Soup

Too Fast Too Hot Too Cold

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

The cop car was cold. 

Like hey, how come you fuckers don’t have the heat turned on cold.

He thought about saying it, but they were county cops.

Take your ass down by Dasseni Bridge and beat your ass first cops.

The roof of Terrence Taldin’s mouth tasted like cardboard.

He burned it good on Adrienne’s soup.

She stared when he yelled from the burn.

He thought it was makeup dinner, sorry for fighting dinner. 

It wasn’t.

It was get your things and go, I gave you a full meal if you have to spend the night in the Aztec Motel dinner.

He wasn’t gonna check into the Aztec.

Fuck that.

There was Wendy in Framont. Her old man just died of leukemia…or OD’d…or…she’d take him back. Maybe.

Dumb young guy had to get lippy with him outside Yates Tobacco.

Couldn’t taste his goodbye dinner, his get out of here we’re done dinner, because he burned his mouth on the damn soup. 

Bad.

Because he didn’t want to spit it out.

Because he thought it was makeup dinner.

Didn’t want to piss Adrienne off and ruin it.

Needed some chew to make the walk to Framont.

Because if he called Wendy, she’d say no, don’t come over.

But she wouldn’t send him away on a cold night either.

Even if he had to spend the first couple nights on the sofa, he’d crack Wendy. 

Warm her up.

Maybe not as hot as that damn soup, but he woulda gotten back in her bed.

Then the young guy got lippy. 

Adrienne got lippy sometimes too.

He’d get so mad. So fucking mad.

But he never stabbed her.

Shouldn’t have stabbed that young guy either. 

Cop car was cold.

Cuffs were cold.

Young guy was talking when they put him in the ambulance.

Terrence saw his mouth moving.

Terrence’s mouth tasted like cardboard, and everything was cold.

If the young guy had stabbed him, he’d be in the ambulance, underneath a blanket, and his mouth would probably still taste like cardboard.

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