Brevity is one of the most difficult skills a writer can master. That’s why we put the prowess of students of Katie Bickell’s spring semester class, Packing a Punch: Big Stories in Small Spaces, to the test.
We invited attendees to write a piece of flash fiction — 300 words or less, of course — judged by Katie herself. We are pleased to publish the winning story ,“It Was Better to Be Prepared” by Carmyn Effa, and the runner-up, “The Eternal Lunchroom” by Jason Schreurs.
Here’s what Katie Bickell, a short story master, had to say about the winning piece:
Carmyn Effa’s 297-word reflection on the new millennium from the point of view of an adolescent girl immersed in Evangelical culture packs a whole lot of meaning into a very short space. I enjoy how the author incorporates the use of second-person perspective to lend weight to the flash fiction’s heavy theme, and how she juxtaposes symbols of innocent, Y2K-era girlhood (gel pens, The Spice Girls, rollerblades) with archaic, religious language (abdication, apocalypse, prophecy). This is a story about the precipice of time, adulthood, and faith (or lack thereof), and the long-lasting implications of culturally-promoted spiritual and cognitive abuse.
“It was Better to Be Prepared” by Carmyn Effa
While Y2K didn’t make sense intellectually, emotionally you sort of understood. Apocalypse was a weekly possibility, even welcomed. You remember a night, mid-rollerblade, when the sun glowed red and you stood whispering Revelations — convinced you might see your earthly life cut short. You also remember how your dad’s seminary student cut his own leg short and removed an eye, all because of a verse in Matthew.
When you asked about him, the response was painfully normal: “best not to take things too literally.” (You wouldn’t know to question this logic until much later). It was the same logic that compelled your friend’s dad to warn you of a prophecy in which you were raped. It was the same logic that, instead of renouncing this sick dream, compelled your grandfather to pray over you.
You froze the neon cross you got at the youth conference in the freezer. Your gel-penned entries brimmed with heaviness. You found relief in small rebellions — like listening to the Spice Girls — because you knew you’d have something to confess. It was better to be prepared. There was a box of pads waiting in the cupboard. There was a Cosmo under the bed that talked about Kegels. You knew Easter Sunday was next weekend; they’d play the bloody Jesus clip, you’d hang your head.
So, yes — the movement from one millennium to the next, and its potential for abdication — felt oddly normal and exciting. Could you make a fresh start, roll the numbers forward? When nothing happened on New Year’s Eve, it was admittedly disappointing.
Many years into the new millennium — while you no longer carry the weight of preparation — you do still remember how you saw the student in the distance once. How he walked with a cane and a limp.
About the writer: Carmyn Effa is a high school teacher, photographer, and cat enthusiast from Edmonton, AB. She’s been recently published in Funicular Magazine and East by North East. You can see her work at carmynjoy.com.