The Talent Show: Uncollected Anthology, #20

By Leah Cutter

Edmund Alexander Montgomery, IV, works on the committee for the annual funeral director's convention at the Crossroads Hotel. 

His job? Handle any emergency the humans at the convention throw at him.

Even when Elvis and the Impersonators, the headliners for the convention, cancel.

He will survive this. Even if it involves funeral directors. Performing.

"The Talent Show" asks, and tries to answer that most serious of questions, what do you call a collection of funeral directors?

Part of the Uncollected Anthology, Issue 20: Crossroads Hotel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393301479

Leah Cutter

Leah Cutter--a Crawford Award Finalist--writes page-turning fiction in exotic locations, such as New Orleans, ancient China, the Oregon coast, ancient Japan, rual Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, Budapest, etc.  Find more fiction by Leah Cutter at www.KnottedRoadPress.com. Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com.

Book preview

The Talent Show

The Talent Show

Uncollected Anthology: Issue 20; Crossroads Hotel

Leah R Cutter

Knotted Road Press

Contents

The Talent Show

About the Author

About Uncollected Anthology

Also by Leah R Cutter

About Knotted Road Press

The Talent Show

Uncollected Anthology, Issue 20: The Crossroads Hotel

Consider the hotel: a place often found where two or more roads meet. Your home away from home. The place where business meets pleasure, where opposites attract, where the questions of the soul have no distraction but the mini-fridge and cable TV, and where the familiar gets stripped down to crisp white sheets, the smell of bleach, and a mirror that doesn’t quite reflect the same face it does at home.

A hotel can give the illusion of invisibility. What happens in a hotel, stays in a hotel…most of the time. A hotel can give the illusion of luxury. A concierge might bring you anything you want…as long as you pay for it.

And as long as you have a reservation.

Bring your baggage, bring your business, bring your hopes and dreams…

But don’t expect to leave the Crossroads Hotel in the same direction in which you arrived.

Edmund Alexander Montgomery, IV, tried to sneak a look at his watch while at the same time pretending to be oh-so-interested in his companion’s conversation. Hell. He still had another thirty minutes on his shift at the registration table, checking in new arrivals to the funeral directors convention, held each fall at the Crossroads Hotel.

Edmund prided himself on being able to relate to all walks of life,