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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Flash Bang #1

Promsies by AJ Hayes was this month's entry from the first ever Flash Bang Challenge at my newsletter, Bloody Knuckles. The topic was a picture of the 1940s era bathing beauty located in older post here at the Hard Nosed Sleuth. The prose is down right sinister. Enjoy. I did!

PROMISES
by AJ Hayes

I saw her first on the terrace next to mine at the Biltmore. She was reclining on an Adirondack chaise, head tilted to the side, eyes closed, long legs burnished by the winter sun. I had never seen anything so beautiful. I snapped her picture with my Speed Graphic, worried that the sharp click and fast whirr of the shutter would wake her. But she slept on. She was perfection.


That night I saw her in the bar and bought her a drink. She was vivacious and even prettier than I had thought. During the course of the evening I learned that she was from back East and, like most of the pretty girls in Los Angeles, desperately trying to get into the movies. "Just a break, "she said. "Just one little break."

I smiled at her over my martini and told her I thought I had a part for her. Two parts, actually. A dual role. One that could make her famous overnight.

"Like Lana Turner?" she asked, her eyes bright with laughter.

"Even more famous than that," I said. "A hundred years from now, no one will remember Lana. But everyone will remember you."

"Promise?" She asked.

"Promise." I answered.

The barbiturate I'd slipped in her drink hit her pretty hard so I had to half carry her out of the bar. No one noticed. The L.A. of nineteen-forty-seven was a wide open town, filled with post-war celebration and excess.

I took her to my studio in the valley. In those days it was an empty, desolate place where they used to shoot westerns and jungle movies. The only habitations were widely scattered ranches and a couple of movie star estates hidden behind high fences and thick hedges.

She partially woke just as I finished suspending her. Her hair barely brushed the sawdust covered floor of the old barn I used for my art. Even upside down she was beautiful.

Her voice was slow and slurred when she asked what I was doing.

I didn't bother saying anything. She got the idea when I made my first cut. Her screams were as bright as her laughter.

I had an advantage back then. To the cops I was just another free lance photographer scuttling around the city. Hanging on and hoping for the shot that would take me to the big leagues. Not worth noticing. Invisible.

I took her from the trunk of my car, arranged her properly on the vacant lot and shot my photos. Then I waited for dawn to bring the first sirens. When they came I raced to my paper and stunned the morning editor with the first pictures of my creation. He stopped the presses and featured them on the front page, above the fold, under screaming seventy-two point headlines.

I kept my promises to her. She did play in two parts. Well, her carefully separated body did anyhow. And she is more famous than Lana Turner ever was.

I still have the photograph of her on that hotel terrace. I look at it almost every day. She was beautiful then and she is beautiful now. None of my other works compare.

17 comments:

Nigel Bird said...

how well that reads. more fantastic work from the talent that is AJ Hayes. is there anyone else out there dying to see his collected works?

Anonymous said...

She was always only part of the pornographic voyeurism that is the first port of entry to the aspiring starlets that land like debris for the predators to catch. Brilliantly written Bill, from the opening words to the increasingly laconic elegy to this woman's fate.

Jim Harrington said...

Eerie, gritty, perfect. Well done, AJ.

Chris Rhatigan said...

Creepy and very well done. I'm with Nigel--an AJ Hayes collection is long overdue!

Anonymous said...

It's really a good feeling when people you Respect -- with a capital R -- like your stuff.
Nigel: Thanks, mate. You've been on my side for a long time.
Richard: Right to the heart of the matter, my friend. As usual. Thank you.
Jim: Thanks, buddy. You know how much I value your opinion and your hard nosed critiques.
Chris: DBK has been one of my favorite spots for a long time, It's way cool working with you.

Earl Staggs said...

Good stuff. Gave me a chill.

Ian Ayris said...

Fantastic, mate. You have a talent for imbuing even the most gruesome tale with gentle poetry, my friend. And that, blimey, you can't teach that.

Author said...

Good stuff, AJ. I have a feeling that one will stay with me for quite some time. Loved it!

Paul D Brazill said...

Tight and dark. Top writing.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Thank you all.
Earl, I'll buy you a bourbon to help ward off that chill someday.
Ian, thanks, mate. Proper chuffed.
Thank you Lady Julie. Glad all four or five of you liked it.
Thanks Paul. When PB likes your stuff it puts you over the moon.

Jack Bates said...

Thanks for stopping by, everyone. AJ- again- thans for the story.

Cindy said...

"She got the idea when I made my first cut. Her screams were as bright as her laughter."

Nobody can put it like YOU, AJ.

I always felt a bond with the Black Dahlia. Does it shock you that I was once her for Halloween?

Anonymous said...

Awww . . . thanks Pal. Nope, doesn't shock me at all, your turn as the Dahlia. It's just the way that incredible mind of yours works. Hope everyone recognized who you were.

Jack Bates said...

New blog spot coming our way.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Jack. Tried the old one and it had *poofed*

Kate Pilarcik ~ absolutely said...

Elizabeth here -- I've come up short. Actually I'm here, there, everywhere -- I'm all over the place.

Sorry AJ -- You just sent me over here challenging how much my diggin' the 40's feel meets how jake you dish it out. I figgered you desoived a good haunting. No bum's rush though -- This was time and place and vibe and verve! Got a lot goin' under that fedora, I keep jawin' at ya, Bub. Yikes! How you cut into the plot summary of that chippy - ain't no canaries gonna sing 'round her docks, no more, no how.

~ Absolutely*Kate, keeping a polite distance from Mr horrific Hayes when he has power tools on the mind

Kate Pilarcik ~ absolutely said...

JACK!

LOVIN' YOUR BOOK COVERS MAN! CLASSY!!!


~ Absolutely*Kate, believing in believers
and lovin' the shadows of crimes to be told and talents takin' on destinies