HOME	viav.net	By V

Me? yeah, I'm the hard-boiled type, but some things still get to me, ya know? Like what happened to the kid. Sure, he was raw, but he was a good egg, really grade-A. I just never would've thought he'd crack up like he did. I guess it's the same old story, he fell in with the wrong crowd, got mixed up with the spoon and it beat him. He didn't knead dough, 'cause he was rolling in it, so he started loafin' around. Back then, it was hard to get a rise out of him. Even when the heat was on he just sat there. I lost track of him for a while, but I heard he did some time in the box. The last time I saw him, he was really baked, kind of crusty too, I mean you could smell him from a mile away. He was laying around with a little tart who was trying to butter him up. The whole scene was just too flaky for me. Later, I heard he got on board with some pretty sharp customers. I mean, they'd cut you for just being fresh. Who knows what happened to him after that, maybe he got in a jam or maybe somebody put the bite on him, but any way you slice it, the guy was toast, and all I can say is, it's a pretty crumby business. Copyright © 2005 VickyBennett.com "TOAST" was first published by the Kansas Writer's Association in "Words Out Of The Flatlands 2009" and was a prize winner in the category of Free Verse.