Mortimer

I’ve started another short story. Thought I’d give a teaser.

Mortimer

It’s funny, the little things that can get you. Like, I’ve spent my life keeping up this persona, creating my character—Dr. Jekyll had nothing on me—and yet here I was, for all intents and purposes, bragging to this stranger. I didn’t say anything directly, that was true, but I told him. I told him by my deep knowledge of the issue, knowledge only Mortimer, only I, knew.

And what was the cause? He had my work displayed, the centerpiece of his collection. There on the handle was my very own seal, a hand-etched ‘M’. One of my earlier pieces, I was only thirty; I must have made at least fifty exactly like this.

“It wasn’t his best work,” I heard myself saying.