He Doesn’t Like Colorful
By Jeff Harvey -
I was leaving for my brother Andrew’s graduation when Dad yelled at Mom because he didn’t like the paisley tie she bought him, it was too colorful. He plopped down in his recliner and declared he was not going, just like the time he refused to go to Andrew’s out of town football game because his girlfriend wanted to ride with us, and it was just weeks ago Dad found a whiskey bottle in Andrew’s closet and woke up the entire house at four a.m. yelling about how he was going to call the sheriff and have Andrew arrested, which never happened. Dad sliced a big piece of Grandma’s coconut cake she’d made for the celebration and settled in for the evening watching Starsky and Hutch while we had a house full of people that cared about Andrew and wanted to celebrate his success.
An ESL teacher, Jeff Harvey grew up near Memphis but now lives in San Diego. His work has recently appeared in Bending Genres, MoonPark Review, The Metaworker and Blink-Ink. He tweets @Jeff__Harvey.