A Day at the Races

by Jim Shaffer

Harry lost his shirt at the races, a gift from his wife, Joan, on his forty-second birthday. She'd be pissed, but being pissed was her favorite pastime, one she'd perfected after years of practice, drinking alone and often. So when Harry placed his bet at the Rainsburg track on Old Nick to win in the seventh, he figured if he lost, he'd have no trouble explaining it to Joan since Joan understood loss if it had to do with a bet. where there was always a winner and a loser. While on their way to the Rainsburg racetrack, Joan lost the baby, their first and only, buried now in the Cove Reformed Church cemetery just outside Bedford, the first burial ground they'd come to on their way to Rainsburg, where after, Joan, for her own reasons, hit the bottle more than usual. To Joan, the baby was never a bet, nor a game of chance, but rather heaven-sent, a gift. The reason why the loss of the shirt bothered Harry.

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Jim Shaffer - though he's been given to unregulated flights of fancy - writes the occasional crime fiction story, such as his novella, Back to the World. Several of his stories appear online at Close to the Bone under his proper name, James, and in various anthologies; the latest, inspired by the songs of Pink Floyd, Coming Through in Waves. He lives in the southeast of England.