Perdition by Jan Darrow

“Wait a minute…am I … where I think I am?”

”You ain’t in line at Starbucks buddy.”

“What happened??”

“You stepped off the curb into traffic trying to avoid some Girl Scouts selling cookies in front of a Piggly Wiggly…we suspect.”

Horrified look.  “Girl Scouts?”

“Don’t worry…you were the only statistic.”

“That figures.”  He looks around. “Wait a minute.  I’m here for that reason?”

“That…and the old lady you ran over just for fun in your get away truck after you robbed the bank and shot those cops.”

He looks around again.  There’s a line to the left and one to the right with spotlights overhead.

“See that line over there?”

“You mean the one where it looks like they’re giving the guy on the table mouth to mouth resuscitation?”

“Yeah.  Those people are here to earn Junior First Aid Badges.  And see the people over there in the other line?  They’re earning Good Citizenship Badges.”

Eyes roll.

Up ahead orange and blue flames lick the night air.

“Well.  What happens now?”

Big smile.

“See that fat bag of marshmallows?”

“Yes.”

“Hell is about helping.  Grab a stick and get roasting.  You’re gonna learn how to make S’mores to pass around.”

Jan Darrow is a Michigan native and has most recently been published online by New Feathers and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. Her work My House was selected for Sundress Publications Best of the Net 2023 by Black Poppy Review.  She has three collections of poetry and a collection of flash fiction available on Amazon.