by Jeff Fleischer
My short (well, technically) story “Silver and Gold” is now an episode of the PenDust Radio podcast from Rivercliff Books. You can listen to it at the site, which includes a short Q&A with me about the story. Or you can listen to it on Spotify, iTunes, the Apple Podcast app, etc.
An excerpt:
The letter arrived in a comically large envelope, larger than a standard manila one. Large enough that it could have held something much more important than a card-sized, handwritten note asking her to come to Los Angeles.
Carol Gold brought it home with the rest of her mail on her weekly trip to the box she maintained at the local post office. The handwriting on the return address looked familiar, but she didn’t immediately recognize it. She didn’t open it until she’d walked three miles home, placed her cane in its holder beside the back door, and eased herself into her overstuffed arm chair. Her Social Security check had arrived, along with a postcard from her grandniece traveling in Morocco, her usual assortment of magazine subscriptions, and dozens of examples of the predatory junk mail aimed at less-savvy women of her age. Carol thumbed through the mail, sorting it into piles to recycle, to save for later, and to read now while watching her daily dose of televised game shows.
