{"id":227,"date":"2016-01-28T11:20:10","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?p=227"},"modified":"2016-01-28T11:20:10","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:20:10","slug":"the-loiterer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/the-loiterer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Loiterer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Eric Alt<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The man pressed his back against the warm stucco wall and dripped to the ground. Cool concrete rested underneath the store letters. From his bag he pulled out a dog bowl with coins in it. Kids came out of the store, each with a different style of pubescent facial hair. The second boy walked by and kicked the man\u2019s bowl. Change clanged on the ground until the metal circles flared on top of the gutter grime. The dogs of doom laughed past him and left no quarters. His stained fingernails tried salvaging any coins that were left.<\/p>\n<p>The storeowner walked out. \u201cYou can\u2019t be here,\u201d he said. He stood over the loiterer, but stepped back because of the dark patch of fluid that had formed underneath the man. The storeowner looked away and wiped his nose.<\/p>\n<p>The loiterer looked up and cleaned a nickel on his tired shirt. \u201cI\u2019m not doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The loiterer got up and left the store. Wind made air pockets swivel underneath his shirt. Dirty tangled hair, like bruised banana phloem bundles, scattered across his eyes. Each step he made down the public sidewalk was his own.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_228\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-228\" style=\"width: 556px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/files\/Art-2-e1454001526798-556x333.jpg\" alt=\"Banjo Elizabeth Macklin\" width=\"556\" height=\"333\" class=\"size-large wp-image-228\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-228\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Banjo<br \/>Elizabeth Macklin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Eric Alt The man pressed his back against the warm stucco wall and dripped to the ground. Cool concrete rested underneath the store letters. From his bag he pulled out a dog bowl with coins in it. Kids came out of the store, each with a different style of pubescent facial hair. The second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Loiterer - Mosaic Literary Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/the-loiterer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Loiterer - Mosaic Literary Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Eric Alt The man pressed his back against the warm stucco wall and dripped to the ground. 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