Spillway Review
back to Flash Fiction
back
to Main Menu
back to Contents
A SIGN
by Elizabeth Tarver
When H. Durel Jumonville, III drowned in the pool of the Grand State
Hotel in Zhengzhou, China, his wife authorized governmental officials
in Henan Province to cremate his body in the Chinese fashion and ship
him back to New Orleans in a cloisonne urn. According to the
official version of the facts, Durel had a muscle cramp while swimming,
and the worker assigned to the pool was unable to pull such a great man
from the water. This story was intended to save Mrs. Jumonville
face. Funds wired in an amount insufficient to cover Durel's
abundant minibar charges resulted in a phone call from Mr. Li, the
hotel manager, and, at Mrs. Jumonville’s prompting, the truth emerged.
Durel had spent the evening in the hotel nightclub where he had
propositioned a showgirl and been soundly rejected. He then went
to the pool (mineral water, very nice, best in China) and, bloated with
Tsingtao beer, passed out and slovenly fell in. It was true that
the wisp of a boy, who sat behind the counter selling swimsuits to
overweight Westerners, could not pull a man as fat as Durel from the
water. And by the time the boy returned with four other workers
to assist him, Durel had drowned and was floating face down in the
middle of the pool, a Tsingtao beer can floating next to his head,
surely a sign, Mr. Li said, of a satisfying life in paradise.