EVERYONE HAS HOLES

by Eric Ortlund

Everyone has holes, but not everyone stares.

~*~

The day Christina talked to me in front of everyone, I was walking down the long driveway to our school with Jill, like I always did. We made sure not to look at anyone else and cracked quiet jokes with each other to get ready for the day. From far away, I could see a dirty pile of rags beneath the Hillsdale High School sign, but I didn’t think anything of it.

When we walked by the Homecoming banner, I looked at my shoes, pacing one, two, one, two, took a deep breath, and asked, “So, you going to the football game tonight?”

Jill snorted. “Right,” she said. Then she looked at me. “Wait, you weren’t going to.”

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THE WELL-BELOVED

by Barrie Darke

Didn’t a wise person once say, “You know not what you ask?”

~*~

Mr. Maitland was looking at his reflection in a small hand mirror he kept in his desk drawer. It was his wife’s, he supposed, though how it came to be there he couldn’t remember now. He hadn’t taken it all the way out of the drawer, and was leaning over slightly to see, because he knew it was probably a misstep to be doing this.

As for his reflection, it was what it was, as he heard some of the younger people around the place say.

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THE SIEGE OF PETER MARAK

by Stoney M. Setzer

mysophobia: a pathological fear of dirt or contamination

~*~

“Are you sure you won’t reconsider, Mr. Marak?” the voice on the telephone prodded. “You fit the profile of our research perfectly, and I can assure you that we will make it well worth your effort.”

“I’m quite sure you’d try, Mr. Toth,” Peter Marak answered, as he stared out the bay window of his house. He held a coffee mug in his other hand, and his grip on it tightened as his body involuntarily tensed. Surely they didn’t expect him to take the risk of going out there! With just a little bit of imagination, he could almost see the germs darting through the air beyond his house. “But I’m afraid there’s not much you could do to make me reconsider.”

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