Flash Fiction Contest
Honorable Mention
Cindy Shaffer Went Down On Me
Royal Alvis

Carson was friends with the fat kid, because no one wanted to be friends with either of them. The fat kid’s name was Jim. He was as big as a linebacker, shaped like an oval and his palate made clicking noises as he chewed. He dreamed of pale, new breasts, but a smell like worn socks surrounded him. Pretty girls grinning from afar - with sharp eyes. He was kind, and his mother hated him.

Carson’s loneliness, on the other hand, was temporary. He was good looking. His father was rich. He was shy and frightened, but both parents told him not to be, and so he forced himself to talk. He talked to the same grinning girls that made Jim’s life a hell, talked at length with nothing to say, but with a fearful stutter that drew violence from boys normally too nervous to fight. A freak in virginity. It was the smiling girls that made it bad.

One night, Jim planned to sleep over Carson’s house so they could work on a science project. They wanted to send an electric current through salted water, separating the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen which nature had forced together.

“Guess what?” Carson said. “You’ll never guess. Cindy Shaffer went down on me. I’m serious. You know, we take the same bus home, and yesterday, she invited me over and just said that she wanted to do it - and it was great - you’ll never imagine how great it was.”

Jim was no fool. He asked questions, examined the details, but Carson’s story held up and the next hour passed slowly and silently, until, for no apparent reason, Carson began to giggle.

“What!” Jim said.

“Nothing,” said Carson.

“You know absolutely nothing about science. If it weren’t for me, you’d fail. Fuck. This will never work. Let’s forget about it. Let’s both fail.”

Jim took his coat off Carson’s bed and went for the door.

“Hey,” said Carson, “you’re supposed to sleep over. Hey, are you crying?”

“Go to hell!”

It was snowing outside. Carson looked from the window and watched Jim pass through the rays of a street lamp, the weather slanting against him, his breath frozen, and it was a thrill. Cindy Shaffer had gone down on him and nothing could change that. He didn’t feel like a freak anymore - even if he didn’t have a friend in the world - and if Jim came back, he would hurt him again.

 

Author’s Note

Royal Alvis teaches Tai Chi in New York. He recently graduated from the MFA Creative Writing Program at Bennington College and his fiction has appeared in The Storyteller.