LOVELESS: REVIEWED!

Artistic success—commercial failure, social outrage.

We sat in the bar, facing each other, waiting for our hamburgers to arrive.

“People were disturbed by my recent story.” I said.

“That’s because people don’t want reality. It’s too ugly for them.”

“To think," I chuckled. "I used to write detective stories.”

The waiter refilled our water glasses.

“I know what my next story will be.” I blurted, grinning. “It’s going to be about a zombie. A zombie who—”

“I know, I know,” My father replied, rolling his eyes. “That goes around and rapes women.”

“No. He’s a child molester and his victims grow up to be necrophiles.” I said, laughing.

He didn’t laugh.

He may have been disturbed.

I was joking, of course.

Our food came. We ate in silence. I finished my hamburger and said, “I think I’m going to write something more commercial.” I paused, waiting for a reaction. “I was thinking about writing a sequel to Protocol, a third installment in the “SWINE!” series.”

He looked up. “Well, sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do, write different things to find out what people like.”

“Art isn’t about what people like. It’s more than that.”

“Then why do you care what people like?”

“I guess I just want people to like what I write.”

"Well, I liked it."

"Thanks."