"Let's buy candy," Miranda said to her friend, with whom she'd been driven by her mother to the mall for an hour of diversion on a weekend afternoon.
"Can-dee!" yelled her friend.
The dentist removed his plastic gloves with a snap, and said to Renee, "Well, I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first?"
"The bad news," said Renee decisively. "No the good news, the good news."
The dentist laughed. He was in his thirties, about the same age as Renee, but married.
"Why do you hate nature?" asked Jay's stepmother, who didn't actually believe the boy hated nature, but believed he wanted her to believe he hated nature.
"He doesn't hate nature," said his father.
They were looking out at the sea, a wind was blowing in their faces, and it was cold.
"How do you know what I hate?" said the boy.
"He knows what you hate because he's your father," said his stepmother lightheartedly.
"No," said his father. "I know what he hates because he's my son."
About the author:
Edward Mullany is a writer living in Northampton, MA. His writing has appeared in, or is forthcoming from, Alaska Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Barn Owl Review, Hobart, Johnny America, Beeswax, and Gertrude.
© 2009 Word Riot
