Jupiter Jones

Listen to Jupiter read her story

They are at the bus-shelter. Mac’s taller than Marky. Mac has a condom in his wallet because he hopes to ‘get lucky’. Not here, obviously. Girls round here are not impressed by Mac, not like Marky is. Marky stays close as a shave or a five-o-clock shadow.  

“Thick as thieves,” said Marky’s mam, her eyebrows flicking up. Didn’t mean quite what he thought it meant. Stupid.

It’s raining, a non-stop fine drench. They lean against the back wall, Marky copies Mac’s pose, standing on one leg, other bent behind, foot on the wall, hood up, hands in pockets. They’re out of ciggies, out of dosh, out of luck. They’re not waiting for the bus but the bus shelter’s somewhere to go.  

“So, would you rather . . .  snitch on a mate or be blamed for their crime?”

“Would you rather . . . be invisible or be able to fly for a day?”

“Would you rather . . . have no knees or no elbows?”

Carly-Ann approaches, fish-suppers zipped into her anorak, even her armpits will stink of vinegar. Mac steps forward, like a hooker or a sparrowhawk; eyes-on-the-prize. She blanks him, hurries past. He resumes the pose.

“Fanny like a wizard’s sleeve, that one.” 

He has no real idea what it means, he heard it somewhere.

Marky nods like a plush dog on a parcel shelf.

Tomorrow they will rob the newsagents for ciggies and ‘top-shelf’ magazines. Mac’s idea. Marky will get caught, get his knees smashed with a baseball bat. Lying in the infirmary, kite-high on morphine, he will think he knows the answers.

This piece was first published by Ad Hoc Press and
featured in the Bath Flash Fiction anthology, 2019

Jupiter Jones lives in Wales and writes short and flash fictions. She is the two-time winner of the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Prize and her work has been published by Ad Hoc, Aesthetica, Amphibia, etc. She is the author of three novellas-in-flash, including Lovelace Flats (Reflex Press). Being a proper nerd with very little social life, she is currently working on a PhD on the novella-in-flash.

Read more from Jupiter:

Here on Trash Cat Lit – ‘Kodak Moment‘ and ‘Borne‘
1
2