You can read my short story, “To Remind Me of Her” in BARN Writer’s Studio Annual Collection released in October, 2025. I’ve included a sample below.
My father asks me to go golfing. I don’t golf. He asks me to invite a friend and when I suggest Sheila, he asks, “Don’t you have any male friends?” I bring no one. My father is waiting. He asks me how long it took to drive to the club and when I answer, “About 40 minutes,” he looks into the sky, lips moving as if a mute calculator. “Not bad,” he answers and then talks about the Carter administration.
“Best damn diplomat we ever had.” He pauses and laughs. “Probably not good in the sack.” He looks over at me. I don’t laugh. He whacks a ball, lifting a chunk of what was once perfectly manicured grass with it. My father stomps the tuft back into the exposed soil. “He didn’t have any chutzpah.” While the image of a diplomat is still handing in the air, I try to remember the defining characteristics of chutzpah and swing hard at the ball and just miss. The rush of air from my swing propels the ball limply off the tee, where it rests gently aloft blades of clipped green. “Jesus,” my father yells at the top if his lungs, then looks down at my ball and snickers, biting off the end of a cigar which he spits towards the trees. Chutzpah.
© 2025 Kirsten Telander