JoKoKo

 7 New in Town     Rian was hot and sweaty by the time he reached the source of the smoke. He had gone from soaked with sea water to sticky and damp from his long walk. He hadn’t felt as though the walk was all that long, but he was warm and his heart was beating strong. He longed to get a change of clothes. He was wearing the same clothes he had on when he and Conny met Kiki, and he couldn’t rightly say how long it had been since then. He hoped his unkempt, disheveled, and perhaps stinky presentation did not offend whomever it was he saw crouched near the small cookfire which was the source of the smoke which had led him away from the sandy place.     Rian wanted to be sure not to startle the person by the fire. Alone in the wood, an approaching stranger could be quite a disconcerting event. He had learned well from Conny that unwelcome surprises could lead to unwelcome injuries. Predators, both human and beast, tended to skirt the shadows before they...

  1 The Sinking Ship “They don’t build them like they used to,” Rian said jovially. Conny bit his tongue. This concrete brutalist monstrosity was also not built like they used to. They never built them like this, and that was the only reason they had come to this horrible, bland, and unholy place. The hulking edifice was sunken into the triangular lot at the lower slope of Yesler Way at a dangerous angle. Its highest point, some sixty feet above the sidewalk, was at the apex of the triangle. The decks had been adorned with nautically-themed railings and filigree. This had garnered it the nickname “The Sinking Ship” and, while its aesthetics were frequently derided by locals, the hoi polloi took it for what it seemed: a quirky parking garage in the heart of the city. Unlike most parking structures it had no ramps, elevators or stairs. Rather, motorists were forced to use the busy street to travel from deck to deck. When seeking refuge for their beleaguered jalopies, drivers would cr...