Cyclopean - Writing Sample

A new short story at the Cyclopean forums, titled An Excess of Radium:

It was two weeks ago today that the drifter first wandered onto my porch out back of Webb Road.  It was still and hot, and the silence seemed to say that even the birds and bees had decided to sleep the day through.  I had a clear view up the road for a half mile, and I had watched him wading through the heat shimmer to my house.  I knew this was his destination.  Nothing else around here.

“Benjamin Wilson,” says he, “I’m Lionel Pardee.  Pleased to meet you, sir!”  His smile was brighter than a cop’s lamp at midnight.  He proffered a hand –decorated with a fine gold ring– which I chose to ignore.

“Uh-huh,” I replied.  Close up he was tall and young, with a touch of baby fat still in his cheeks.  He was dressed nice enough.  His shoes had a polish too, quite a trick where there’s no paved road.  The final clue was the combination of tanned face and soft hands.  A drifter will always be a drifter, however you dress him up.  His name wasn’t really ‘Pardee’ either, I’ll give you that one for free.