During this pandemic/quarantine, vivid memories have led to several stories and poems. In one poem, no doubt caused by the frequent admonitions to wash our hands, I reflect on a long-ago memory of my father vigorously washing my hands when I was small, digging under the fingernails to the point where it hurt. Of course, he meant it in a protective way, yet it left me almost crying. He was a big believer in handwashing, my father was, as if he sensed some danger on the prowl. He passed away last year before the pandemic hit, and yet I think of him in relationship to it, the handwashing, the stern protectiveness.
In another memory that led to a flash fiction, I’m seeing myself running a marathon again, one of those big Rock and Roll events, where 20,000 people or more show up. I ran my last one in Phoenix a few years ago. I’m one of the plodders and it was cool enough at the start but hot by the end. The last few miles were brutal. I staggered over the finish line, clutching my heart. My wife came out of the waiting crowd and I said, “Shoot me if I ever bring this up again.” She assured me that she would. But perhaps it’s the fact of the big events not being available now which has got me picturing running a marathon again, with a tired but high-spirited crowd running past the bands. You only hear the music for a moment before you pass on toward the next band perhaps a mile away, yet the music stirs you on. Maybe it’s partly the name of the event, Rock and Roll. that calls to me. Maybe it’s because, hard as it is, running those marathons made me feel alive, and we could all use more of that feeling now.
Robert Garner McBrearty’s short story, Heading for Shore, is forthcoming in FICTION No. 65. He is the author of five books of fiction, most recently When I Can’t Sleep, a collection of flash fiction. His stories have appeared in many places including the Pushcart Prize, The Missouri Review, New England Review, Narrative and North American Review. His stories have received many awards, including the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award. He currently teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in the Denver area.