THE SOURCES OF THE NILE by Rick Hautala

You know what I like about the Minneapolis Central Library? I like that it is only two blocks from where I work and that after a long day of customers and whatever else, I can relax my way through the stacks looking for the orange spine label: “Short Stories.” I never go home empty handed.

This time I brought home several good looking short story collections, including Bedbugs. The cover caught my eye, old school black and white pencil, bugs and icky things, and a big raven out the window (referencing everyone’s favorite poem by Poe).

I flipped though the book and it is filled with these types of pictures in front of every story. I love pictures. It made me feel like a kid again with one of those haunted-I’m-not-going-to-sleep-tonight books.

The first story that jumped out at me was “The Sources of the Nile” because it was only five pagers and I was tired, wanted sleep, and had a big crazy day a head of me. It was great. It was more than great, it was exquisite. In five pages, Hautala established character, plot, and gave up some crazy details that made me squirm and put the book down and exclaim, “Wow! Hang on! What just happened?”

Not to spoil it (well, I’m going to spoil it), but this story is about a guy, a private Dick. He has been hired to spy on her husband and discover the truth, is he cheating? Well of course he is. We join the story at the point where the Dick is revealing his pictures to the wife.

The wife begins to cry! The Dick gets turned on, not because she is Kate Beckinsale hot, but because she is crying. See, he loves tears. He loves to taste, lick, and suck on women’s eyeballs, consuming their tears; yup, consuming their tears, and he sucks so hard that her eye pops out into his mouth.

It just gets better from there. You need to check out Hautala’s short stories. They are crazy good.

Hautala, Rick. “The Sources of the Nile.” Bedbugs. Abingdon: Cemetery Dance Publications, 1999. p 131-136