Short fiction: Jack Phillips Lowe

NO STEAK FOR ANGEL

Late shift. Buchman gets home after midnight, exhausted—and yet, still too

jacked up from work to go right to sleep. He stumbles into the front room, flops onto the

couch and kicks off his shoes. The remote waits where he left it, on the coffee table.

Buchman uses it to fire up the TV.

The set blinks to life halfway through a Rockford Files rerun. Buchman had seen

this one before—had seen them all, in truth—but he’s too tired to do anything but stare

at the screen.

In that episode, Rockford is hot on the heels of a psycho-killer who’d tried to rub

out a flight attendant friend of his. The friend, natch, just happens to be a stunningly

beautiful blonde, which accounts for the psycho-killer’s interest. Of course, Rockford

wins the day and the psycho-killer dies of a lead overdose. Instant TV justice, circa

1976.

Buchman’s not too tired to recall one significant plot point. Rockford’s victory

happens only after he taps Angel, his ex-jailbird pal, to gain access to a vacant house

that serves as the setting in which the private detective traps the murderous loon. In the

process, Angel almost gets his ass shot off when he’s caught in the crossfire between

Rockford and the baddie.

Then comes the epilogue: Rockford, hardy har-har, is fucked out of his fee for

playing white knight for a sweetheart. But all is not lost; there’s a delicious steak dinner

and “dessert,” lovingly prepared by Miss Friendly Skies, waiting for him at her

apartment. Angel? He’s nowhere in sight.

Buchman shuts off the TV. Angel, he muses, goes out of his way to help a buddy

and nearly gets plugged for doing so. That’s not worth a lousy steak? Rockford,

Buchman concludes, could be a real dick sometimes.

Buchman spends a few minutes pondering that thought, until he dozes off.

Bio: Jack Phillips Lowe was born, raised and still resides in the Chicago area. His poems and short stories have appeared in Piker Press, Synchronized Chaos and Bold Monkey Review, among other outlets. Lowe's most recent poetry chapbook, Brautigan's Blue Moon (Instant Oblivion Press, 2025), is available on lulu.com.