ask for mister black and tell him red sent you - 12. walking in the rain

by nick nelson

part twelve of twenty-nine

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the friend tugged gently on ralph’s arm and they passed the street ralph’s apartment was located on and kept walking. ralph made no effort to break away from the friend’s grasp. where are we going? he asked. i told you, back to your old kentucky home. are we going to walk? ha ha. yes, to the bus station. bus station? i don’t have any money to buy a ticket. to anywhere. and besides, i am getting really wet. don’t worry about the bus ticket. or anything else. you are in good hands. it will be nice and warm on the bus. if you say so. you can lie back in your seat on the bus and have a beautiful dream. about my old kentucky home? about your old kentucky home, or any other old home, or anything you like. all right. * meanwhile, back at the cafeteria, the zombie continued to berate the clown for his rude treatment of ralph. that brother was pouring his heart out, the zombie repeated, for what seemed to his companions the one hundredth time. all right, he was pouring his heart out, the clown agreed, but maybe i didn’t like his poured out heart spilling out all over the table and into my coffee. you know what i an going to do, the zombie said. you know what i am going to do? no, what are you going to do? the clown rolled his eyes. i am going to pour my guts out all over the table, the zombie said. and if you don’t like it, you can go fry a dinosaur egg on a three legged pool table. the bag lady, who had not been paying close attention, said, oh i hope you don’t mean that literally, zeke, it would make a mess and maybe you couldn’t get them back in again. no, bessie, the bounty hunter assured her, zeke just means his is going to tell us his story, isn’t that right, zeke? yes, that’s right. is this story going to be a in the form of a poem? the clown asked petulantly. no, just a story, the zombie replied. and with that, the zombie commenced his tale. i was born with every advantage a living creature could have. i lived in a big house on the hill with a servant in every room. i was a white man. 13. the zombie's tale