Billy Janson likes to tell a story about the night he found a monster in a pothole outside of Cactus Flats, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first thing Billy\u2019ll tell you is that he used to be known as \u201cWild Bill,\u201d back in the day. Anyway, Billy says he\u2019d stopped at the Bull-Wash Truck Stop on his way home from the slaughterhouse. His truck didn\u2019t need fuel, but he needed a hamburger steak, and he figured, as long as he was there, he might as well wash the manure out of his cattle trailer. The truck stop had a couple of big bays in the back, equipped with pressure-washer hoses and drainage grates. Gotta get that sludge out of there sometimes, Billy says, or else it builds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was sometime after moonfall when he met the monster. At first, he thought it was a sheen of spilled fuel glimmering under the security light. That parking lot was more pothole than pavement. But the iridescent swirl grew thicker, meatier\u2014and then a blazing longhorn bull coalesced, charging out of the hole on hooves sharp as galvanized steel, bellowing bonesaw fury loud enough to burst Billy\u2019s eardrums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might spoil your appetite, but if you\u2019ll listen, Billy\u2019ll tell you about the wave of nausea that struck him, how he puked hamburger steak and Coca-Cola and ketchup all over the cracked asphalt, how his vomit seethed as it drained away with the soapsuds and the filth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ll listen, in the keen of the night, you might hear the echo of the monster. You might still hear the sizzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
_____<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Myna Chang (she\/her) is the author of\u00a0The Potential of Radio and Rain. Her writing has been selected for\u00a0<\/em>Flash Fiction America\u00a0(W. W. Norton),\u00a0<\/em>Best Small Fictions, and\u00a0<\/em>CRAFT. She has won the Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the New Millennium Award in Flash Fiction. She hosts the\u00a0<\/em>Electric Sheep\u00a0speculative fiction reading series. See more at\u00a0MynaChang.com<\/a>\u00a0or @MynaChang.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"