When You Wish Upon a Cockroach

An Urban Romantic Love Story

By Joseph E. Hulme

Below is the winning submission in the adult prose category from the second annual “Canton Writes” poetry and short story contest. Other winning entries, as selected by a panel of talented local writers, will appear in the Citizen throughout the spring and summer. As a proud sponsor of the contest along with the Canton Cultural Council and the Friends of the Canton Public Library, the Citizen would like to congratulate all of this year’s contestants on a job well done.

Vera poured a cup of coffee and shuffled over to the table. Lou turned the page of his newspaper and let out a tremendous belch.

Outside the sound of rumbling traffic drifted through their grimy apartment window.

“Say excuse me, ya slob,” Vera said, scowling.

“Shut up,” Lou returned, not looking up from his paper.

“No, you shut up,” she said, fishing her cigarettes out of the pocket of her tattered purple robe.

Lou leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee. “Red Sox lost last night,” he muttered to himself.

“And I’m sure you bet on them to win,” Vera said, lighting up a cigarette.

Lou flashed her his middle finger and Vera scowled. She expelled smoke through her nose and watched a cockroach scurry across the table.

Lou swung his cup down. “Gotcha,” he said proudly, examining the bottom of his cup.

Vera looked at him with disgust. Latino music and laughter drifted down on them from the apartment above.

“You’re so gross. I can’t believe I wasted twenty years being married to you,” She said.

Lou gulped the rest of his coffee down and stood. “I gotta go to work. Don’t sit around on your fat butt all day watching television and smoking cigarettes. Clean this place up and have dinner ready by six.”

“I wasted my youth on you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You got crooked teeth and your eyes are too close together. Even when you were young, you weren’t that great in bed.”

Vera’s head snapped back like she had been slapped. “I hate your guts,” she spit out with venom. “I wish I never married you.”

Lou’s dark eyes flashed. He moved with surprising speed for an overweight man. He grabbed Vera by the scruff of her neck and held the bottom of his coffee cup inches from her face.

“You wanna wish on something, skank? Go ahead; make a wish on this crushed cockroach,” Lou snarled. “Let go of me you jerk. You’re hurting me,” Vera said viciously, with a touch of fear.

“Go ahead, wish on it,” Lou said through gritted teeth.

“That’s stupid. I’m not wishing on a cockroach.”

“It’s not stupid. It’s an old wives’ tale.”

“I never heard of it,” Vera said, trying to twist out of Lou’s grip.

“That’s because I just made it up. Wish on it or I’m going to make you eat it.”

Lou pushed the cup closer to her face.

“Fine-fine,” Vera yelled. “I wish you were dead like that cockroach.”

A flash of white filled the apartment, and Vera felt Lou’s grip leave her neck. She blinked a few times. “Where the hell did you go?” she said.

She looked down at the floor and felt her stomach lurch. Her eyes went wide and she clamped her hand over her mouth, muffling a scream.

Lou was spread over the floor by her feet, a twisted pulpy wreck. Only one arm and his head remained unmarked.

“Louis,” Vera whispered into her hand.

Lou’s vacant eyes stared past her. A fly landed on his wrist and began exploring the new territory.

Outside a city bus backfired and a cab’s horn blasted. Vera began to tremble, and tears streamed down her face. “Oh Lou, my sweetie, what have I done?”

Vera spotted the coffee cup on the table. She picked it up with a shaking hand and turned it over. The mashed roach still covered the bottom. Her stomach rolled as she realized that the roach and Lou now resembled each other. She pushed the thought aside. “I wish Lou alive,” she said.

Lou’s hand twitched and his eyes blinked. They focused on Vera. “Make it stop,” Lou screamed in agony. “For God’s sake, Vera, make it stop.”

His arm drummed against the floor and his head rolled through his bloody entrails.

Vera flinched against her chair, and she almost fumbled the cup. She held it tight against her breast. “I wish Lou alive, whole, and intact — like I knew him before with nothing wrong with him,” she said.

A flash of smoke filled the room. Vera fanned the air with her hand and saw Lou sitting on the floor with a look of surprise on his face.

“Vera, I’m, I’m all…” Lou said, touching his body to check if it was whole.

“Louis,” Vera screamed with delight. She scrambled out of her chair and onto the floor. She gripped his face in her hands and covered it with kisses. Lou looked at her with clear eyes, like he used to when they first dated. He felt a warmth run through his frame. He gently stroked the back of her hair and folded her into his beefy arms and whispered, “I love you, Vera.”

She smiled and rested her head against his chest. “And I love you too, Louis.”

They sat on the floor rocking slowly and holding each other tight.

THE END

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=5300

Posted by Canton Citizen on May 18 2011. Filed under Featured Content. Both comments and pings are currently closed.