On the Curb

by Desiree Kannel

It is common knowledge that the stuff people leave on the curb is free for the taking. For Steven this was like winning a lottery you never had to buy tickets for, so when he saw the young woman sitting on the curb in front of a Spanish style bungalow, he took her home. “Where are you taking me?” she asked. The voice unsettled Steven because nothing else he ever picked up had talked to him. Not the sofa with the torn fabric and stains, the TVs with the cracked monitors and missing knobs, the coffee tables with the rickety legs and water rings, and especially not that giant one-eyed half-stuff panda that watched him from the corner of his bedroom. After the woman asked a second time, Steven pulled over, took her from his car, placed her back on the curb and drove away.

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Desiree Kannel holds an MFA from Antioch University and is the fiction editor for The Sylvan Echo. She also leads a writers workshop called Rose Writers.