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Different

January 1, 2021 By Francine Witte

Different

My father tells me I’m different. He doesn’t say how, or if different is bad. Just leaves the word twirling and swirling around like the time he flushed my not-dead goldfish down the toilet. He said he was teaching me a lesson. Wouldn’t say what the lesson was or where the goldfish was going.

My father says get used to it. Again, doesn’t say what it is. He likes being mysterious. Will disappear for days sometimes, or else he pretends he’s James Bond. Tells my mother he wants his coffee shaken not stirred. Stuff like that.

My father tells me not to listen to boys. Not one of them can be trusted.

He says that because I’m different, boys will get me to do their homework. He says boys won’t treat me well. That girls like me, who are different, will buy boys presents to get their attention. That boys will pretend they like me. Call me a good egg.

I look in the mirror for the egg part. I’m not yolky or runny or anything. When I tell this to my father, he says, well just be careful.

I am careful. And the night my father doesn’t come home and it turns into forever, my mother is the one who turns egg. Cracked and shattered, sprawled like a pain-omelet on the couch.

That’s when I know I’m different. Won’t miss this man who tells me what I am but won’t tell me. Leaves my mother and me swirling around and twirling around without giving us even a clue about where we are going.

About Francine Witte

Francine Witte is a poet, playwright, and flash fiction writer. Her stories and poems have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Passages North, Mid-American Review, and many others. Her flash fiction collection, Dressed All Wrong for This, was the 2019 winner of the Blue Light Press award, her novella, The Way of the Wind, received a highly commendable mention in the Bath Flash Fiction Award for 2019 and was published by Ad Hoc Fiction. Her latest poetry collection, The Theory of Flesh, was published last year by Kelsay Books. Her flash fiction chapbook, The Cake, The Smoke, The Moon, is due out in September 2021. She is a former high school English teacher. She lives in NYC.

Artist Credit:

Brett J Barr is an artist/ tattooist, born in Easton Pennsylvania. He grew up in Daytona Beach, moved to Orlando FL in 1997 and now resides in Chuluota FL. Aside from tattooing at Built 4 Speed Tattoo in Orlando, Brett enjoys many different art forms such as graphite, charcoal, paint, pen and ink, mixed media/ graphic design, woodworking miniatures and studies classical guitar.

Contacts:
brettjbarr@yahoo.com
Facebook/ Brett J Barr
Instagram/ brettjbarrtattoos
Shop Insta/ built4speedtattoos
built4speedtattoos.com/brettjbarr

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