This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is episode 24, for Thursday the 24th of October 2024, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.

Your one-hundred word story for the day is:

Recognition

My neighbour was always odd. Harmless, but odd; staring with a strange intensity whenever we crossed paths. Until he started screaming. Every night, for hours, his howls drilled into my skull.

Then, suddenly, he was gone. Dead, I think. His flat was larger, so I gave notice and moved across the hall.

When a new tenant took my old flat, he looked familiar. Very familiar, but for years, no matter how I tried, I couldn't place his face. Without warning, it struck me in the middle of the night. I knew exactly who he was.

And I started to scream.

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Jeffrey Lewis is a New York antifolk hero, famous for his songs and his hand-drawn "low-budget videos". I've been going to see his gigs for probably more than twenty years now. Today's drabble was directly inspired by his song Sad Screaming Old Man. I'll pop a link to the song in the shownotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQgVRGvLkQ

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Take care, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow for episode 25.

https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/episode24