Hello, readers! We're going to kick off a new feature at Red Jack Press ... serial posts. We're going to post one chapter of a story each week so you'll be able to read it in sections. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions, comments or suggestions.
The first story is "Ink" by Steve Metcalf. It first appeared in the short story collection The Event: Iron Bay published in May of 2018. Other contributors in the collection were Robert S. Miller, J.C. Skala and Alicia Copeland. Each story chronicled an independent tale based in part on the sudden appearance of an abandoned cargo ship named the Khan Hao as it plowed into the sandy beaches of Iron Bay. This tale is Steve's version of what might have happened.
INK
Steve Metcalf
Prologue
Then
For a girl of average intelligence and average athletic ability in a Southern California high school, she should have been just about as invisible as she chose to be.
Should.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for high school to play out the opposite of expectations.
Bren was bullied. Maybe it was because she was quiet. Maybe it was because her clothes, while neatly pressed, contained an air of I don’t care. Maybe it was her makeup-less face and her quiet dignity. For whatever the reason, four boys decided to make her their project for the better part of her freshman year.
Their tactics were normal for 17-year old boys. Their status as seniors gave them the run of the school and they could certainly make time to punish a tiny Asian girl.
All told, the bullying lasted about two months and generally increased in both severity and frequency. The four boys made Bren’s life hell. And, although she never spoke up, she convinced her parents to allow her to transfer in the middle of her freshman year.
They called her “Plank” because of her flat chest.
They invented a clever way to lob saliva by flicking their wet fingers toward her – spitting without spitting.
They broke into her locker and hung unflattering pictures of ugly men.
They made sure that no one would sit with her at lunch.
They asked her offensive questions about her culture and religion.
Back then, there was no anti-bullying rally. No social-media support groups. No national hotline she could call. Bullying was a force of nature. You got tougher or you fought back or the bullies got tired of you.
Or you moved.
Bren finished the first semester of her freshman year in tears – a tattered shell of the person she once was. Her parents moved her to a private school. She graduated with high marks, but little ambition. She was admitted to an ivy league school on the strength of her mother’s connections and received an advanced degree in applied chemistry in a fraction of the time it should have taken. She had convinced her parents that she was going to spend some time in the family’s native Mongolia and they were happy to foot the bill … if for no other reason than to help their sullen and introverted daughter find herself.
They never saw her again.
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