Simple Pairs: A Short Story

By Dean Shearer

After assaulting a grocery store clerk, Nick is arrested--and plunged into a world so strange it can't be real. This yarn will grip you so hard you won't be able to let go until the end. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Shearer
• Release date: Jul 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9798201858612

Dean Shearer

Dean Shearer is the author of many fictitious works such as The Cat, The World is Magic, and the short stories series Selah, the Universe. He wishes there was more to say about himself (he likes studying religions and walking barefoot and reading and writing in multiple genres and reading and writing a lot) but there's just too much to say.

Book preview

Simple Pairs

A Short Story

Dean Shearer

Simple Pairs

You! Nick burst through the door, finger pointed. His voice rang through the grocery store, and as he marched forward, following his pointed finger, his face red, he noticed the old woman in the aisle over there had stopped her shopping and was frozen with a box of cereal in her hand, watching him.

And the carts stopped their rattling.

And the cashiers and customers stopped their chatting.

And even the music—a stupid song about finding exactly what you needed all along—seemed to fade.

The cashier who Nick was pointing at looked around and made a face that said, "Me?"

"Yes you." Nick grabbed him by the collar and pulled. The cashier flapped his arms, as if drowning, trying to keep himself from flipping over the other side of the counter. Nick caught a whiff of something ugly . . . something like B.O. mixed with Old Spice.

Nick slapped the guy on the back of the neck, hard.

"Ow!"

The woman in the checkout line gasped.

Get outta here or else, Nick told her, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

She ran backward, pulling her cart with her. Then she wheeled it around—screech!—and disappeared down an aisle. Nick looked around. Only frozen people, wide-eyed, who looked off somewhere else when Nick looked their way.

He returned to the cashier. Slap!

"Ouch!" Slap! Whaddaya doin' man whaddaya doin'!

"Shut up—" Slap! You remember me! You remember what you did! The cashier kicked his feet, trying to reach them to the floor. Nick pulled. The cashier's head knocked on