Snowflake Gardens

"Snowflake Gardens"
a paperback about the finer things: wine, pool and a warm gun
by Mallory Keeler

AN EXCERPT:
Riley and Sam stood in the cemetery. They were alone, excluding the hundreds of dead around them.

"You got your gun?" asked Riley.

"I've got two," said Sam. "Markowitz will have two bloody stumps for legs before he even realizes he's still got two arms to shoot with."

"Jesus," mumbled Riley.

"Well, how often are you supposed to watch a friend get murdered, huh? Isn't that kind of a once in a lifetime thing? Once you see it, odds are against seeing it again. Am I right? Well, consider our week. Consider what we've seen," said Sam. "Jackson got shot off the goddamn bridge! You would've thought he was flying if you didn't know Markowitz pumped him full with a shotgun!"

"Yea," said Riley quietly, "I know."

"And we don't even know where the femme fetale is, do we?"

"Probably at the pool hall."

"Where the pool tables are coffins," said Sam, shutting his eyes, remembering Gary's death.

"Look, we don't even know if she's really working for Markowitz, for us or for herself. She's got interests all over the place. She stands to make a profit from everyone it seems like," said Riley with a shrug.

There was a long eerie silence. The wind was picking up. Riley tilted his fedora and reached into his trenchcoat for a cigarette.

"Gary slept with her, you know," said Sam with a grunt.

"Really?" said Riley, pulling his cigarette away. "Why didn't you tell me? This changes suspects, this changes motives, this changes everything!"

"No, it doesn't. What's done is done, what's dead is dead, and now I pray for my soul versus theirs," said Sam, cocking both of his guns.

It started snowing.

Riley looked around. Everything was in black and white. He brushed some snow off a tombstone and kicked some dirt away from the letters.

"Like demons crawling the earth, spreading disease, he'll shoot his men down hot before they freeze," said Riley, looking around at the buried. "And like angels covering their tracks, in the dead of night, he'll bury his wounded at Snowflake Gardens all right."

Riley let out a sigh and cocked his gun.

Sam grinned slightly, "Let's go."