Finally in the supermarket checkout, another shopper said, “You’re that guy, aren’t you?” Specifically: “That guy from that one new show.”

Close enough. The cashier confirmed it, I was that guy.

Game on after that. Strangers waving on the street. Soon it turned surreal. Groupies at the clubs. Stalkers. Leeches.

Todd Mercer won the Dyer-Ives Kent County Prize for Poetry, the National Writers Series Poetry Prize, and the Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Award. His digital chapbook, Life-wish Maintenance, appeared at Right Hand Pointing. Mercer’s recent work appears in 100 Word Stories, The Lake, Plum Tree Tavern and Vending Machine Press.