Synkroniciti is pleased to announce the winner of our “Vulnerable” contest in flash fiction, “Galena Street” by Jennifer Maloney. “Galena Street” is the story of a child growing up in the shadow of an abusive and mercurial father, constantly terrified by a lack of safety. “I know what it is to be a prisoner, don’t say I don’t. I know how to long. How to count. How to wait with my mouth squeezed tight, tight.” Father has a penchant for model railroading and creating artificial scenes which is echoed in the way the child perceives their surrounding environment–things don’t feel real. The green is a little too green, the random burnt smells suspect, the bathroom fixtures gleam “like surgical implements.” Jennifer depicts child abuse in a way that avoids fetishizing violence–this is a difficult thing for survivors who need to tell their stories. What she doesn’t write is even more powerful than what she puts into words. “Galena Street” is like a poem in the richness of the imagery, but it’s even more like a puzzle or a mystery, asking the reader to piece together the fragments that exist before, during and after the unspeakable. We know who is guilty, we are simply noting the evidence. What is most shocking is that the father has the notion that he is the one who has been wronged. “We feed and clothe the things that turn on us, don’t we? muses my father.” It’s quite chilling, all the more powerful because the menace is understated and quietly ominous.
Read “Galena Street” in our upcoming, June 1st issue, “Vulnerable,” available for pre-order here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Jennifer Maloney writes poetry, plays and short fiction. Find her work in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Litro Magazine, Literally Stories and Synkroniciti. Jennifer is the author of the hybrid chapbook Evidence of Fire, Poems & Stories (Clare Songbirds Publishing, 2023), and the full-length hybrid collection Don’t Let God Know You are Singing (Before Your Quiet Eyes Publishing, 2024), and she is grateful, for all of it, every day.
We are grateful for you, Jennifer! Congratulations!