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FICTION

Under the Pink Plastic Coral

Jerry is a good man

Vic Spandrio
The Howling Owl
Published in
4 min readMar 13, 2024

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Photo by Ahmed Zayan on Unsplash

Jerry is a good man. The bad press he gets on earth doesn’t amount to a thing. Those yapping gulls in the media would tell you Jerry was the devil himself if it meant you bought their paper. Jerry’s a billionaire but he’s not evil. Those are two different kettle of fish.

Take the State’s inquiry into Jerry’s SpaceQ program, for example. In 2029, the State traced millions of dollars wired from The Republic of North Korea to an offshore bank account in Jerry’s name. Naturally, when the media caught wind they inflated the whole affair, and the public went berserk. Jerry was branded a traitor, a communist, there were death threats and all sorts of awful things in the mail.

The situation, as Jerry explained, was simple. North Korea needed high-powered rockets and there happened to be a surplus of high-powered rockets in Jerry’s San Antonio garage. So, he sold them.

In Jerry’s defence, he couldn’t have known North Korea would aim those rockets at their own people. That’s bad housekeeping on North Korea’s part, not Jerry’s. And another thing, he put most of the money back into SpaceQ anyway. That and stocking up on the crispiest, most delicious fish flakes solely for my enjoyment (not those off-brand types that taste of sand either, the first-rate stuff)…

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The Howling Owl
The Howling Owl

Published in The Howling Owl

The Howling Owl is a juried publication featuring poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews. The publication is committed to quality creative work from a diverse group of writers.

Vic Spandrio
Vic Spandrio

Written by Vic Spandrio

Writer based in New South Wales, Australia.

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