Literary Fiction
Date Published: April 16th
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Their city is teetering on the brink of collapse, and the mayor’s answer is a gleaming new auto mall at the valley’s edge. For Townsend, it’s the death of everything a city should be. Struggling to regain his passion and forced to choose between compliance and conviction, he must risk his career to fight for a more hopeful and verdant future.
Excerpt
Stop the Bleeding
At the civic center, Townsend rides his bike through the parking court,
past rows of cars arrayed between the building’s stucco wings. He locks
his bike and slips his helmet off, and his phone begins to vibrate. He takes
the phone from his pocket and looks at the screen. Dad. The vibrations
persist.
Townsend doesn’t want to answer. He knows the call will be difficult. Everything with Dad has become difficult. He swipes the screen with his thumb.
“Hey, Pop. How’re you doing?” He braces himself.
“Townsend? Townsend? It’s me, Dad. Are you there?”
“Hi, Dad. Yeah, I’m here. Everything okay? I’m about to go into a meeting—”
“I can’t find your mother. Is she there with you?”
Ugh. “Dad, mom’s been dead for thirty-five years—”
“She was here this morning. She woke me. She was here . . .”
“Pop, we’ve talked about this. Sometimes you see her in your dreams. It’s okay. It’s nice that you see her.”
“Well, I just thought she might be with you, and—”
Townsend glances toward the building. A gathering is pressed at the entrance, troubled by something he can’t see.
“Dad, I have to go into this meeting now. But I’ll call you when it’s over, all right?”
“I can’t find her, TomTom. I can’t find her. She was here, and we were—”
A woman’s voice intrudes on the call. “Mr. Meadows, it’s Dorthea Wickem. Your father woke this morning very confused. More than usual. We’re taking good care of him, but he’d like to see you when you’re able.”
“Of course, of course. I’ll be there this afternoon. And thank you.” Townsend ends the call with a long, guilt-ridden sigh. He glances toward the entrance. Something isn’t right, but the sun is in his face, well above the valley’s rim, hot and dry. He grabs his water bottle and takes a swig. He pours the rest over his head, letting the water trickle down his face and back. A moment of tepid relief. He closes his eyes and considers the opportunity, to ditch the meeting and see his dad. The meeting will be difficult. Time with his dad will be difficult.
He mops himself with his shirt and makes his way toward the entrance, where gawkers press close to stare at a grim warning scrawled in red paint across the automatic doors, which slide open and shut, open and shut, pulling the words apart and pushing them together.
Stop the bleeding—motherfuckers!
A woman turns to him with a pained look. “What does it mean?”
Townsend stares at her, searching for an answer. He has no idea. “It means somebody’s angry, and they wanted us to know.”
About the Author
Nicholas Deitch is a writer, architect, and advocate for social justice whose fiction explores the intersection of cities, history, and human resilience. His passion for storytelling began when a colleague recognized the emotional depth of his nonfiction work. Since then, he has honed his craft, publishing short stories in Litro Magazine, Club Plum, and Santa Barbara Literary Journal. His short story “Grace Eternal” won Best Fiction at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (2019).
Death and Life in the City of Dreams, his debut novel, is deeply influenced by his experiences in nonprofit leadership and the design of inclusive communities and urban places.
Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Ventura, California, with his wife and creative partner Diana.
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