Pittsfield, MA

2018 Zine Berkshire Community College | Pittsfield, MA 2018 Zine Berkshire Community College | Pittsfield, MA Journal of literary and visual arts Faculty Advisor: Julianna Spallholz Chief Editor: Will Hatch Designer: James Grady www.JamesGradyDesign.com Zine would like to once again thank the Office of Student Life and the Berkshire Community College Foundation for their generous support of this ongoing project. Special thanks to the Berkshire Record newspaper. 4 Contents Fiction 7 Christian deManbey: The Eighth Day Creative Non-Fiction 15 Jahaira M. DeAlto: Second-Day Snow Will Hatch: Some Call it Courage Mathieu Moreau: Reese’s and Coke Alice Van Deusen: Don’t Dent The Door! Kim Sawyer-Wheeler: On Dogs Poetry 25 Kara Curtin: Reincarnation Raine Dash: Mother Luna / Triumph of the Exile Christian deManbey: Dreams of You Chase Rahilly: I Hate Poetry Visual Art 33 Allison Armata Other Genres 39 Brittany Czarnecki: Code of Ethics Literary Critcism 43 Rebecca Corkins: On Steven Dunn’s Novel, Potted Meat Will Hatch: The Greatest Nation on Earth 5 6 pt 1. Fiction pt 2. Creative Non-Fiction pt 3. Poetry pt 4. Visual Art pt 5. Other Genres pt 6. Literary Criticism 7 The Eighth Day by Christian deManbey od died one Friday morning at 10:58 stabbing his fork in and out of his bloodied steak, A.M. watching the red liquid pool in his plate. It was about fifteen minutes later “So what happens now, you think?” he said, when Isaac’s phone would start ringing pulling at a loose vein in the steak with his fork. with a call from his mother. “With him gone, I mean.” G“What is it you want?” he said as soon as he an- Her snide laugh in response made his hand swered the call. “Is there something else you need twist sharply. Her laugh always reminded him of from the store?” Joan Crawford, somebody he was thoroughly un- “God is dead, Isaac.” fond of. A razor-sharp smile took over his face, and “What?” son’s eyes met mother’s, an electric pulse resonat- “God is dead.” ing through the air between them. Isaac pressed firmly down with his teeth, pull- “What does it even matter to you?” she said, ing his father’s old 1989 Ford Bronco to the side of downing a rainbow assortment of pills all at once the road. He could hear his mother’s heavy breath- like they were cheap candy. “You’ve never once ing on the other side of the line, and he dragged a stepped foot in a church.” hand across his face. “And you only stepped foot in one after dad “Ma,” he said firmly, as if talking to a child. “Stop died.” believing all the news you read on the internet.” The mother shook her head, spreading her arms “Just turn on your radio, Isaac.” out wide like a mighty gladiator, standing up tall The phone went silent, and for a moment he felt and looking around. After a moment the act died he was going to have one of those quiet sessions of down, and she picked up another pill which she his where he’d be in the car voicelessly screaming chewed on instead of swallowing. and slamming the wheel with maddened fists. His “Does it look like there’s any other fucking peo- online therapist told him he did that too often, so ple here?” she said. “You don’t have to be polite instead he smacked his hand onto the radio button. with me. ‘After dad died’…you mean after the mis- It was supposed to be on his favorite music sta- erable bastard blew his own brains out.” tion, but instead there was only static. Then a high- Isaac slowly raised a hand up to one of his ears, pitched beep rang out, followed by a recorded trying to block out the echoing ring of that shotgun message: We are taking a day of silence in honor of blast. It had made the whole house tremble when our dearly departed God who passed away today. it had gone off, felt like lighting had struck outside May he rest in peace. their doorstep. Isaac’s hand reached for the radio button again, “The fucking blood never came out either,” but his fingers froze above it, as if it had some kind mother continued, motioning off to the wall be- of magnetic repulsion pushing away his touch. The hind her and the small brown splotches on it. “Bas- button began to swirl in his eyes, becoming the tard couldn’t have even been considerate enough sole focus of his vision, everything else blurred. to do it outside at least.” The beep rang out again, followed by the mes- Isaac raised up his plate, putting it to eye-level, sage once more. then began to swirl it around in a circular mo- His index finger twitched a little, trying to move tion. He was watching the blood race around and forward, but unable to stop the beeping and the around, and the thought came to him of throwing message. it against the wall. To see if animal blood stuck and All in a moment he forgot his therapy and began raced down the same way human blood did. to slam onto the wheel. “How would things in the world be if we didn’t Screamed silently while the beeping carved into know there was a God?” Isaac said, not even aware his ears. of his own words, too hypnotized by the blood. “If ... we didn’t know there was Heaven. If we didn’t know Dinner between mother and son was usually si- everyone gets a chance to get in as long as they can lent, but the silence held between them that night wait it out to make up for what they’ve done.” was unnerving: it didn’t seem real, it felt like some “Your father was a miserable coward.” She construct from another world slithering through picked up the last pill, spinning it around in her and racing into their souls. Mother ignored it, busy- fingertips. “Maybe it would have happened later, ing herself with organizing the dozen or so pills but his brains would’ve been out of his head with she took with every dinner. Isaac, though, kept or without Heaven. Why don’t you just ask him 8 yourself if you’re so curious?” A Reality Tour, and those media storage towers you The swirling of the plate stopped cold, Isaac’s put together yourself pressed against every inch of grip tightening to a point that ever the slightest wall space. One for music. One for television shows. more pressure would shatter the glass to pieces. One for movies. One for video games and consoles. “He’s emailed you, right?” she kept on. “From One for books. One for graphic novels, with a spe- that purgatory place or whatever. Just talk to him.” cial section for anime and manga. One for show- “Have you ever talked to him, ma?” casing the various artwork he had bought online “No, but then again, I’m not the one bitching from across the world. One completely empty and and crying about him.” She shook her head, a covered with dust. He had never decided what to subtle look of disgust on her face she loved to carry put on it exactly, and so nothing was all it held. around in full view. “Something more important He moved over to his music tower, pulling off than your damn father has happened today. God Bowie’s “Outside.” He stuck the CD in his com- is dead. Show the man some respect.” puter, turned the volume to full, and pressed play “Why? What has he done to deserve my re- on track seven. As the music slowly began, he fell spect?” backwards upon his bed, “If you have to ask...” twisting his gaze to the She pulled out a cigarette, ...it seemed like God was same spot on his ceiling stuffing it into her mouth. he had been looking at “Then there’s no fucking around to stay, feverishly for the previous fourteen point in trying to explain clinging to the world like years. He was honestly it to you.” surprised he hadn’t worn Isaac nodded, carefully a bad cold. a hole through the ceiling moving his fork towards after so long. Maybe if he his plate, scrapping some had discovered the spot in blood off the side of it and onto the table. It was those first thirteen years of life he could’ve done it. with the utmost attention he watched the blood “There is no hell,” he whispered along with the sink into their perfectly white tablecloth. song, the words sinking into his flesh. “There is no ... shame. There is no hell, like an old hell.” His head Isaac had retreated back to his little room fell to the side, eyes turning to the light peeking out and precious computer to escape the world, but from under his door. “There is no hell.” found himself laughing aloud with how idiotic that It made a curdling in his stomach as he won- thought seemed the moment he turned on the dered about how much better the world would internet. God was everywhere. God refused to let be if they weren’t sure about Hell. If it hadn’t been himself be forgotten or driven out of Isaac’s mind. If dispelled so long ago that it wasn’t real. How much he went to YouTube, there were in-memoriam and better people would live their lives.

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