The tender turns the television to Univision, mostly for the telenovela women, and there they saw, on the news, this grainy clip of a group of Argentine kids freaking out over a gnome coming their way, pointy hat and drunken hobo shuffle and all. Nat watched from over his beer and spoke, to his reflection in the glass, to the tender, to no one, "Now, if you see a little fellow coming your way, all jolly on his bun, you don't scream. You buy that cat a drink and get his story." No one had anything to say.

 


Chris Deal writes from Huntersville, North Carolina. He is the fiction editor for Red Fez, and has been published in a handful of places around about.