“I Don’t Want Anything to Happen; I Want Something to Happen” by Alain Douglas Park (fiction, ’13)
2016-17 Beebe Fellow Alain Park at his Warren Wilson campus reading, Oct. 27, 2016.
A short story by Alain Douglas park (fiction, ’13) appears in The American Literary Review:
I Don’t Want Anything to Happen; I Want Something to Happen
Wednesday night, already dark, I fully intended to ask my lovely teenage daughter something quick about dinner, but she blew by me, dumped her green army bag on the tiles and headed to the bathroom. I’d been standing there awhile, smoking at the sink, trying to figure out what to make.
Hey, ClaireBear, good to see you, I said to the air, which, wouldn’t you know it, didn’t say anything back.
A typical scene since Claire’s moved in, because she doesn’t want to live with her mom right now, because her mom is getting remarried and Claire can’t stand the creep. I said, sure, I got room, I’ll take the couch. It’s no bother. And most days it isn’t. I don’t see her all that much. I see her green army bag more than her. It’s tattered and covered with safety pins and Sharpie and has been one of my best friends lately.
Last Wednesday when she came in, she tossed my little friend right into the cardboard boxes I’d brought home from the restaurant and stacked in the middle of the kitchen. … continue reading here.
