Denial

Prose by Maxwell M.

5th-8th GRADE WINNER FOR THE 2023 YOUTH CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST. Prompt: The story must be between 150–300 words, and must include ALL THREE OBJECTS: Birdhouse, glow stick, soap.

Today, a bird flew into my rusty, outside birdhouse, one raven that someone else would ordinarily ignore. The raven isn’t special at all. The crows aren’t, either, I thought. Five crows were at my house yesterday, and today. I live next to a graveyard, where it is. I can’t go towards it, or I’ll remember. I can see it. No one else can.

Long ago, I went to parties, leaving my unused glow sticks in the closet as they faded into obscurity. I used to go with my sister. And she came and went like the glowsticks. Glowsticks, glowsticks, glowsticks. Are they real? Is anything real? I don’t like to think about it, or my sister.

I think that my dreams are better, I get to be with my friends, my sister, and my brother. They’re all happy with me, right? I think, right before temporary garbled trash infests my mind to cover the holes in my thoughts that I cannot accept. I get to be in my happy space, with my cat, my computer, and my books. I play hangman every so often, it’s entertaining from time to time, but I draw sketches if I’m bored.

I try to see some of my old sketches, but there’s something stopping me from seeing them. The shadow of the unknown looms over me, waiting for my response. I want to know what it means, what it is, but I only deny it. I like to carve soap into little sculptures. I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but I’ve run out of ideas for my figures. Nothing is stopping me from getting ideas. I just can’t make anything else. Nothing can come out of these old glow sticks, not even a faint glow.

Someone knocked at the door.

Comments from our judge: “Denial” is tonally eerie in the best way — the writer doesn’t hold our hand, but shines a light on only what we need to see to understand the story, giving us clues as to what kind of person our narrator is as well as what kind of world they inhabit. I also love the bit of self-aware reflection from the narrator, and the little hints dropped that let us on to what’s really going on — “Denial” held me to the end.