Part 1 of 1
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Tonight we open on a family in turmoil, the Dukes. What has driven the son, Tory, to sickness and silence? What has driven the father, Rufus, to near madness? Only one private investigator, Mulligan Smith, truly knows.
Some days, gloomy, my hours are slumberless Dearest, the shadows I live with by nonetheless Little white flowers will never be taken in Not where the bright coach of Sol is taking you Angels have no fire ever turning you Or they may angry a fire so they'll join in you Welcome to Flashpulp episode 309 This evening we present Mulligan Smith in Blood Part 1 of 1 This week's episodes are brought to you by the FlashMob All the cool kids are doing it Search for it on Facebook or join us at theflashmob.ning.com You say that you're doing it all As soon as you can, those and prayers are the sad I know Let them know, let them know that I'm going to go Death is no dream for, and death I'm glressing you With the strength of my soul, they'll be blessing you Blue Sunday Flashpulp is an experiment in broadcasting freshpulp stories in the modern age Three to ten minutes of fiction, brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings Tonight we open on a family in turmoil, the dukes What is driven the sun, tori to sickness and silence? What is driven the father, Rufus, to near madness? Only one private investigator, Mulligan Smith, truly knows Mulligan Smith in Blood Written by J.R.D. Skinner Art and narration by Opoponax An audio produced by Jessica May As an audio produced by P.C. Skinner It was the first time that he was born He was born the first time that he was born He was born the first time that he was born With his uncle, Greg, leaning against the doorframe that led to the kitchen His mother pacing in and out of the front hall And his father positioned directly in front of him on the living room's mahogany and glass coffee table Tori Dukes knew he had nowhere to run "Say something, damn it!" Rufus repeated for the third time It was rare for his dad to be sitting so close And the sixteen-year-old could easily smell the coffee he'd had for breakfast "Where is he?" asked Samantha, her eyes looping constantly from the hall to her son's silent face Tori could offer only shrugs "I'm not sure needling him is going to help," offered Greg As he spoke, he shifted from a cross-armed pose to stand with one thumb in his jeans' pocket Rufus' lips curled "Of course you would say that!" It was an unexpected statement to no one but Greg Who replied, "Whoa, what?" "Boys, boys like him just don't get AIDS," suggested Samantha Her gaze was locked on the thick beige carpet at her feet Greg's hand dropped away from the denim "You..." "It sucks that you'd even think that..." "Not bothering to turn towards his in-law," Rufus cleared his throat "Welcome to the situation, here's this lonely teen with barely a friend in the world And in the sweeps of gay Uncle Greg after years of being nowhere in his sister's life You won't have Sunday dinner here, get to know us, take Tori and his nerdy pal Guthrie out to the city Gives advice on how to dress, eat, and raise our kid "Yeah, it's all seeming pretty clear now" "I just wanted to be a brother and uncle," replied the accused The boy's face raised briefly, casting a nod and a tear at Greg Rufus caught the look and his grip on the mahogany grew tighter He said, "Except suddenly Tori has AIDS, just like you" "Yeah, and where the fuck have you been?" "He's got a disease I've been dealing with for years, on my own, without you, my only family in the world caring enough to visit" "I'm here with hot soup if you so much as complain of a sniffle But I spent three weeks in the hospital last year with a flu And the best you could do was a card with flowers?" "You have no idea how I hated that damn plastic plant" "There's a fake flower representing the fake relationship I had with Sam" "So this is your sick idea of revenge?" "I understand that you're upset over Tori" "And I can only imagine when it's like to be such a dick that my own son won't talk to me about where he got a life-threatening disease" "But you need to relax until your hired snoop shows up" "I mean Jesus, you don't even know the difference between HIV and AIDS" Rufus' forearms still locked on the table's surface began to tremble He returned to the interrogation of his son "Did he give you drugs?" Tori shook his head "Do you force you to do something you didn't want to do?" Tori responded with another negative "Are you... are you gay?" Tori rolled his eyes but finally spoke "I'm dead anyway. Well, I should I tell you anything" "Whoa, whoa there" said Greg "That's exactly why I came. I've been fighting the same thing for a long while and I don't plan on dying of it anytime soon" "I'm not saying it's always going to be a dance party but you probably outlive us all" "There was a knock at the door. Samantha was quick to answer" Beyond the peephole stood a man in a black hoodie His must hair wet from the rain and a lanky boy standing beside him The woman recognized the lad as Guthrie Tori's constant companion throughout 10th grade and still likely his best friend despite having moved from the state at the summer's end Behind the drizzle blurred windows of the giselle parked at the curb Samantha could make out the outline of a woman Her mind raced at the unexpected tableau and her assumptions became nothing more than fertilizer for new questions When the private investigator raised his fist to knock a second time she flipped the deadbolt The pair's arrival in the living room immediately set off a cannonade from Rufus' mouth "Gothrie? What's wrong with you? You look like a bloody vampire" Then with only the briefest of pause he wheeled on his son "So you are gay" For his part Tori, ignoring the stream of questions and commentary, simply raised an unenthusiastic hand to greet his friend Smith took in the sullen teen and his narrow-faced father and raised about Samantha Finally he focused on Greg "Your tip was exactly what I needed" he said "I knew it" sighed Rufus "What? That your semi-estrange relative understands your kid better than you do?" "Congratulations" answered Maligan as he tugged at his sweater zipper The room reeked of sweat and shouting and the PI wasn't much of a fan of either He turned to Samantha He gave me the info necessary to get ahold of Tori's bestie Honestly from there I was just a matter of looking into Guthrie's eyes and asking some gentle questions Hell, as soon as I came anywhere near a guess of what was going on he broke down in tears His family doesn't realize how sick he is They're the type that doesn't ask much as long as he makes it to church on Sundays "Your son isn't gay but Guthrie is" The boys are just unluckily timed blood brothers and Tori is the kind of stand-up guy who wouldn't out his friend before he'd managed to raise the courage to tell his family The quieter of the newcomers mounted in agreement Now I hate to cut this short continued Smith But Guthrie's ma is waiting in the car because Pa couldn't pull himself together after hearing the recent news That said, it's worth mentioning that while both of these urchins have a rough go-ahead At least one of them has someone solid they can depend on You folks, and Tori especially, are lucky to have knowledgeable uncle Greg around to support him You know, like an actual loving family member With his assignment complete, Mulligan Rezipped his hoodie and turned to leave Flashpulp is presented by flashpulp.com and is released under the Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 3.0 Unported license Text and audio commentaries can be sent to comments@flashpulp.com but be aware that they may appear in a future flashcast We'd also like to thank the free sound project found at freesound.org for a full listing of effects used during the show as well as credits for the users who provided them check this episode's notes at flashpulp.com and thanks to you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends. Gloom in, my hours are stumbled. Give it the shadows I live with are stumbled.
