Page 73 - WTP Vol. VIII #4

the wilderness. It was strange how one slipped from one society to another, the picking and choosing, the subtle competitions, until the day came when you realized you had not been thrown out so much as merely eclipsed, edged out of the picture. It was hard to account for the whole business except that it had to do with the past, the one that was and the other that had never been.
“No mas,” Judd said, and found a slot he could slip through and not be followed. Judd somehow found his composure as the priest summoned everyone for a final benediction before proceeding to the cemetery. With everyone turned toward the minister, he re- sisted the urge to burnish his reputation as a strange, marginal fellow, someone to be tolerated for old times sake, by simply easing himself out of the room.
Then he saw Sonia standing under a painting of a deserted coastline, next to Curt’s board full of re-
membrances. Judd wanted to make the most abject apology he had ever expressed but wondered if
he would have the chance. When the minster was through, Sonia must have sensed Judd’s look because she turned and, holding her gaze, offered a lovely smile which did not seem sardonic or condescending, that even seemed to signal some appreciation for his doomed sentiment. This was a small gesture yet it seemed to embody the whole power of forgiveness.
It felt as if some demon which had pursued him since he was a young man had been slain and that he might be welcomed into the fold at last.
Benz won the 2017 Serena McDonald Kennedy Award sponsored by Snake Nation Press for a short story collection titled Home and Castle. Jacob Appel, recipient of numerous fiction prizes, described it as “a first-rate collection that grapples with the toxic anxieties of contemporary America and tackles tough questions head-on—but with a blend of insight, empathy and humor. This is a major literary debut, one not to be missed."
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