• Home
  • Releases
  • Blog
  • Design
  • Posters
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
  • Privacy Policy

Loser City

Multimedia Collective

  • Home
  • Releases
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Art
  • Submissions
You are here: Home / Art / Fiction: Whatever It Takes

Fiction: Whatever It Takes

October 23, 2014 By Daniel Elkin Leave a Comment

Whatever it Takes 1There’s an ignored old sailing man in his great-granddaughter’s house who’s now too tattered to conquer the seas, too frail to even master the stairs, shut in this brand new brick Colonial-style house in the middle of Kansas.

How he came here, passing through a series of exasperated “I’ve got too much going on already” and guilt-lying “We really don’t have the room,” is another ordinary tale of lives moving forward – the steps of the young leaving little in their wake – culminating in an eventual lipstick-caked, soft-hearted “okay” overcoming a gruff, beer-sodden “no.”

Now, so much after the fact, he spends his days sneaking into the too clean kitchen when everyone is gone and running the dishwasher, no matter what it contains, over and over again. He sits on the linoleum like a gray wounded octopus huddled against a rock, his ear pressed firmly against the brown metal front of the pulsating machine, listening.

His eyes flutter as the sound brings him again in contact with the water, the engine aboard riding the crests. As he sits his lips glisten with the slobber of reverie. His unfocused, cataract eyes dampen slightly around their puffy lids as the cycle ends. With twisted, liver-spotted hands, he starts the machine again, continuing this run until finally, at sunset, the man of the house with his tie slightly askew and tired from a day working on large problems enters the kitchen and yells.

“Do you know how much money you’re costing me old man?”

Thereupon the once proud captain crawls back to his room where he remains in the dark, tugging on his thick whiskers, waiting for the next crack of dawn and the chance to ride the waves again.Whatever it Takes 2

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Art, Features Tagged With: Daniel Elkin, fiction, Flash Fiction, Prose Poem, Short Fiction, Short Story

About Daniel Elkin

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SOCIAL

FacebookInstagramTumblrTwitter

Buy Loser City Apparel

loser city T-shirt

Be a Loser

Sign up for Loser City's mailing list to receive weekly updates about the latest articles, shows, and releases.

TRENDZ

Anatomy of a Page art Austin CBS comedy comics Dark Horse DC DC Comics documentary Fantagraphics Film Fossil Records Games HBO hip-hop horror humor IDW Image Comics Indie indie comics jake muncy manga Marvel Marvel Comics Melissa Benoist Music penny dreadful Pete Toms punk Questionable Comics Review Ryan K Lindsay sci-fi Seattle Showtime Supergirl SXSW Television the CW TV video games Video of the Week ymmv

Top Posts & Pages

  • Codeine Crazy
  • Visual Domination: Angelina Jolie's Sexual Power in Mr and Mrs. Smith
  • Lost in My Mind: I Believe in Unicorns is a Gauzy and Inventive Exploration of Girlhood
  • Faithful to a Fault: Where Amazing Spider-Man 2 Went Wrong with Gwen Stacy
  • Below Her Mouth is Yet Another Disappointing Film About Lesbian Experiences
  • Trophies of Over Indulgence: A Look Inside the World of Gainers
  • The Scream: Remembering Chester Bennington's Voice and Why It Connected with so Many
  • A Chorus of Silence: On the Impossibility of Reporting on Chronic Abusers in Comics
  • Anatomy of a Page: Naoki Urasawa's Pluto
  • Adventures in the Floating World: Detroit Metal City

Follow Loser City

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
Instagram has returned invalid data.

Follow loser_city on the Gram

Loser City is…

Comics, shows, a secret critical network -- we aim to fail big.

Danny Djeljosevic: Co-Founder

Morgan Davis: Co-Founder

Nick Hanover: Glorious Godfrey of LC

David Fairbanks: Creative Writing Editor

Kayleigh Hughes: Film Editor

Julie Muncy: Games Editor

David He: Assisting Consultant*

Contributors: Nate Abernethy, John Bender, AJ Bernardo, CJ Camba, Liam Conlon, Daniel Elkin, David A. French, Rafael Gaitan, Dylan Garsee, Stefanie Gray, Johnson Hagood, Shea Hennum, Zak Kinsella, Austin Lanari, Marissa Louise, Francesca Lyn, Chase Magnett, Justin Martin, Diana Naneva, Claire Napier, Joshua Palmer, James Pound, Mike Prezzato, Lars Russell, David Sackllah, Keith Silva, Nicholas Slayton, Carly Smith, Ray Sonne, Tom Speelman, Mark O. Stack, Dylan Tano, Mason Walker

Art

Why So Angry: Refusing to Forget Stories of Abuse

Poetry: My God, My World

Comic Cinema Club: Sorcerer by Rafael Gaitan and Mike Prezzato

Nonfiction: Progeny in Crisis by Kayleigh Hughes

The Persistence of Synergy: Scenes from the Stock Business Photo Prison Hellscape

More Art

Interviews

Dhani Harrison Plots His Own Path With Solo Debut In///Parallel

Boston Terriers and Desert Vibes: A Conversation with Jay and Sanders Fabares of “The Pale”

Questionable Comics: Becky & Frank and Rachael Stott

More Interviews

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in