“Next in line!” the library clerk chirped.
Eleanor shuddered when the tall man in the gray trenchcoat stepped forward. He visited the central branch of the Glendale Public Library several days a week, emitting a vibe that Eleanor found unsettling. If forced to confront exactly why the man’s presence displeased and unsettled her, Eleanor knew she would come up blank and wordless. The library clerk was a simple creature who dutifully obeyed her instincts and carried a profound mistrust of the ability of words to sum up what natural intuitive power says.
“I’d like to renew these,” he said in murmuring words laced with bourbon. She could smell stale beef on him. Beef and potatoes and bourbon dripping from his pores. He slid the two books across the counter. Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West and Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. Ordinarily, the man checked out a vast assortment of books: Hemingway, Bukowski, Didion, McCarthy. But lately he seemed stuck on the West and Lowry novels, renewing their enlistment to his shadowy cause time and again, as if searching for some elusive, hidden meaning in the text.
“How are you today?” Eleanor forced herself to smile as she scanned the barcode on the back of his library card. The user profile on the computer monitor told her that his name was Trace. He lived a few scant blocks from the library.
“I’m … okay.” The words were forced, belying the truth. He was far from okay. Eleanor noticed a slight tremble in his right hand; to mask the tremor Trace drummed his fingers on the wood countertop.
Eleanor swiftly scanned the books and handed them back to him. “Happy reading!”
Trace shoved Nathanael West and Malcolm Lowry into his canvas tote bag and sidled away from the counter. “You, too,” he said absently.
Further Reading: Intoxicate Me


Haha…. here I was thinking he was going to flash her and he ended up being Our Hero.
By: David N. Scott on April 10, 2008
at 12:49 pm
That’s our boy, David. Trace. The fictional creation who refuses to die or become otherwise irrelevant. It seems Joseph Mailander also brought him back to life today over at Kafka’s Mouse. Here is the story.
By: Rodger Jacobs on April 10, 2008
at 12:52 pm
your endings are always good and unexpected
By: Scot on April 11, 2008
at 2:24 am
With more than half of the flash fiction I construct, Scot, I violate what I was always taught as a Golden Rule: Know your ending. Well, a lot of the time I don’t know my ending, I’m freefalling and improvising.
By: Rodger Jacobs on April 11, 2008
at 9:53 am
Hmm…. I wonder if I could write a Trace story. It would probably come out sort of weird at best.
By: David N. Scott on April 11, 2008
at 1:16 pm
I think you wrote a piece of Trace fan fic once, David. I recall you also finishing an incomplete piece of Trace flash fiction for me. I’d have to check the archives at Wonderland — or you could do it for me! There’s a search function over there.
By: Rodger Jacobs on April 11, 2008
at 6:19 pm
Ah! No time to read! Must sleep!
I’ll catch up sometime this weekend. I promise.
Nice new look, though! So I felt I had to at least comment on that. David DID do those, didn’t he? Give me a second…
By: Julie Scott on April 11, 2008
at 10:52 pm
http://8763wonderland.wordpress.com/2006/05/11/date-with-a-deadline/
That’s the one where you asked people to finish the Trace story if they were so inclined.
http://8763wonderland.wordpress.com/2006/02/05/the-decline-of-shakeys/
And here is the post about David’s homage to Trace, thinly disguised as a character named “Etch”.
By: Julie Scott on April 11, 2008
at 10:59 pm
Ok, I lied. Nice Trace story. Really vibrant descriptions there. murmuring words laced with bourbon Love it.
Oh, and I somehow convinced the OC Weekly that I know what I’m doing and it looks like I’m going to be doing some freelance copy-editing for them. Woo! Thanks for the words of encouragement Rodger! =)
By: Julie Scott on April 11, 2008
at 11:04 pm
I love the extra rush of pleasure readers get when literature becomes part of your story, like in the recitation of the Miss L. quote.
By: Sandy on April 12, 2008
at 8:35 am
Very heart-felt congratulatons, Julie! And thanks for finding David’s compositions. “Etch” — I almost forgot that. Very clever derivation of “Trace”.
Sandy, “Miss Lonelyhearts” is in my personal top ten of 20th century novels. Actually, it’s a novella.
By: Rodger Jacobs on April 12, 2008
at 10:50 am
Thanks for the comment on the new look, Julie. I’m very pleased with it myself. Easier on the eyes. I grew tired of that black text against a stark white background.
By: Rodger Jacobs on April 12, 2008
at 12:58 pm