want to end up like her?” Dick’s voice 
boomed from across the small diner, gesturing at 
Brandi’s lifeless form lying crumpled on the grub
by tile. 
 “I, uh, no—no! No, I just don’t know 
where—”

ing so good for you, either.”
 The cook, whose eyes threatened the kind 
of big, blubbering tears usually only shed by a tod
dler, scampered over to Brandi’s limp body and 
reached tentatively into the pocket of her apron 



genesis fall 2016  27

Free Falling
 for her set of keys. They were hanging neatly from 

ware stores—a sort of telephone cord reincarnate. 
“Open the drawer.” Sam pointed his weapon at 
the cash register, then back at the cook. “Now.”
 The cook opened the drawer, his stubby 

tents, Sam turned to Dick accusatorily. “There’s 
probably not two hundred bucks in there,” he sur
mised. “I told you this was stupid, and now this 
girl is dead.”
 “Where’s the safe?” Dick demanded.
 “We don’t have a safe, sir,” the cook said 
earnestly, sweat beading on his bald forehead. 
“You’ve been our only customers today, I reckon.”
 Dick knocked his gun against the counter 

that grazed the cook’s side. 
 “Yeah, you’re good, Dick. Real good.” Sam 
shook his head.
 “That’s a lot coming from you, Dillinger.”

break.”
 The cook wailed in agony, and Dick drew 
his gun a third time, shooting him cleanly in the 
chest and not bothering to spare a glance as the 

casional twenty before looking up at a languid 
Sam. “Let’s get out of here, Sammy.”
 The night rushed past in a blue haze as In

age of less adept drivers and their cars struck Sam 
as being a sort of creepy memorial to something 

to stick his head out the window of Dick’s pick
up truck like a dog and breathe in just one more 

taste of that deliciously thick air he had missed so 
much, but he had a feeling Dick wouldn’t like that. 
He had just killed a woman—a truck stop waitress 
at that—and what did he have to show for it? Half 
of two hundred–odd dollars?

gliding down over Mulholland. “Now what do we 
do?” Sam wondered aloud, not really expecting 

released from Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, 
but they would be headed back if they didn’t do 
something soon. 

his lips, the unmistakable combination of wailing 

too apparent. Craning his neck, Dick jerked the 
steering wheel to the side, and his truck toppled 

maw.
 Now I’m free, free fallin’…
 Yeah I’m free, free fallin’…
 Relief washed over Sam as he realized they 
would never be going back to Chuckawalla Valley 
again.