“Ten Dollar Bill,” by Robert Rorke (fiction, ’10)

A short story by Robert Rorke (fiction, ’10) appears in Amsterdam Quarterly:

 

Ten Dollar Bill

We came down to breakfast Sunday morning and found Himself slumped on the kitchen floor, back against the white enamelled oven door. His head was hanging down, dark hair hiding his right eye. Mom leaned against the sink, sipping a cup of coffee in her pink flannel nightgown, and looked down at him, as if trying to figure out how she was going to lift him—or if she was just going to leave him there.

He was conked-out. If you screamed in his ear, he wouldn’t have heard you. We’d found him passed out before, usually at the kitchen table, but never on the floor. [. . . continue reading here.]