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The Actor, by Gerald Kamens

23/12/2022

2 Comments

 
When they were through that night, Curtis gave his notes. He seemed to be generally pleased with their performances. Before going to the dressing rooms, George was surprised to see Curtis climbing the stairs to the stage, and striding over to him. Not another reprimand! “I brought a friend of mine tonight,” said Curtis. “An actor. Roger was quite impressed with your work. Said you really inhabited the role. I just wanted you to know that,” Curtis concluded, and quickly turned away to go out front again.

Astounded, George repeated the words in his head as, a few minutes later, he changed and removed his makeup. Looking at himself in the mirror, wild white hair and a three-inch beard, he felt that maybe he really, after a shave and a haircut, two bits, wouldn’t look all that old. He’d always thought that a kind word to someone else, even to a complete stranger, might change that person’s life forever. Maybe, it was love, after all, not sex, that filled the grand canyon, and helped put off for a time our fears of death.

His step was lighter as he walked to his car. They’d rehearsed later than usual that night. It was past 11. Maybe he’d stop at the drive-through window, get a hamburger with fries, something he rarely ate that late at night, because it’d give him indigestion. But then he’d be even later getting home to walk Kaiser. Maybe Carole could do it. By rights, she should do it. After all, they’d gotten a dog to keep his wife company because she’d complained about George being out late so many evenings during the week preparing for a play – even more evenings and weekends as it came closer to showtime, going, she liked to say, to his own secret space. Yes. She could certainly walk Kaiser. He raced, in an unusually good frame of mind for him, he thought, to the drive through. Maybe he’d get a frozen vanilla yogurt too.
2 Comments
Jim Bartlett link
23/12/2022 05:10:09 pm

It's wonderful and not often realized how much a few kind words can mean to someone.
Nice little story
Jim

Reply
Sue Clayton
24/12/2022 12:24:31 am

So well written, I was reading it from inside George's head.

Reply



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    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

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    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

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