new from above/ground press: OFF THE RESTING SEA, by Al Kratz

OFF THE RESTING SEA
Al Kratz
$5

Sergio wakes on the beach where yesterday’s view offered so much promise. What time is it? He barely remembers falling asleep on the sand, the feeling of something slipping away. The sun hasn’t warmed the beach yet, which, as far as Sergio can see, he has to himself. The beach. Oh shit, they really did it. Jane had always asked him to keep driving south on the Jersey Turnpike and not stop until Cocoa Beach. Jane, Sweet Jane. The original Queen of Disaster. Where was she now?
      Maybe she went for seashells. He picks one of the ways she could have gone, trusting his luck while ignoring the equal chance he’s walking away from her. Trusting the ocean. Such an incredible thing. At six foot five, a rare moment of feeling small. Early morning waves limping, but he knows they’re lying. He knows their true power.  
      They really did it. The sand and the ocean? Jane had given them to him. He thought she was joking. “Skip our exit, baby. Take me to Florida.” She said it every day. He’d spend his daydreaming about escaping the concrete life that belonged to someone else, Sergio always the borrower. This time, Jane following up with: “I’m serious. Let's do it.”

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2021
as the sixth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Al Kratz lives in Indianola, Iowa with his wife, Kristy. They have ridden out the 2020 storm with writing, painting, and watching every television show possible. His work has been in Smokelong, Hobart, Pithead Chapel, Bull, and others. In 2020, he was shortlisted in the Bath Short Story Award. In 2019, Off the Resting Sea was shortlisted in the Bath Novella-In-Flash Award. He is a Fiction Editor at New Flash Fiction Review and co-founder of the Flash Monsters!!! blog. His work can be followed at alkratz.com.   

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