Eighties

By Robert David Duncan

An enigmatic traveler, a withdrawn clerk, a lonely careerist and a morally-challenged artist are among the odd characters in this set of early short stories written in and around the 1980s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert David Duncan
• Release date: Oct 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223583844

Robert David Duncan

Robert David Duncan is an artist, actor and writer living in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Book preview

Evening

He parted the tired muslin curtains and gazed into the night. A bus went by and gently shook the apartment. Somewhere to his right, an empty glass rattled against the bottle beside it. He raised his own glass and drained the last of the warming liquid. Lowering his hand, he let the glass find a resting place on the desk beneath the window. It seemed as if there was no life out there; the city was dark, save for the light in the parking lot across the street. He let the curtain fall back, sealing out the light. The room spun slightly as he turned away from the window. He studied the shape on the bed, noting the mixture of geometric forms it created with the bedclothes. It was curious how readily she had admitted him into her life, and how easily they had fit together. She had become so cold.

Avoiding the creaky floorboard out of habit, he picked up his bag and stepped into the hallway. He slipped his key into the lock, driving the deadbolt home. The fragmented strains of Jimi Hendrix's 'Hey Joe' seeped from under the door of the adjacent apartment, and followed him into the night. His long legs sliced through the darkness, eating up the city blocks. He looked around as he walked, committing all the sights to memory.

When he arrived at the train station, he went to the counter to buy his ticket. The girl behind the desk was probably the same one he had spoken to earlier on the phone. She told him the train would be there in about fifteen minutes. He asked her if she thought it would be crowded. She thought not, since most people preferred to travel in the morning. He sat down on one of the benches. There were about six other people waiting in the station, and all were spaced as far apart as possible, as though any other traveller was automatically unclean.

When the train arrived, he got on, stooping as he walked down the aisle. He found a window seat and put his jacket and bag on the empty seat beside him. He was glad that the train was almost empty; it meant he would be able to sprawl out diagonally across two seats, permitting a rare instance of comfort in a consistently undersized world. Ordinarily, he was expected to compress his length into a seat designed for somebody a foot shorter than he was. After an hour his legs would scream in pain. Fortunately he was almost alone on the section.

Alone.

He tested the word