The First of the Fiction Packets

The first story I want to mention from the first short fiction packet is the very first story. I really loved Survivors by Kim Addonizia. I have been around homosexuals for the majority of my life (as far as I know – all of it) so it was very easy to feel bad for these characters. I can understand their pain of rejection, although no one I know has had a parent try to beat their sexuality out of them with a belt. I really did like in this story how the character went from wanting to die first so he wouldn’t have to deal with his lover’s parents to wanting to die first so he wouldn’t have to be alone. “dear God, he thought, let me die first, don’t let me survive him.” This was a beautiful line to me. I know I would want to die before my loved one (though I bet I’d die soon after of a broken heart) just so I wouldn’t have to be alone.

Two other stories made me chuckle. The first was Misdemeanors by Sherman Alexi. It’s just pretty funny to picture an old man robbing a place and emerging with his pants around his knees because the pockets are filled with coins. The second that I really loved that made me laugh was The Talking Cat by Sharon Krinsky. This was a ridiculously short story, and the title gave it away, but “The woman seems jealous” was wonderful. You expect the cat to talk but you don’t expect the woman to be jealous of their rapport.

The last one that I really enjoyed was Wallet by Allen Woodman. I feel like this story does have an overall deeper meaning than I got, but I found it extremely amusing. I’d love to play a prank on someone who was trying to steal my wallet. I did however like that the man didn’t expect anyone to go after the person who took his wallet. I don’t know if this is supposed to suggest that we think the worst of people and forget to see the good or not, but it’s kind of what I took from it.