Written by T.L. Tomljanovic
They don’t make eye contact during school pick-up.
Mrs. Toffitt calls again about the chair throwing. “We want Mason here, but—” The words “safe spaces” and “inclusivity” buzz like bees into ear wax stinging me from the inside.
Bell rings. Mason stands still. Six-year-olds stream out from the classroom breaking around him, like a rock in the river.
Holding hands, we walk to the car. Cranking Taylor Swift, I peel out of the parking lot fishtailing past the moms. Screams and spilled Stanleys hit the pavement. In the rearview mirror, I see the circle break and my son laugh.
First published in The Woolf.
.
T.L. Tomljanovic is a flash fiction writer from Vancouver, Canada. She is a Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction nominee, a founding member of the Pride Roars writing collective, and a judge for Off Topic Publishing’s monthly flash fiction and CNF contests.