Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome Canadian writer Karen Lea Armstrong with a story about power dynamics among girls on the cusp of becoming teenagers. “Crush” focuses on Sam(antha), Dom(inique), Ming, and Avery, who play together, their meeting place being a large tree.
“Surrounded by the drooping strands, settled astride a fat branch (the Bucking Bronco, the Crotchbreaker), or in the centre of a cluster (the Queen’s Throne, the Giant’s Fist), the tree could be a ship, a playground, a jungle, a school. Sometimes, we climbed to the very top branch, called out to people walking: Jiggly Bum! Jiggly Bum! or What a stride, fat and wide! We ducked down when they looked, watching their confusion with great hilarity. Other times, we stood high in the tree and rocked the branches back and forth like swings, throwing our heads back, shouting into the wind.”
A few months earlier, there was an incident in Dom’s basement which resulted in the untimely death of a gerbil beneath Sam’s roller skates. This event has ruptured the camaraderie between the girls and brought Dom’s penchant for bullying into sharp focus. On this sunny September day, Sam will regain her autonomy and the result will be a split in the group, one of those fractures that hurt like Hell but lead to a fuller sense of self and emotional growth.
Karen’s writing is clear and exciting, giving us a thrilling coming-of-age story for pre-teen girls. Literature often plays them as demure spirits that tread lightly on the earth. Not so with these four, who have distinct and complex personalities. The dialogue, Sam’s interior monologue, and the storyline all ring true. As I remember, girls at this age are capable of remarkable kindness and remarkable cruelty, often crossing from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes. Dom and Sam are deciding what kind of adults, what kind of leaders, they will become.
Read “Crush” in Synkroniciti’s “Vulnerable” issue, available for pre-order here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Karen Lea Armstrong is a writer, family physician, and graduate of the Short Story program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has been published in several genres and released her first novel, Drownproofing, in November 2023. She lives in Timmins, Ontario, with her husband Paul and her lovable but untrainable rescue dog, Piper. Follow Karen at www.karenleaarmstrong.com, or on X (Facebook) @KarenLeaArmstrong-Author.