Vagabond’s Education by Jeff Suwak

Photo by George Mason

 

 

Check out the latest short story published by author Jeff Suwak in the online magazine Roadside Fiction called “Vagabond’s Education”.

 

Here’s a snippet:

 

 

‘Vagabond’s Education’ by Jeff Suwak

 

 

I woke to the sound of someone outside my tent shouting, “Come out with your hands up! We’re drunk and we’re armed.” The voice was followed by the sound of giggling and pine needles crunching under people’s feet.

 

Lying still, I gripped the piece of rebar that I kept for self-defense. It felt rather insubstantial in my hands compared with the imagined weight of the gun that was awaiting me.

 

“Wake up,” the voice barked again, and my tent began shaking violently around me.

 

Summoning all the air within my eighteen-year-old, hundred and sixty pound frame, I roared, “Get the fuck away from my tent!”

 

Cackling laughter. “Just come out, man. We’re here for Raven.”

 

Raven. We shared the camp together. He was a small time con and a permanent derelict. When I’d struck out hitchhiking across the country weeks before, I’d gone expecting to find the road full of figures like Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck and Ken Kesey. All I’d found was Raven.

 

– See more at: Roadside Fiction