No Backsies

by Roger Daubach

“You realize you’re asking the impossible,” she said, the hardened wall of her face beginning to visibly crack. “Come on,” he pleaded, “it’s not like I want you to scale the Empire State Building after knocking back a fifth of whiskey.” “That would almost be easier.” Tears welled in her eyes and, when he reached out to touch her shoulder, she recoiled violently. “Audrey, you can do this.” “I’m sorry,” she said while turning away, warm tears cascading down her cheeks and splashing on the tile with an almost deafening crash, “but I won’t ever be able to forget what you said.”

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Roger Daubach, author of The Assignment, writes but rarely submits. Submission, after all, is the first step to rejection. He lives in Brooklyn and shares his stories and poems online.