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[6.11.06] [Utahna Faith]
FLASH FICTION BY ALEX KEEGAN
"Saddam has changed since the sentence and he keeps telling me, it's not all sadness."
Playing Cards with Saddam
I'm playing cards with Saddam Hussein. He's picked up English pretty well and he says, "Charles, Charles, every cloud has a silver lining."
Then he says, "Charles, always look on the bright side of life."
Saddam has changed since the sentence and he keeps telling me, it's not all sadness. He has told me about the Hanging Gardens, just to the south of us, and when he says "hanging", he doesn't flinch, he doesn't pause.
"We were a great civilization, when America only had the redskin," he says. "And we built such beauties that we were talked about the world over." He chuckles. "But now they are difficult to find..."
Later he begins to laugh. He tells me about his brother who drowned. A twin. "He was the bad brother," he says. "Truly bad."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alex Keegan began writing seriously in 1992, publishing five mystery novels before switching to serious short fiction. He has been published in Atlantic Monthly Unbound, Archipelago, Eclectica, 3:AM Magazine and Mississippi Review. He runs a tough internet writing school, "Boot Camp Keegan", and edits Seventh Quark Magazine. Born in Wales with an Irish mother, he now lives and writes in Newbury, England where he lives with his wife and two teenage children.
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