2016 Ian MacMillan Awards, Fiction Finalist
“Plenty times before, Pastor Cooke had surfaced from deep sleep to find he was stuck inside himself. On those mornings it was normal to wake with heat and tightness in the chest, and like a shifting under the skin––just like organs rubbing, grinding, maybe. Sometimes he’d panic. If the limbs stayed insubordinate for too long or the tremors inside got to where they might split him up the middle, he would close his eyes and pray, ask for calm and clarity of mind, for reason, and he’d wait out the paralysis, which was just an awakening before the body had finished its R.E.M. cycle, a malfunction of the flesh that would soon fix itself, God willing.”
Read the full story at Hawaii Review.
