Kate Lit Robinson - The Contest and Other Stories

The Contest and Other Stories

Joe DiBuduo and Kate Robinson

A Tootie-Do Press Original

The Contest and Other Stories

Copyright Joe DiBuduo and Kate Robinson, 2018

All Rights Reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended to give the fiction a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue are drawn from the authors imaginations and their resemblance to real life counterparts is entirely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher. For more information, e-mail tootiedopress@gmail.com.

Tootie-Do Press

Los Angeles

Redwood Highway 101

San Diego

For artists and writers discovering inspiration in everything,

and in turn, inspiring viewers and readers everywhere.

JD & KR

Art is a lie that makes us realize truth...

Pablo Picasso, Statement to Marius de Zayas, 1923

Acknowledgments

Night Caf won the quarterly New Short Fiction Award at Jerry Jazz Musician (2012).

A Twisted Garden first appeared in Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy as The Yellow House (May December Press, 2011).

Lost Memories first appeared in The Memory Eater (CP Anthologies, 2012).

The Snow Globe first appeared in Best Served Cold: An Eye for an Eye (Runewright, 2011).

Cheater first appeared in Manifest West #4, Weird West (Western State Colorado UniversityWestern State Press, 2015).

Many thanks to the Stasis critique group in Prescott, Arizona, to sci-fi author Tom A. Wright for creative feedback, and to our Indiegogo donors. And we are grateful to Clarissa Yeo Yocla Designs for the snazziest cover art in the universe!

2017 Book Cover of the Year Cassie Loves Covers

2018 Eric Hoffer The Da Vinci Eye Finalist (Excellence in Cover Art)

2018 New Generation Indie Book Award Finalist

2018 RECOMMENDED The US Review of Books

2019 Literary Titan Book Award

2019 Global Ebook Awards

Inspiration: Artists and Artwork

Le Caf de Nuit

Vincent van Gogh, 1888

The Bachelor Guitarist

Vasily Gregorevich Perov, 1865

The Accolade

Sir Edmund Blair Leighton, 1901

The Abduction of the Sabine Women

Nicolas Poussin, 1635

Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg

Titian, 1548

The Gallery of H.M.S. Calcutta-Portsmouth

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1877

The Horse-Race

Jean-Louis Forain, 1890

Le Chevalier aux Fleurs

Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse, 1894

Jardin des Peupliers

Vincent van Gogh, 1889

New York Harbor with the Brooklyn Bridge Under Construction

Alfred Thompson Bricher, 1877

Morning by the Stream

T.C. Steele, 1893

The Knife Grinder (Principle of Scintillation)

Kasimir Malevich, 1912

Avenue de Clichy: Five OClock in the Evening

Louis Anquetin, 1887

Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon

Sir William Quiller Orchardson, 1880

Snow at Louveciennes

Alfred Sisley, 1874

The Cowboy

Frederick Remington, 1902

Dance at Bougival

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1882

Y Une Place Animee a Paris

Joaquin Pallares y Allustante, 1898

Dante & Virgil in Hell

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850

1

A Lonely Death

A S MY CAB ARRIVED AT Fairhaven Cemetery, I spied a lone Catholic priest standing by my Uncle Johns coffin, a study in black and white. Heavy snowflakes fell in swirling eddies like confetti from heaven over the monuments scored with epitaphs for mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, all long dead and in some cases, long forgotten. Soon the snow would blanket one and all for the long winters slumber.

I exited the cab reluctantly and pulled my collar up to stop the snow determined to swirl down my neck. As surprised by my presence as I was by his, the priest locked eyes with me for nearly a minute as though fishing for my soul, then bowed his head to read a blessing for my recently departed uncle from a battered prayer book. When he finished praying, he nodded at me and turned to walk toward the street into the blowing snow, a raven-like figure bobbing through the storm. Two workmen, gravediggers, emerged from the flurries on a pathway beyond the open grave and when they arrived, they lowered the casket into the ground. I threw a clod of dirt onto Uncles coffin, startled by the finality of the hollow thump as it met the polished wood. But the clod soon whitened and disappeared under the falling snow as the workmen began to shovel in syncopated rhythms from a low pile of icy, moist earth beside the grave.