The Black Eye - Flash Fiction
Updated: 2 days ago
A flash fiction story about charm, rumor, and the one thing nobody wants to mention. In “The Black Eye,” Greg Luti introduces Tommy V., the wittiest and most well-liked guy in town, until a mysterious black eye starts following him through everyday conversations.
Tommy V. is one of the nicest guys around town and is someone that you and just about anyone would be happy to meet. Yeah, the guy has the wit to say anything to make the room feel at ease. A charm that can’t be taught. Sure, he had smarts, but that wit, that charm. You can’t teach that.
His kindness came from his seemingly easy way to accept all around him.
The guy had been known to chat with every person you could name. He has had dinner with presidents on the red and blue, celebrities of all statuses, lowly garbage men who take out the trash, and janitors who complete the insignificant issues that can change our world.
Most all agree on the man Tommy V. He is a good one. There is not much to dislike about the lightly overweight, quick-witted slick hair comedian.
You gotta look to find something to not like about the guy.
While you are looking for that error, you may find that there is one thing that you never talk to Tommy about, one topic never to be brought up or mentioned. No matter who talks to him, or where he is, no one ever brings up this detail.
There is a black eye on the man that requires him to wear an eye patch from the permanent damage he received from it. No one knows where he got it from. And no one may learn the truth.
I don’t remember when he got it but the word on the street is that he got it one day, and acted as though nothing happened. Just a minor bruise. He fell, is all. Just a bad slip. No one believed the man, even though that is all he ever said of it.
Once a few people asked him of it, the situation was clear to all around, don’t ask him about it, for you may not want to know what really happened. As rumors spread of the cause, so did this notion that one is not to ask Tommy of the origin of the eye patch.
Most think the bruise came from his woman. A real vile creature who spoke in shrieks and hysteria than any real words. She was the type of woman that you would meet, shake her hand, and know that bad things came from her, as though she was carrying around darkness in her pocketbook. She forced her man to be on tour doing gigs long after he made his money, so the cruel treatment was known by many. Even in his act, he jokes about the treatment of his wife, although the audience may not have thought there was truth to the joke.
The lady always presented herself as loving and caring to her man, and he never objected to any who saw only that side of her. There were always rumors that there was a part of their relationship that people didn’t know. And in that chapter, was the black eye.
Of course, that is not the only theory of the appearance of the black eye. There are some who say it was the mob. The guy lost a bet on a boxing match and had to pay up. The eye was a reminder of his lost payment.
Because Tommy never fully avoided gambling and other vices, there is a good portion who feel the eye damage was not of his lover but of a possible enemy.
The more conventional theory, and one that kills all imagination, would be about Tommy injuring himself in an accident. You can say that he fell down the stairs of a hotel if you want if you believe the guy. He lost his footing, and then his eye became a victim of the fall. No one believes this take.
A few crazies in town even claim that the black eye is nothing more than an occult ritual that Tommy is now in. They believe that all are lies; all expect how they view the world and how they interpret situations. Tommy had to cut his eye to be a part of the club and get more perks in this world. That is how the crazies explain that one.
So there are those who feel the black eye came from his crazy wife, the mob, an accident, or a strange ritual, and none of them can be proven right or wrong.
If you go to the local bar, you may see Tommy go up and order a drink. He would make you laugh for hours as you both enjoy your drinks. Yeah, you can relax and allow the funny man to entertain you with his wit and charm, but there is something that you never are to ask him.
What caused the black eye?
For no one knows, and we all may be better off with that being the case.
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