“On to Chicago And Let’s Win There” is, like “The Curious Legend of the Grade Z Ghost”, an off-format piece in the Zezverse stories. I wanted to try a story structure similar to that of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, this time using the polling place across the street from the theater as a way of marking external time while the characters air their thoughts while watching Howard Zez’s crappy movie inside.

Because the story was written a while back, I don’t have as many details about its genesis as I do about some of the others in the series, but there is something that stands out for me, and you have to wait for the end of this story to see it. Howard Zez usually comes off as a vain, miserable, yet ultimately harmless bigot, like Donald Trump without power or celebrity. But at the end of this story, his wish for his stepdaughter Molly is especially cruel, even though he obviously didn’t know what would happen later that night.

Follow the link to read the story.