Volume 2, Issue 3, 2012/2013
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volume 2, issue 3, 2012/2013 volume 2, issue 3, 2012/2013 Executive Editor: Chad Foret Fiction Editor: Dusty Cooper Poetry Editor: Ashley Williams Art Editor: Brooke Bajon Film Editor: Nicholas Brilleaux Web Developer: Casey White Graphic Designer: Hillary Lowry Print Production Advisor: Alison Pelegrin Online Production Editor: Joel Fredell Faculty Committee: Jack Bedell, Richard Louth, Bev Marshall Manchac Review is Southeastern Louisiana University’s creative journal, updated continuously online as Manchac Review Online and published annually in print format, funded in part by the Student Government Association. Manchac Review Online is an interactive experience including fiction, poetry, drama, art, music/lyrics, and video. Submissions are accepted all year. Submissions accepted when an edition is in press will be held for the next edition. All submissions published online are considered for publication in the selective print format at the end of each spring semester. The responsibility for the selection and editing of all content, including grammatical and mechanical emendations, is assumed by the editors. All editors are students of Southeastern Louisiana University. Editorial advice, financial management, and assistance are provided by the Southeastern Louisiana University Department of English; Department Head, Dr. David C. Hanson; and the Southeastern Writing Center. Views and opinions expressed in Manchac Review are those of the individual authors and are not intended to represent the official views of Southeastern Louisiana University’s administration, faculty, staff, or students; the faculty committee; or the Southeastern Writing Center. All depictions of events and characters in published works are fictional, and any resemblance to real events or persons is coincidental. Some pieces contain explicit language and content depicting adult themes and situations. Cover image: Hitch, by Dusty Cooper. © 2012 by Southeastern Louisiana University. Now that our journal has overcome the trials of reinvention, an online upgrade, and reformatting, Manchac Review can begin anew. The Gambit’s transition to Manchac Review was no simple one, but the previous editing staff did an astounding job redesigning our journal for modern audiences. Our publication now has the opportunity and responsibility to reinvent itself as a quality and versatile outlet for our students’ creative minds. Manchac Online, itself a fine platform for student work, has allowed us to increase the excellence of our print edition, providing us with a greater wealth of content to more closely scrutinize submissions, ensuring publication of pieces most deserving of merit. Increasing venues for creative expression resulted in more numerous and varied submissions. I’d like to thank our contributors for their work ethic and aspirations. Without Southeastern’s creative writers, there would be no need for our journal. The wide range of themes, writing styles and locales in these pieces of poetry and short fiction—a Louisiana gas station where a jungle cat is held captive, a small village in India where friendship between classes is forbidden, and the road to a gruesome prison, to name a few—are a testament not only to the talent of our students, but to Southeastern’s function as hub of connectivity and intercultural relationships. Manchac Review is indebted to your endeavors, and we ask that you keep writing, and always strive to improve your work and influence the world. This issue could not have been compiled without the patience and aid of Dr. David Hanson, who gladly oversaw its construction and final proofreading. Dr. Jack Bedell and Ms. Alison Pelegrin, both exceptional teachers and writers of poetry, encouraged their students to submit their course-mandated poems, many of which are represented here. I extend the same thanks to Dr. Richard Louth and Writer-In- Residence Bev Marshall, who urged students to submit novel excerpts and short fiction. Our contributors’ revisions were aided not only by their professors’ tutelage, but also by their classmates’ constructive feedback, so thanks are in order for our creative writing workshops as well. The previous editor, Justin Greer, was always available when I had queries, and for that I owe him my gratitude. The cooperation of the editing staff enabled us to review submissions much more efficiently. Our fiction editor, Dusty Cooper, readily accepted the slushpile of writing I forwarded to him, and he also supplied this issue’s cover image. Our selected poetry pieces were first read and commented on by the poetry editor, Ashley Williams, who did an exceptional job narrowing down selections for the prize edition. The visual art editor, Brooke Bajon, and film editor, Nicholas Brilleaux, allowed us to incorporate a greater breadth of artistry into Manchac Online. The members of the Writing Center, namely our Director, Dr. Jason Landrum, and Public Relations Consultants, Ms. Natalie Rich and Ms. Amber Silvers, provided much-needed assistance. Dr. Landrum dealt with the clumsiness of a new editor and led me through the jungle of red tape on the road to publication, and Ms. Rich and Ms. Silvers enabled us to advertise calls for submissions and any journal-related events. The talent and range of writers represented in this issue are impressive. Many walks of life are explored in each story and poem, beginning with the mysterious, amusing conflict in the opening story between a magician and a literary junkie, and ending with the ominous exchange between a damaged father and his two sons. I am proud to provide these writers the opportunity to showcase their talents, and am especially thankful for readers like you who are willing to give them the opportunity to shine. Chad Foret Editor Letter from the Editor GRETCHEN HINTZ Gentlemen’s Duel 1 KRUNAL KHATRI A Puff of Smoke 7 CAREY BROOKS Prisoners 8 MICHAEL SELSER Children’s Rush 14 Teary-Eyed Skyline 15 MARLEY STUART Ruth 16 NICK BEJEAUX An Ode to the iPhone 19 SHANE D. O’HARA Kingdom Come 20 DOMINIQUE FICKLIN When It Rains 23 Finals Week 24 PRIYANKA MEHTA Sins and Sinners 25 GRETCHEN HINTZ Non-Contact 32 Lunch Duty 33 ZACHARY NELSON Monster, Manunkind 34 Contributors Submission Guidelines Gentlemen’s Duel G RETCHEN H INTZ No one takes much notice of Hawthorne, Nevada. Located almost dead center between Las Vegas and Reno, it’s less a locale and more a ten-minute detour for tourists. Most of the residents there complain about being shackled to a town with no real future, but strong, eager men planted themselves there after the gold rush bust, and pulling up old roots takes effort. Even the younger generation, with their fists balled up while spitting hatred for their dull hometown, so close to cities of promise and attainable wealth, couldn’t bring themselves to depart for more than a day or two. Only the dry desert sand sometimes struck off on its own, past the city limits and over the surrounding mountains never to return. Their escape from Hawthorne being highly unlikely, the residents once attempted to bring in new revitalizing blood to the town for a short-term or long-term transfusion. Unfortunately, all Hawthorne, and much of the West, is known for are geological findings. The recent decision to garishly paint the outside of the Mineral Country Museum was a failed endeavor to attract the untapped teenage geology-hobbyist crowd. It was immediately repainted in sage within three months, and no one ever spoke of it again. After two years of plans and ordinances to put Hawthorne on the map, it remained the ketchup stain it always had been. The population numbers did not budge 1 in either direction. When one relic thought fit to return to the dirt, one was born to a regretful mother. But, eventually, the perpetually weather-beaten residents were rewarded with a vivacious outsider. Their population increased from 3,714 to 3,715 thanks to a new settler: a Mr. Thaddeus Kelsey. Previous profession: drifter. Current profession: part-time derelict, part-time dawdler. Kelsey happily took up residence there, studied the town and its residents better than even the mayor had, yet he still had never received his polite welcome to Hawthorne. No other tramp had the fortitude to remain as long as he had, most choosing to put on their modest drifter boots once more and depart for greener pastures. They migrated to the south, where people were intoxicated and wallets more likely to fall out of pockets undiscovered. But Kelsey was a diligent man. Day in and day out he stood where 95 intersects with 359, the only major intersection within the city and the only route that one could escape the city from. It was on this corner that a not remotely famed oddity also existed. In the 20s, a traveling snake oil salesman had seen potential in the location and brought out his soapbox on the curb to promote his wares. Preachers and other men with a dire need to be heard emerged and did the same. The town officials, just as desperate as their future relations, installed a permanent “soap box” to encourage speakers and traders, but it was soon forgotten when the Wild West lost its mystique and salesmen stopped coming. The once coveted block of cement only found acknowledgment when some person tripped Manchac Review over it haphazardly. Kelsey must have felt a kinship. Every day Kelsey stood there, the northeast corner, directly in front of the Bank of America, punctually arriving at 9 a.m., taking a very short lunch break, and then, with vigor, he approached the rest of his workday until 5 p.m. Never taking sick days, he was always there in his ecru tweed jacket and tie, which he kept relatively clean and pressed given his circumstances. His presence, sign in hand, became a staple of daily life in Hawthorne that no one desired.