114
STARTLING STORIES
114
TEARS IN MY ALGABEER
by Eric Del Carlo
Emmie was nine kinds of pissed off when she finally stomped the brakes. Sprayed gravel sounded like hail. She flung open the door and said, “Get your a*s out!”
I don’t know what I’d been saying, not exactly. But I knew I was hollowed out with failure, and self-pity was clanging round all inside me. I must’ve been on a real tirade. I’d tried filling those inside-hollows with a bathtub’s worth of algawhiskey, but that’d probably just given my tongue a sloppier and louder means to my frustration.
“Get out!” Emmie repeated. She belted it.
“Hey, c’mon—” Like a switch was thrown, I was reasonable, cajoling. The pickup’s door still yawned wide next to me. Black tree darkness out there.
“I’m equipped with anti-theft, remem-
