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by Roshna Kapadia First Prize - $1000 |
They had to delay the cremation by a couple of hours because Shumeet, who had studied no Sanskrit, insisted on having the prayers translated before he repeated the priest’s recitations. The wait had been worth it. True, there were references to archaic practices and other brahminical sounding jargon, but there were also meaningful utterances: in particular, a prayer in which he begged forgiveness from the deceased for various incursions starting when he was a baby. Forgive me
Mother, |
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by Katherine Flores Second Prize - $200 |
When Claire walked the
racetrack, we all watched. Some stared while stretching on the sidelines nearby. Others,
like me, pretended not to watch from the cafeteria window, sneaking peeks over a tomato
soup or smoked turkey and brie sandwich. She was wearing a beige ensemble and sunglasses,
with her makeup perfectly done, smoking cigarette after cigarette, circling the track
calmly in even strides. A girl from my Modern Novel class stopped mid-stretch when Claire
came walking nearby and asked her why she was smoking if she was trying to get in shape.
Claire stopped, dipped her sunglasses to the end of her impossibly dainty nose, looked
over them, and said, "I’m walking for my ass, Darling. Not my lungs."
People whispered that Claire disappeared for months at a time and came back to school with
a different chin, nose or slant of the eye. Rumor was that her body was completely
hairless and that she was still a virgin. (more ...) |
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by M.E. Mishcon Third Prize - $100 |
They
did not take the first table. Oh,
they appeared obedient enough, following dutifully behind the woman in charge of seating
guests. But all the while, Miranda tried in vain to see around the enormous frosted coif
of the hostess. When finally shown to a perfectly adequate situation in the center of the
restaurant, Miranda twisted her head back and forth, her own wheat colored mane moving in
an organized way that underscored her displeasure. |
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by Barbara Modrack Honorable Mention - $50 |
I .... (more ...) |
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by Jimmy Carl Harris Honorable Mention - $50 |
Agnes,
Annette, Angela. Except for the A, there wasn't much to tell they were sisters. Agnes was
ten years older than me. Soon as she laid eyes on me, she got another pucker in her face. That face as good as said, "What'd I do to deserve this?" I wished I had the nerve to say, "Fred here, who I only know because we're on the same shift, has the hots for Annette. She made him bring somebody for you. His friends knew better." Instead, I grinned and shook her hand, which she jerked back as quick as she could. Annette was near
my age, thirty-one. She served lemonade made from real lemons and giggled a lot for her
age. Angela was the youngest, not much over twenty. Angela didn't have a date. I was glad
of that. |
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by Ann Bronston Honorable Mention - $50 |
We smoke. We all smoke. Thursday evening and
we sit on folding chairs in a room on the first floor of Building C of Bellemoor
Psychiatric Center and smoke. The room has a church basement feel to it, as if it could
accommodate a bake sale, or toddlercare, or after-service refreshments or a bible
–study class, or whatever the religious equivalent of a support group for present and
former mental patients might be. We
come in, unfold our chairs and light up. We wait for Dr. Steiner to arrive, and talk about
how we really must quit smoking, as if we’re as sane as the bank teller we see
smoking on his break. "God, I’ve really got to cut down", we love to say,
curling our yellow-tipped index finger around a Marlboro or Newport, pretending we are
like all the other smokers in the world. |
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by Karen Heuler Honorable Mention - $50 |
Those
drip bags, the horrible things. First drip, antinausea. Then Benadryl, because Betts got
itches. Then the adriamycin, two red syringes hooked into the line. Ugly red. Then the
cytoxan, and the chills. All the damn things refrigerated, dropping her temp by what? Five degrees, ten? Out the window
was the Queensboro bridge, endless drips of traffic shooting along that girdered steel
vein. It would be good to use that somehow; the nurses said it helped to have a dynamic
mental image. |
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