


I had him chained to a refrigerator.’” Zoey stared for a moment, then snorted a laugh that almost caused her to choke on her sandwich. It took off flyin’.’ And the fella says, ‘That’s impossible. So I walk along and I come across a guy sittin’ on the curb and I say, ‘Holy cow, partner, did you see that goat?’ And the fella says, ‘Well, that’s my goat.’ And I say, ‘Well, I hate to tell ya, but I think it’s gone. And now I think I’m losin’ my mind, like maybe it’s not just tobacco in my cigar, if you know what I’m sayin’. But then I see the second strange thing-this goat, it goes flying past me, in midair. So I figure this is the first of this city’s many unknowable mysteries and I start to go on about my way. I hear it bang off the side a few times but once again, there’s no crash, no splash, like it just kept fallin’ forever. So, I circle around and I give it a good kick and it tumbles down into the hole. And teeterin’ right on the edge of the hole is an old refrigerator. So now I’m real curious, and I look around for somethin’ else to throw down there. Coin just tumbles into the darkness and disappears.

I look down and I can’t see a bottom, so I pull a quarter out of my pocket and toss it down, and listen for a clink or a splash. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. And I’m walkin’ through a construction site-and it was all construction sites back then, you understand-and I come across this hole in the ground, ’bout ten feet in diameter. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits: A Novel Order Now at Barnes & Noble Order Now at Indiebound Order Now at Kobo (eBook) Order Now at Google Books (eBook) Order Now at Apple Books (eBook) A Winner of the 2016 Alex Awards N ightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. I remember my very first night here-and this is goin’ on fifteen years ago-I was takin’ a walk downtown, tryin’ to get a feel for the place. “Tabula Rasa can make you feel like you’ve taken a train to Bizarro world.
