Synkroniciti is excited to welcome California writer Christopher Meeks with “The Island,” a deeply human story exploring the dynamics of a family on vacation—particularly the tender, complicated relationship between father and son.
Dietmar has planned their Catalina Island getaway down to the minute, hoping to keep the children occupied so his wife, Julie, can rest. His son Zephyr, a whirlwind (as his name suggests) of curiosity and energy, resists containment. He adores his family—Julie, Dietmar, and younger sister Sydney—but is constantly distracted. Dietmar, who prides himself on control, masks a similar restlessness beneath his meticulous planning.
“For their three-day mid-week trip, they took Catalina Express’s hydrofoil from San Pedro to Avalon in an hour and fifteen minutes. The spray flew by the windows, and Sydney, age five, and Zephyr, age eight, ran from side to side to look, excited as if rainbows would deliver them pots of Pop Tarts. They wore matching blue Disney t-shirts and white shorts.
When the kids were about to enter the back deck, open to the water and sun, Dietmar stopped them. He knew Zephyr would probably lean over the edge. Zephyr didn’t have common sense.”
When Dietmar falls asleep after lunch, Zephyr goes missing.
Christopher writes with a tenderness that never lapses into sentimentality, keeping the narrative active and full of humor. Julie’s fatigue, Dietmar’s compulsion to overplan, Zephyr’s hyperactive charm, and Sydney’s eagerness to be older than she is are rendered with depth and affection. This family feels real, quirky, and loving.
Read “The Island” in Synkroniciti’s Expectations, Vol. 8, No. 2, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Christopher Meeks is the author of five published novels, three collections of short fiction, and a produced play, “Who Lives?” His short stories have been featured in many print and online journals, and he’s finishing a new novel-in-stories, When a Line Touches a Curve. “The Island” is a part of that. “Dietmar and His Very Terrible Week” can be read in Rosebud Magazine. He teaches English at Santa Monica College and creative writing at the Art Center College of Design.