by Keely O’Shaughnessy
Summer evenings, the boys swarm up our street, spokes whirring. He rides a Chopper. Red frame with yellow lettering. Flaking paint, low-slung saddle. He’s a curtain of sandy hair, his gangly arms stretching to reach the handlebars. He hangs back from the others. Sometimes, when they chatter, twisting their bodies as they ride, I wonder if they see him. If they notice how at the stop sign, he doubles back and peddles towards me, his pale body flickering to gauze. I wonder if they know how I tried to scoop up the shards of him that scattered across the asphalt.
KEELY O’SHAUGHNESSY is a writer with cerebral palsy, who lives in Gloucestershire, UK. Her micro-chapbook, The Swell of Seafoam, will be published as part of Ghost City Press’ Summer Series 2022 and her debut collection, Baby is a Thing Best Whispered is forthcoming with Alien Buddha Press, August 2022. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions as well as the Wigleaf Top 50. She is Managing Editor at Flash Fiction Magazine. Find her at linktr.ee/keelyo.shaughnessy.
