Daniel A. Olivas

A GOOD JOB

Come, D-,
get in.
It's just for
a few hours.
Six, max.
I promise.

D- looks
at his mother's
face.

Here? he
whispers.

His mother's
eyes dart about.
Take this bag of
Doritos and two
7-Ups.  Just a few
hours, D-.  Okay?
Mama's gotta'
work.

Okay, he says.
The boy climbs
into the trunk
of the old, white
Camry.

Just for a few
hours, baby.
D- nods and
clutches the
bag of chips.

She closes the
trunk slowly
and pushes hard
until it clicks.

Mama loves you,
she says as she
walks down the
street to the glass
and steel building
on the corner.
Mama loves her
big boy.

Previously published in Red River Review

Date of Birth: April 8, 1959 Location: West Hills, California Occupation: Writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry by night. Government attorney specializing in environmental enforcement and land use by day. Email: olivasdan@aol.com Publications: The MacGuffin, Exquisite Corpse, THEMA, The Pacific Review, The Raven Chronicles, Red River Review, Perihelion, Outsider Ink, Pig Iron Malt, RiverSedge, Stirring, etc. Books/Chapbooks: Assumption and Other Stories (Bilingual Press, spring 2003); The Courtship of María Rivera Peña (Silver Lake Publishing, 2000); Fantasmas: Supernatural Stories by Mexican American Writers (Anthology), edited by Rob Johnson (Bilingual Press, 2001); Love to Mamá: A Tribute to Mothers (Anthology), edited by Pat Mora (Lee & Low Books, 2001). Awards: One of ten finalists in the 2000 Willa Cather Fiction Contest sponsored by Helicon Nine Editions for Assumption and Other Stories (Bilingual Press, spring 2003)

- July 2002 - Angel Meat The Birdbath If Death Was a Man Sometimes, A Bird Wearing Water she said, we are all looking for things... annotated versions of histories ... A Fairing to the Willow At the Chelsea Good Words A Good Job A Strange Thing Booze After Math Geology - Letita Trent's Favorite Six - God is a Woman Killing Cattle for Disease, Greeley 1998 Choice Escaping the terrible fish Pond Gathering