This is another story that came about as a result of a bigger story I was working on. I’d kicked around a novel about a pair of best friends, two young men who each desperately needed a brother and found them in each other, one of whom was carrying around a major chip on his shoulder over feeling cheated out of his grandfather’s legacy, but I realized at some point that this wasn’t a story that had an ending. In fact – this being the early 2000s – I thought it would work much better as a webcomic. I never found a partner to work on with it (I cannot draw), but this short story – the origin of Matt and Bixby’s friendship – remains as a reminder to me of what might have been.
This story also canonically links to two of my novels, The Beginner and Opening Night of the Dead, through the existence of Climax Pictures. Those two books are part of my world of “The Curtain,” so I suppose this story technically is as well, although none of the supernatural trappings of those books appear here.
Kids, ask your parents what “Waldenbooks” was.
Blake M. Petit 