“Darin’s Annual Appreciation Breakfast (1977-79)” at Topiary Stories

Obviously, given the parenthesized portion of the title, this one is a nostalgia piece set in the late seventies. It incorporates many of my youthful memories of the local Elks Club, where my grandfather served as steward, and my father and uncle helped out some nights for extra money. I do recall there being some sort of toy house in the otherwise dank and empty basement during my own infrequent visits, and whatever it was, it was impressive enough to stick in my head decades after the fact. All the murder stuff in the story is total fiction.
 
This one was published by Bill Tope, a prolific writer himself, who I’ve interacted with several times over at Fiction on the Web, where we’ve both been published. Anyway, I bumped into an old Tweet from Fiction on the Web editor Charlie Fish, who mentioned Bill had started a literary site back in the Spring. When I saw Bill’s site was not only still up, but still active, I reached out to him about publishing “Darin’s Annual Appreciation Breakfast (1977-79)” at Topiary Stories, and my inbox the next morning included a warmhearted reply from Bill, along with a link to my story!
 
You can read “Darin’s Annual Appreciation Breakfast (1977-79)” in full, for free, HERE at Topiary Stories.
 
Here’s the opening:
 

 
You can read “Darin’s Annual Appreciation Breakfast (1977-79)” in full for free over at Topiary Stories. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it!