two stories by Ryan Stearne
$5
The kitchen is not a large kitchen, but neither is it a small one. Margaret, or Midge as Harold calls her, always thought it was the perfect size. She thinks this is especially so considering it’s just the two of them, as it has been for the thirty years they’ve owned the house. They bought 4515 Coronation Drive from a couple of elderly empty-nesters who after watching their children fly away had also decided it time to move south. Immediately, Margaret and Harold decided to make the home their own, wallpapering the upper kitchen cupboard doors with a corn print paper that screamed ‘corn is eaten here!’ Then, they painted the lower cupboard doors, all the cupboard frames, walls, and ceiling a periwinkle blue. The shade clashes horrendously with the print, but Margaret likes it and Harold doesn’t mind. In the center of the room is a small steel-edged laminate table that has no opinion of corn, one way or the other.
("Vienna Sausage")
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2023
as the nineteenth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Ryan Stearne is a PhD student in English Literature with a focus on prose fiction at the University of Calgary. “Attachments” and “Vienna Sausage” are a part of a cycle of short stories centered on how we connect or disconnect with our bodies and situated in Alberta. Ryan can be reached at RyanStearneWrites@gmail.com.
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