fwriction

Story of the day returns! While the readers’ choice awards for 2010 are forthcoming later this month, I thought we’d press ahead showcasing new work.

The first story for 2011 comes from Frank Hinton, whose unique voice and powerful prose holds the reader and leaves him/her gripped until the final word. As the editor of Metazen, too, Hinton is a f***ing rock star. Enjoy this story, originally published in Necessary Fiction, and may the new year bring brilliant writing and face-melting reads.

from “All of the people in these pictures are dead now”:

Here’s a picture of you. I think you were in my dad’s old paddle boat on the Mahone Bay. I was standing on the dock. Let’s divide the photo into four sections. The upper left section is just water. You can see it was a bright day right off the top of the ocean. The water seems to shimmer even in the photo. In the bottom left section I can see the tip of your leg hanging over the side of the boat. Your big toe is drifting in the water. You painted it green. I can remember you sitting on the dock giving yourself a pedicure and then coating each toenail in that green. You said something about fish being attracted to that particular shade. You said you wanted a fish to kiss your toes. I told you I would kiss your toes. I think I kissed them that night. I think I kissed a lot of things on that trip to the shore. The bottom left of the photo is gone, cut away in one ornery scoop by the fire. The lower half of your body is gone, turned to a near weightless ash. The top left of the photo holds your face. It is the only reason I keep this scorched picture around. It brings you alive in a way no other photo does. Look at your eyes. You were looking right at me as I snapped the photo. You are perfect and clean and floating. Everything was clean about us. Everything was perfect until you burned away. Look at your perfect eyes.