“I remember going to the tire store with my dad as a kid,” says Steve. “He always bought retreads, though I didn’t know what retreads were at the time. I just loved going with him—loved the smell of new tires, fresh rubber.”

Marie nods, staring at her iPad. But Steve doesn’t know if she’s nodding at his story, or the Words With Friends game she’s got going with Mary. One of them. She’s got dozens going at a time—he wonders if there’s a 12-step for it.

Steve looks around the lobby of Les Schwab Tires, glances at the soundless TV playing a cooking show.

“Think we should get the wheels aligned too? It’s extra you know.”

Marie nods again.

He considers.

“Think I should go to Tahiti with our marriage counselor, Terry?”

Marie nods.

Aha. “And should we never come back again?”

She nods again, still staring at her screen. He sees a green glow on her red face and thinks, is that weird or what? What is the new weird? He hears the whirring of pneumatic wrenches in the garage removing lug nuts in quick bursts, imagines the wheels coming off.

“So if you were on a desert isle and you could only bring one thing with you, what would you choose—me or Words With Friends?”

He glances off towards an aisle of Michelins. Feels a tingle—no—a vibration. Checks his phone.

A text.

From her: YOU, silly—there’d be no wifi on the island :)

—Previously published in Guy Biederman’s School of the Floating Word on Facebook (posted on 31 March 2013); appears here with author’s permission.

Guy Biederman

teaches “low fat fiction” and is the author of three collections of short prose: Soundings and Fathoms: Stories (Finishing Line Press, 2018), House Samurai (Iota Press, 2006), and Parts & Labor (Thumbprint Press, 1992). His stories have appeared in dozens of venues including Carve, daCunha, Sea Letter, Third Wednesday, and Exposition Review, where he was twice a Flash 405 winner.

He grew up on a stingray in Ventura, learned to write in the Peace Corps during a war in Guatemala, and later received his M.A. from San Francisco State, where his teaching career began. He’s been a college creative-writing instructor since 1991, and he’s also worked as a bookstore clerk, gardener, ad sales rep, sports writer, and publisher. Now living on a houseboat with his wife and two salty cats, Guy walks the planks daily.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Guy Biederman: Author at daCunha; includes an expanded bio and nearly two dozen links to more of his writing

⚡ Flash Fiction: Workshop by Guy Biederman, Art Stay I (3–7 June, 2019) at Emandal (A Farm on a River Since 1908)

⚡ Evan’s Essence, story by Biederman which placed second in Flash 405 (April 2017), Exposition Review (published in June 2017)

⚡ BackStory: Five Questions with Guy Biederman in FlashBack Fiction (3 August 2018)

⚡ The Most Shoplifted Poet in America in Third Wednesday (2 July 2017

⚡ Bathrobe, Biscotti, and Bike in Blue Fifth Review (Fall 2017, 17:12); story appears second to last near the bottom of the page.