VOL. 31: IN STITCHES
Story by Keith Powell | Art by Kat Vita
They caught Jingles near the cliffs. He’d tried to slip past the tiny village under cover of night, but his oversized shoe prints in the wet sand revealed all. He fought and squealed, but it was hopeless. They dragged him into town by his baggy pants and tossed him inside the colossal glass flagon they’d prepared overlooking the bay.
A glowering woman in a white apron tipped a ladder to the lip of the jar and threw in handfuls of rough straw for him to bed down. Across the square, grim-faced townsfolk fussed with an ornate fountain. They went about their business, ignoring Jingles’s pleas for explanation or release.
As the day wore on, an old man with a spine like a question mark carefully scaled the ladder and lowered in a lunch pail of seltzer, banana cream pie, and overripe tomatoes. Jingles hated himself for accepting their offering but, famished, did so all the same, staining his grease paint red with tomato juice.
Oh, he’d give them such a show. They’d laugh themselves silly!
Later, a mother and daughter pair in matching yellow outfits approached. Jingles whispered for help. The little girl fogged the glass with her breath and carefully drew the letters H and I. Near the fountain, men began to pile wood.
At dusk, a friar in a hempen robe arrived. He placed a large leather-bound book on the cobblestones and began to mouth a wordless prayer, his fleshy jowls rising and falling.
Jingles pounded on the glass. Did they want a show? Was that it? He’d give them a show. Oh, he’d give them such a show. They’d laugh themselves silly! At the fountain, a man with a peg leg touched a lit torch to the stacks of wood. Hungry flames encircled the enormous cauldron. The friar paused mid-incantation and sighed. He hoped the clown would indeed lift the villagers’ spirits. But, unfortunately, a show was not the way to a man’s heart.
Keith J. Powell (website) writes fiction, CNF, reviews, and plays. He is cofounder of Your Impossible Voice, and has recent or forthcoming work in Roi Fainéant Press, Emerge Literary Journal, Bending Genres, 100 Word Story, and The Disappointed Housewife.
Kat Vita (website | Instagram) is a children’s book illustrator and tattoo artist established in Minnesota. She graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, majoring in illustrating and minoring in creative writing. She currently works as a tattoo artist in an all-female shop, and on her off days she stays busy writing, illustrating, and baking while accompanied by her three dogs.