Fiction International is pleased to announce the winner of our 2011 short fiction contest (Blackness): "Rogues Gallery II" by writer Mary Byrne. Ms. Byrne will receive a cash prize of $1000.00 and her text will be published in the 2012 issue of FI, About Seeing. We'd also like to congratulate runner up, Dorothy Blackcrow Mack for her text "The Black Cradleboard" which will also be published in About Seeing.
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Copyright © 2001-2012
by Fiction International
Editor Email: hjaffe@mail.sdsu.edu
Editor's website: JaffeAntiJaffe.com
The Crazy One
“Ay, what’s wrong with him?”
“Pues, I don’t know. He’s very lonely now.”
No, I’m not, he thinks. I’m alive. I’m well. I’m articulate and fierce.
“Pero has he been this way for a while?”
“Just for a week or two. Está triste, nomás. College is over and he doesn’t know what to do.”
“But what is he going to do, pues?”
“No sé. ¿Enseña?” She shrugs. “I tell him to go into teaching. It’s a good field.”
“But are they hiring now, en los elementary schools?”
“He doesn’t want to teach chavalos. He wants to teach high school kids, mejor. Tu sabes, older kids.”
I don’t want to teach at all. I have nothing to say.”
“Well let him go or something. You’re keeping him cooped up in here.”
“Me? He can go anytime he wants. Pero no quiere. Nomás quiere sentarse. He just wants to sit there.”
“Why?”
I don’t know how to act anymore. I don’t know what to say.
“I think it’s because he’s smart. He thinks he knows better than other people. So he can’t go out anymore into the neighborhood. Este barrio.”
“No hay barrio aquí. We’re Mexican Americans. We’re not TJ’s, Mexicans viviendo como en méxico, con cholos en las calles. Mira la calle. Where do you see barrio afuera, girl?”
“I don’t. I’m just saying que está confused. He’s outgrown this place. No sé por qué.”
“Maybe he’s just tired of us Mexicans.”
“No, he loves Mexicans. He says we don’t know who we are.”
“¿De qué está hablando? He’s the crazy one.”
Copyright © 2010 by San Diego State University.
Authors of individual works retain copyright, with the restriction that subsequent publication of any text be accompanied by notice of prior publication in Fiction International.