Reservoir ~ fiction by Suzanne Hicks

A man was found with a beating heart at the busy intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue on Tuesday. Authorities arrived on the scene at quite an ordinary time of day and found the man shouting, I’m alive! I’m alive! The man was taken to the hospital, where he was determined to be very much alive and well. The situation is being investigated as highly suspicious.

A little white wedding chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard announced Wednesday it would be ceasing all wedding ceremonies and will be exclusively providing drive-through break-up services. All severances of relationships will be performed, including ending short and long-term non-binding relationships, common law marriages, and annulments. The concept has received widespread community support, and the chapel expects there to be a long line of couples on the first day of the new operation who wish to terminate their relationships in a positive manner to honor the time they shared.

On Thursday, the local water authority announced that Lake Mead’s water level is predicted to rise significantly due to the high precipitation over the winter. The generous snowpack in the Rockies is much-needed good news for the drought-stricken region.

When the temperature rises, and the snow begins to melt and trickle down to the martini glass-shaped reservoir, people flock to the lake with their boats hinged to their trucks, but instead of launching them into the water, they circle the bank, finding the best views, climbing up onto the roof of their trucks, hanging off the tailgates, lounging under the canopies of their boats, and the people hold hands with their former lovers and strangers who will become their lovers as everyone stares at the water, eyes fixed on the bathtub ring, some saying they’ve never seen the lake so blue, some saying they can see the rise, while the man who was found with a beating heart at the busy intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue wanders among them whispering, We’re alive! We’re alive!

Suzanne Hicks is a disabled writer living with multiple sclerosis. Her stories have appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, MicroLit Almanac, Sledgehammer Lit, and elsewhere. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and their animals. Find her at suzannehickswrites.com and on Twitter @iamsuzannehicks.