Doctor Rudolfo Puts His Foot Down

By DeAnna Knippling

When things look darkest, it's time to dance…

 

Connor McDevitt has a talent: reading fortunes. It's not exactly going to waste; on Saturdays he tells fortunes as Doctor Rudolfo at the local toys and games store. But it's not like he can get a degree in fortune telling. He has to pick a path forward, a path that involves so-so high school grades, a little brother his mom can't take care of alone, and no real interest in growing up and joining the "real" world.

 

And, oh yeah. The ability to see ghosts.

 

When Connor is invited to a party by his crush, he thinks it's a date—but it might just be a chance to make the biggest decision of his life.

 

A modern-day fairy tale about growing up and naming your hopes—and fears.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wonderland Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781952198090

DeAnna Knippling

DeAnna Knippling is a freelance writer, editor, and book designer living in Colorado.  She started out as a farm girl in the middle of South Dakota, went to school in Vermillion, SD, then gravitated through Iowa to Colorado, where she lives with her husband and daughter. She now writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and mystery for adults under her own name; adventurous and weird fiction for middle-grade (8-12 year old) kids under the pseudonym De Kenyon; and various thriller and suspense fiction for her ghostwriting clients under various and non-disclosable names. Her latest book, Alice’s Adventures in Underland:  The Queen of Stilled Hearts, combines two of her favorite topics–zombies and Lewis Carroll. Her short fiction has appeared in Black Static, Penumbra, Crossed Genres, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, and more. Her website and blog are at www.WonderlandPress.com.  You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Doctor Rudolfo Puts His Foot Down

Uncollected Anthology, Issue 23: Supernatural Soirées

DeAnna Knippling

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Doctor Rudolfo Puts His Foot Down Copyright © 2020 by DeAnna Knippling

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Doctor Rudolfo

Puts His Foot Down

1. One Perfect Bite of Cereal

Why does everything have to happen right after I pour milk in my cereal?

First thing in the morning, I get up and tidy up the upstairs. Make my bed. I try to get up right before Mom comes home from work—she works as an ER nurse at Memorial Hospital, and she’s usually on the night shift. I’ve learned not to make a mess, but my brother Aiden, he’s nine.

Then I take a shower. I never skip. Mom sat me down when I was fourteen and explained to me about teenage boy funk. I’m nineteen now, but that kind of conversation never goes away.

It was a Saturday in early March in Englewood. After the shower, I got my ass downstairs, started some coffee, and put my boots on over my bare feet before I opened the front door. The dry grass in the yard was covered with frost, and so were the tree branches. The paper had bounced away from the front door and into the yard. I grabbed my key lanyard from the stand by the front door and stepped outside.

The tree rustled its branches at me, dropping chunks of frost. I gave it a nod and grabbed the paper. The air was cold enough to make my breath steam, but not cold enough to make my lungs hurt. I shuffled back to the house, unlocked the door, and went back inside.

Dad was gone from the chair. I went into the kitchen, poured myself a bowl of the good cereal, that is, the kind with mini marshmallows, and peeled the newspaper out of its orange plastic bag like it was a Slim Jim. I flopped it open, ignored the front page, and pulled out the Entertainment section so I could read the comics.

Then I poured the milk.

I got one perfect bite of cereal.

The door slammed open, hitting the wall, and Mom cursed softly. I heard Mom stomp