Story by Guy Hogan


            
Uptown


            


            Much of the news on TV was about the fighting in Iraq, the Summer
            Olympics and the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign. Locally,
            the Pirates still had an outside chance to end the season above
            500. The Steelers were preparing for their second exhibition
            game after losing the first game and the coach of the University
            of Pittsburgh football program was telling the media and his
            team that it was time for several of the players to step up.



            In the bedroom of Melvin Howard's apartment, his live-in girlfriend
            was packing a suit case open on the bed. There wasn't much to
            put in the suit case; and the only way either of these two people
            would see the age of 45 again was to live to be 145.



            Carla was saying, "I should have gone by my first mind."



            "Ruthie is no friend," Mel said. "Why would you
            listen to a woman that's been divorced three times?"



            "This has nothing to do with Ruthie."



            "Always filling your head with the sisterhood this and the
            sisterhood that."



            "She's not the one who comes in here smeared with lipstick.
            She's not the one who comes in here smelling of cheap wine every
            night."



            "I lock the doors and serve my regulars. I make a few extra
            bucks."



            "I've seen your regulars. They only come out at night."



            "I'm running a business. You forget you use to be one of
            my regulars, too."



            "Oh, no, I don't forget. You won't let me forget."



            "You walk out that door, don't come back."



            "'I can get you dates. I can set you up. I must have really
            been desperate. I must have really been sick in the head."



            "So now that you got a few bucks in your pocket, a few clothes
            on your back you're running out."



            "I can't believe how stupid I was."



            "Well, we had some wild times together. I won't deny it.
            But where you come from I can get me another one."



            Carla was done packing. Gripping the handle of the suit case
            she turned to him and said, "I thought maybe you were different.
            I thought maybe we could make this work. You talk different.
            You act different. You never tried to get me hooked. I'll give
            you that much. But you're a user, Mel. You're just as bad as
            the others. You don't do it with your fists but you're no better
            than the others."



            He stood alone in the bedroom staring at the empty wall. He listened
            as the apartment door opened and then locked shut. 



            He said, "I better go after her." 



            But his pride would not let him.

            

            
Guy Hogan's book of short
            stories and his novella, In The Garden Of Love, can be purchased
            at this link: http://www.ecampus.com/book/0595371469

            


            Guy Hogan is a Vietnam
            Veteran. He received his MFA in fiction writing from the University
            of Pittsburgh in 2006. He lives and writes in Pittsburgh. His
            homepage is Flash Fiction Tips & Short Stories About Pittsburgh
            (www.flashfictionnow.blogspot.com).