Dumbfounding Stories

WALKING TO CAPE CANAVERAL

Kent McDaniel

            Surf washed in, and the darkening sky glittered with stars. On the beach, Alan McVickers lay, grizzled head on his sneakers, bare toes in the warm sand. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed brown shoes. A large body in tan slacks and blue work shirt loomed over him; Alan was five-ten, and this guy would stand head and shoulders taller. Weary eyes twinkled from the face above, a face Alan recognized with a start.  Those enormous ears. They stuck out from a head round as a bowling ball, a stubble of black hair on top. The mouth was wide, and the nose long, with large nostrils. The last three weeks, wherever Alan was, so was this guy. 

            In Dade County Municipal Court, where Alan watched the cases, he’d begun to notice the stranger, always three or four seats…