No news today - Guest Post - Greg Mulcahy

RADIO

10 below zero.
Where the hell had his watch cap gone? Instead there was nothing. Instead he would freeze.
Cap from the dollar store.
Somebody—maybe his nephew—left the hat in his car—tan knit cap with a skull on it. Something like something a snowboarder—some extreme sport kid—would wear.
All he had.
Time running. Work waiting.
He put on the cap.
Somebody dead on the car radio. Not the person, the notice.
He would not be on the radio. Not his notice. But then what did he care.
He’d care for nothing at the time.
Thought he’d heard vaguely a woman he once knew had died. Hadn’t seen her for years. Did not know where he’d heard. Did not know if it was true. Maybe. Someday maybe he would look.
Walked into the office.
Hey, your skull’s showing, Hooten said.
Confused. He realized.
Fuck you, Hooten.
Later, he told her. Hooten always on his ass. Hooten deliberately referencing the fact his sister had had a tumor.
He said, He wanted to find any way to bring it up.
He wasn’t referencing that, she said.
You don’t know him, he said, how he is.
Hours later he woke.
She awake.
Why did you wear that stupid hat, she said.
I told you.
No, she said. That’s not it.
What difference does it make, he said.
You’re always doing things like that, she said. Testing people. Provoking them. A hat with a skull.
It’s not a skull, he said. It is a death’s head.
Oh, you know everything about the hat. You knew. Then somebody took the bait.
Did you think, he said, I was trying to catch something?

Greg Mulcahy is the author of OUT of WORK, CONSTELLATION, and CARBINE. He lives in Minnesota.