"THE LUCKY ONE"
by Jerry Stamatelos

Donna waived a half-protesting fist. “Those bastards, just they wait till we finish up with dad’s funeral.”

Her boyfriend Mike ran his hand through her hair like a warm bath. She’s looked after our father through MS, spinal disc disease and spinal stenosis. There was no one else to take care of him. Mom died five years ago.

A rising masochism of sorrow played a quiver on her lips. “For two years, he complained about back pains. What do they do? They recommend tai chi. Can you believe that shit?”

A universal ecstasy of pain filled the room.

“They blew him off. He was a pain in the ass. No kidding they were happy to see him go.”

Donna sank into an armchair and loosened her tangle of rage in low, broken, mournful sounds. She’s lucky. When her fury downgrades to grief, it will be about cleaning up mainstream medicine and making it possible for everyone to have first rate medical care. It might even be about removing pharmaceutical companies from med schools.

For me, it will be about the debris of the past and the crushing force of regret. I hadn’t seen or spoken to my father in almost two years.

Like I said, she’s the lucky one.

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Jerry Stamatelos shapes young minds in Montreal. When he's not witnessing wide-eyed idealism in the classroom these days, he's busy working on his PhD thesis about Joseph Conrad. Flash fiction is a healhty preoccupation -- for now.

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PREVIOUS WORK

"POINTE DU GRAVE" by Nadia Brown

"SCARING THE GULLS" by Steven Gajadhar

"CRICKET CITY" by Claudia Smith

"CAMELOT #1" by Grant Bailie

"THE DONGYUE TEMPLE IN BEIJING, CHINA" by Roy Kesey

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