the girl who paints pictures
by John Jeffire
Temptation hangs across the avenue, a toothpick dangling between his lips. When his yellowed eyes find yours, you cannot look away. He whistles from the neon marquee of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s Social Club, the Halloween figures painted on the facing wall beckoning with comical skeleton grins and bone fingers. He leans against the traffic light stanchion, offering a deal, can’t miss, baby, hey-hey, I got your hook-up, girl. He hovers at the dew-covered benches at the corner park, plastic nickel bags laid on a cement chess board behind an oak tree as old as the city itself.
Tattooed men unloading curbside moving vans, cabbies shouting postured impatience, the life-affirming bursts of Italian sausage, curry, and marinara unable to smother the strain of urine, car exhaust, and garbage rotting in the gutters. Exhale into the swarming jungle of shuffling bodies, city busses hissing, and vendors barking on every open inch of sidewalk: sprawling rainforest of concrete, avenues, high rises, and every shade of skin and tone of voice and threat you can imagine.
Fear itself.
Under the cover of darkness, a white banner too frayed to catch a breeze.
Photo of John Jeffire
BIO: John Jeffire was born in Detroit. In 2005, his novel Motown Burning was named Grand Prize Winner in the Mount Arrowsmith Novel Competition and in 2007 it won a Gold Medal for Regional Fiction in the Independent Publishing Awards. Speaking of Motown Burning, former chair of the Pulitzer Jury Philip F. O'Connor said, “It works. I don't often say that, but it has a drive and integrity that gives it credible life....I find a novel with heart.” In 2009, Andra Milacca included Motown Burning in her list of “Six Savory Novels Set in Detroit” along with works by Elmore Leonard, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jeffrey Eugenides. His first book of poetry, Stone + Fist + Brick + Bone, was nominated for a Michigan Notable Book Award in 2009. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine called the book “a terrific one for our city.” His short story “Boss” appeared in Coolest American Stories 2022, which won the International Book Awards Prize for Fiction Anthologies. In 2022, his novel River Rouge won the American Writing Awards for Legacy Fiction.