Part One Of One
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This evening we bring you another glimpse into the case files of Mulligan Smith, as he relates a late evening incident at a local greasy spoon.
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027 - Mulligan Smith and The Pregnant Pause, Part 1 of 1
[Music] Welcome to Flashpulpe Episode 27. Tonight's story, Mulligan Smith and the Pregnant Pause. Part 1 of 1. This episode is brought to you by the Flashpulpe page on Facebook. If you join today, we promise to never introduce the concept of Flashbucks and we'll never ask for assistance regarding ghosts, fish, treasure, gems, lost digital pets, the last few items to raise a barn, gang members, castle defenses, the fast money round, healing a hero, word puzzle knockoffs, personality quizzes, or the fantastic cleaning powers of the shamwile. To join, search in Facebook for Flashpulpe, find the link at Skinner.fm, or direct your browser to http colon slash slash bit.ly slash cbk yv2. [Music] Flashpulpe is an experiment in broadcasting freshpulpe stories in the modern age. 400 to 600 words brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. This evening, we bring you another glimpse into the case files of Mulligan Smith, as he relates a late evening incident at a local greasy spoon. Mulligan Smith and the Pregnant Pause. Part 1 of 1. Written by J.R.D. Skinner, art and narration by Opoponax, an audio produced by Jessica May. [Music] Mulligan and the old man were sharing a park bench and a bag of sunflower seeds. Mulligan spoke. There's a short hallway at the top of Odoyl stairs, and the walls are filled with framed newspaper clippings, all starring the same starchy old lady, Mrs. Odoyl. In the majority of them, she's holding the diners' pride, a burger larger than your head, pausing the PI spat seed husks into the benches adjoining trash barrel. Really, the frames are all bolted to the walls, and the clippings are just there to act as landing lights for the drunks trying to find the washroom. As one of the few 24-hour eateries in a college town sea of bars, it's a popular place around closing time. It was supposed to have been just another stop, but I'd had to use the facilities. I'd been in and out of Meat Market Dance clubs all night looking for a guy last seen in the company of a client's missing party boy son, and I had had my share of Virgin Bloody Marys. I knew two things about the Jabberwocky I was chasing. He seemed to have quite a few friends hanging out of downtown, and he had a head like a rubber ball, round and bald. I'd found out about his spherical noggin from the missing's last confirmed contact, his hysterical girlfriend. Given her level of conversation, I was glad to get that much out of her. On the other hand, his plentiful friends were actually more of a suspicion. I was fairly sure I'd spotted more than one of the people I'd been talking to snapping cell phone pictures as I was walking away. Not a great situation. Not only was I not getting any info, but he probably knew what I looked like. Anyhow, the problem with the hallway is that it had a blind turn onto the staircase at the end of its run, and we're talking a hall that's already barely wide enough to steer down once you've had a couple of wobbly pops. I hadn't been drinking, but I can only assume collisions like mine are pretty common, at least at that hour. Mulligan cleared his throat. "So I'd knock to pregnant lady down a staircase. What was she doing at that lady anyhow?" He scooped another handful of seeds. In the end, we were both lucky. Before she'd finished her backbone slide down the stairs, I'd notice something funny. A man with a hat and a very round face was watching me instead of the expected tumbler. I mean the conversation and cutlery rattling had ceased entirely, and from the top banister I could see everyone taking in the lady wobbling and going over, their heads slowly turning like it was a lopsided tennis serve. That is, everyone except that single face, seated beneath the drink colosine, staring at me. Well mom to be hadn't even touched down at the bottom, and I knew. Not only that, he knew I knew. After apparently watching me toss a pregnant woman down a flight of stairs to get at him, I guess he was pretty scared, when I finally tackled him half a block later. He started babbling everything I could ever ask of him. Although the lady was fine, I'm actually pretty happy to have the story to tell once I'd talked her husband out of a round of fisticuffs in a lawsuit. Smith shook his hand, emptying his palm of husks. Found the party boy in a dumpster though. Too bad about that. Flashpulp is presented by http colon slash slash Skinner dot FM. The audio and text formats of Flashpulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 2.5 license. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)