Siren's Garter: Issue One August 2016 by Miriam F. Martin

felt out of control.
    Kevin was so close to the edge, his
face so nervous and scared. Just a step closer. She didn’t even
have to touch him again.
    Kevin slipped off the
edge.
    And fell feet first.
    He grabbed onto the rocky edge with
his fingers.
    “ Elsie,” he said.
“Help!”
    “ We were almost married!” Elsie
said. “And you cheated!”
    Feeling oddly like a Vaudeville
villain but with anger issues, she stepped on his
fingers.
    “ How dare you!” she
yelled.

 
    Chapter
Fourteen
     
    Kevin hadn’t realized how close to
the edge he was. How close Elsie had pushed him.
    Her face contorted and pinched,
hell-bent angry. She was red as a lobster.
    He tried telling her, calmly as
possible, that Zack had lied. The back of Kevin’s neck felt hot and
sticky. His armpits felt glued to his shirt.
    Elsie took more step towards
him.
    He took a step back.
    And then slipped.
    Loose rocks and crunchy gravel fell
underneath his foot.
    The fall almost certainly bruised
his stomach. His ribcage hurt bad. Probably not broken, but the
pain stung fierce. His heart raced up his throat, making him want
to vomit. He dared not look down. The sheer nothingness under his
feet gave him enough vertigo.
    Somehow he had grabbed on the
ledge. And Elsie stepped her clunky wedge sandals on his
fingers.
    “ Elsie!” Kevin said, panic
quavering on the surface like a shark fin above the waves. “Baby,
listen! He lied!”
    “ How could you!” she yelled,
grinding her toe on his fingers. Pain shot threw every nerve in his
hand, all the way up his elbow. He gritted his teeth, tasting loose
sand and dirt.
    Kevin dug his feet onto the rock,
trying to find something to step onto. Unlike a rock climbing wall,
the ledge of Mendota Bluff was smooth with no hand-holds he could
find. And his shoes had no traction on the bottom.
    Every muscle in his body strained
and burned. He wasn’t going to last long.
    “ Elsie, please help me! I love
only you!”
    “ Did you say that to those
floozies last night? Huh?” Elsie grinded her foot on his other
hand.
    Gertrude, worry mixed with grim
determination on her face, put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
Elsie pulled away.
    And then spat.
    Her loogie landed square in Kevin’s
right eye. Half his vision gone and blurry with warm spit, Kevin
kept staring at her. Part disbelief, part utter terror.
    “ Elsie!” yelled
Gertrude.
    So this was how it ended? Being
pushed off a cliff by the woman he loved? Sure, he knew all along
Elsie had anger management issues. And she wasn’t a saint by any
means. Why the hell did Kevin want to marry her anyway?
    Looking up at Elsie—long denim clad
legs, bare tanned arms, black hair blowing in the wind—Kevin
imagined her as the angel of death. The last woman most guys ever
wanted to see.
    And he was in love.
    Not despite her ferocious temper
and scary fighting spirit. Rather, because of it. What other woman
could live with a spy, but another spy?
    Then he thought about the last time
they made love, in Elsie’s mother’s basement just a short time ago.
Why couldn’t it have been somewhere nicer?
    Like the bridal suite?
    “ Elsie!” Gertrude yelled
again.
    Kevin dug his fingernails in the
rock and squeezed, lifting himself up. His arms ached too much.
Acid was building up in his muscles. His hands wanted to let go,
relax. Kevin fought with all his strength to hang on.
    Mouth a thin cruel thin line, Elsie
stomped on his fingers, hard. It felt as if every bone in his hand
snapped, crackled, and popped. Sharp pain shot up his
arm.
    “ Elisa Patricia Turner!” Gertrude
pinched Elsie on the shoulder.
    Elsie half turned.
“Mom?”
    “ I was at the bridal suite earlier
today,” said Gertrude. “The room was a mess. But no
floozies.”
    “ What?” The vinegar gone from
Elsie’s voice. “Really?”
    “ Yes, honey. Kevin is a good
man.”
    “ But…”
    Kevin grunted, redoubling his
effort to hang on for life. He hung by the fingernails, if the wind
blew the