A friend of mine, Megan, has just had three very short (may god forgive us for the terms micro- and flash-fiction (?)) published on the Conjunctions website. They are tight, controlled, funny, and just weird enough to make you scratch your head with befuddled pleasure. I like them very much. Here’s an excerpt from “The Cyclops and His Eyeball, Starring Myself,” which has a certain fractured-fairy-tale-ness about it:
It was one of those days when you feel like the whole Kingdom’s gone ping-pong and you’re the lone chanteuse on a frazzled stage.
I was lost in the forest again in my new velvet frock, skipping halfheartedly about in search of a lime gimlet when—lo and behold—this tree-trunk opens up into a staircase!
At the bottom was this joint called The Rectory. It was a little gimmicky—packed with those expedient, rough-around-the-gills types I always go for.
–Whaddaya say we hole up in one of those cozy confessionals for a few hours, I said to one I had my eye on, but he was too busy buying bubble gum brainwashers for the flock of underaged wood nymphs who’d invaded. The bartender came to my rescue; fed me gimlets until every oaf in the place was drowning in bedazzling good looks.
I woke up the next afternoon with my frock in a ball on the floor and the Cyclops next to me in bed, nibbling away at my basket of cupcakes, licking frosting off his fingers.
Here’s the link to the stories. Go there. Read. Enjoy. Send me positive comments, and I’ll pass them on to Megan, who deserves them.
(image shamelessly stolen from www.recroomers.com and then manipulated.)
