• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Ghost Parachute

A Literary Magazine

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archives
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Blog

Crucifix, FL

April 1, 2021 By JR Walsh

Crucifix, FL

You can toss the cross on the dash. It does look like wood, doesn’t it? Unbreakable and guaranteed for a year. They make chew toys out of this same stuff. We’ve been buying them up for a dollar ninety-seven at that new Dollar Ninety-Seven Heaven. Got three boxes in the trunk. No room for bodies back there.

We like the one in the strip mall next to The G-O-D Spot or else behind it. Most people can’t find the place. So, it’s a peaceful shopping environ. Or maybe people aren’t looking hard enough. Good parking. No shade, though. Hotter than blazes.

Wait — there’s a much better gas station by the strip mall further down the boulevard past Salvation Hardware. Better prices. Clean bathrooms. You’d never get there without a car. Luckily, you can ride with me down nineteen by the reef made of tanks and jeeps and pretty sure golf carts. Past Pope’s Cap World cross the place with Buffalo wings, bowling, and dancing. The Pin. Reminds us of home. They even got beef on weck.

We did come from there, but it’s hard getting back. The winters. And one of us hates to fly.

Next stoplight or two maybe. You could get out or you could come home with us. Everybody needs to eat. Help us peel up some potatoes. Then we can peel all the stickers from China off these crosses. I’ve got a few more boxes waiting in the garage. No more than thirty.

If you’re tired, we’ve got room and a shower. Two actually, and three tubs, but one’s in the yard. No alligators in it either! Not so far.

Well, there’s no turning around now that we’re on the Skyway. Unless you like swimming with sharks.

Your coming would be a blessing for us. We’d be like a couple Johns the Baptist. Though you can wash your own feet, thanks very much. We can swing back and pick up your car in the morning wherever you think you left it.

I believe you’ve got to have faith in people, especially if it’s as old as you say it is. It’ll be there like a mohair suit on an old goat. We’ll get that car first thing after Church in the morning. Breakfast’s my wife’s specialty – cooks pancakes on the grill. You have to see it to believe it. Taste better that way, you’ll see.

Maybe tonight we can make a website for moving all these crosses. Be a family for a while.

About JR Walsh

JR Walsh is the Online Editor at The Citron Review. Born in Syracuse, NY, he now teaches English as a Second Language in Boise, Idaho. His writing is in beloved publications such as New World Writing, Juked, Litro, The Hong Kong Review, Hobart, Flash Frontier, FRiGG, Blink-Ink, Bull, B O D Y, and Esquire. For more: itsjrwalsh.com.

Artist Credit:

Brett J Barr is an artist/ tattooist, born in Easton Pennsylvania. He grew up in Daytona Beach, moved to Orlando FL in 1997 and now resides in Chuluota, FL. Aside from tattooing at Built 4 Speed Tattoo in Orlando, Brett enjoys many different art forms such as graphite, charcoal, paint, pen and ink, mixed media/ graphic design, woodworking miniatures and studies classical guitar.

Contacts:
brettjbarr@yahoo.com
Facebook/ Brett J Barr
Instagram/ brettjbarrtattoos
Shop Insta/ built4speedtattoos
built4speedtattoos.com/brettjbarr

Footer

From The Blog

Best Small Fictions Nomations

January 21, 2023 By Brett Pribble

The Storming of Rome by Slawka G. Scarso Juicy Fruit by Katie Coleman You Were Only Waiting for This Moment to Arrive by Kathy Fish Eddie by David James Poissant Something Fierce and Unnamed by Tommy Dean

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in