ONE STORY

ONE

ALL THE RAGE

I just don’t like it, Sonny.

Come on, they’re all the rage.

I can’t explain it; maybe it’s the electricity.

It can’t electrocute you, Val.

I know that but it’s macabre all the same.

I spent two hundred dollars.

I didn’t ask you to.

To make you comfortable and feel like a princess!

Well, it’s not comfortable and you shouldn’t have.

And you’re no princess, that’s for sure.

Thank you.

Don’t thank me.

Come on, stop sulking.

Why?

Sonny, you sit in it and you’ll see.

It was for you.

Please, just try.

To please you?

Yes, to please me.

Okay, but just this once, then it’s going back  . . .

What do you think?

It’s okay, it’s comfortable.

What about when I flick this switch?

Then I don’t like it.

Because?

Because it feels wrong.

So, we agree?

I suppose so, but it is all the rage.

So is herpes.

Hah, I know what you’re saying.

You’ll get your money back?

Tomorrow, when I return it.

Great, and don’t come back with anything else fancy.

Like a hot tub?

Forget the hot tub.

They’re all the rage.

I’d never plug it in.

Nah, that would be stupid.

Story by Alan McCormick