Dicky’s DilemmaWinner of the Judges’ Commendation, The ESU Roly Sussex Short Story Award, 2016
Artwork by Olga Rybalko and Bill Higginson
I’m sitting at the second table from the left, front row, sipping an appalling sherry—domestic, of course—waiting for the idiocy to begin. On my right comes the ceaseless undercurrent of babble as Gossip bends Forbearance’s ear. She’d been bending mine moments ago. Forbearance—stoic as always—looks ahead in grim silence. The ballroom stage sits in shadow, the grand desk adorned with a waterglass and one of those little microphones that look like a cobra poised to strike. Set won’t appear for a while yet, believing that prolonging his entrance heightens expectation and dramatic tension, augments his mystique. All it does is heighten my ennui, augments m
