Short Story Wednesday: The Macaw

“The Macaw” by Frank Vatel is a flash crime piece published February 12th, 2026 in Revolution John. (Text)

Tony is a gangster, recently released from prison, finally reuniting with the love of his life, Antoinette Luna de la Torre y Cárdenas—or Toni, for short. From the first sentences of the story we learn that he is a man who is passionate about beauty, but also defenseless in the face of it, a paradox that plays an important role throughout the story.

What I love about the telling is the consistent decadence of the narrator’s voice and tone despite the limited word count. Vatel makes every word reflective of Tony’s personality, with phrases like: “She owns my heart, this woman whose many names overrun her car-registration papers,” and “He twists the Range Rover around the bend of a mountain pass and suddenly the tall ridge that has flanked us for an hour withdraws like a magician’s cape,” or “My renewed passion for her is frankly monstrous; the younger, more delicate Antoinette could not have withstood it.” And in the end, his ability to rapdily process the details that surround him are what show him the way to have his cake and eat it too. Delicious.

Each Wednesday, I review my favourite published story I’ve read during the past week. If you’d like to join me by reviewing a short story on your blog each Wednesday, email me the link to your post, and I’ll share it below. I learned of Short Story Wednesday from Patricia Abbot’s blog.