"Almost Christmas" by Nathan Graziano is the latest in Night Train's weekly Firebox Fiction feature. It's another story that grabs the reader with the first line:
"Jackson told me, over the telephone, that this new girl he'd been dating liked to be choked and slapped while getting fucked."
I think what may have been the most interesting aspect to me was that the man listening to Jackson, at that very moment, has a phone book open on the table in front of him, open to the page where he's underlined the number to the local Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting place. It's an interesting juxtaposition, the person talking seeming like that one that's going to have problems in the story, but in reality it's the person he's talking to that has big problems.
It's a very short story, just over 350 words, but contains this juxtaposition, as well as five different characters, related to each other, mainly via sex, that we know something about - a pretty jam packed flash at that. I'll be looking for more work by Graziano, who also has a poetry collection on the way from the fantastic Sunnyoutside Press.
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