Kirby
Fiction by DJ Wolfinsohn | Witch Craft Magazine
by DJ Wolfinsohn
I wake up on the Greyhound, gripping a plastic Bimbo bread bag filled with everything I own — cherry aspirin, twin ceramic mermaids, lip gloss. A roll of red carnival tickets with two hundred dollars folded inside.
Coiled like a snake at the bottom is Kirby’s key on a chain. I put it around my neck, fastening the clip with my dirty fingers.
Nothing to see here, folks, just another 16 year old crying bloody barefoot mess in dirty pajamas.
Leaning my head against the window, the sun sets a fire in my eyeballs but I just stare it down, saying fuck you sun like Kirby always did, forcing my lids open until the tears run down my face. Let me go blind I have nothing to live for, I think, probably too dramatic but so what I obviously don’t go blind, my tears just make this effect of long dark alleys between the rows of corn, like escape routes flickering open.
Kirby’s key moves with my pulse, reminding me I’m alive. Reminding me I escaped. Reminding me there was once a boy who loved me enough to say run as he lay there with the cop lights painting his face. No one even noticed me, why should they, a plain girl in pink pajamas, clutching a damn bread bag and cutting her feet on glass in the street. Kirby noticed me, though. Oh yeah he did. He saw me with my friends at the food court that day after school and he picked me. And when my dad called Kirby a perv, scumbag, cradle robber, kidnapper, bastard, it only made me hang on tighter. And when my dad said he was bringing his guns and the damn Texas Rangers to find us that’s when we decided to go to Laredo and cross.
It was pretty much our honeymoon in that Super 8 on 1-35 and when I think about what we did in that bed I shiver. Kirby said not to be afraid because reincarnation was real, even if we died we would come back as new things and be together forever. I would be a soft white kitten, he would be a giant red-tailed hawk. I would be a puppy, he would be a wolf. I would be a bunny, he would be a cobra. But that never made me feel better, because how would he find me. How would I know it was him. When I asked him about this he just fixed his pale eyes on mine and grabbed my shoulders and said oh I’ll find you, girl, I’ll always find you.
about the author
DJ Wolfinsohn’s 'zine, Satan Wears a Bra (1993), was part of the original "riot grrrl" movement. Her fiction & poetry appears in HAD, Vestal Review, Variant Lit & more. DJ lives in Austin, TX. twitter: @debbywolfinsohn
news from fuck, marry, kill
FEMGORE, the two hour workshop with Elle Nash, Charlene Elsby and Lindsay Lerman, is still enrolling.
A virtual seminar complete with generative writing exercises that explores writing the gruesome, saying what’s supposed to be left unsaid, and pushing creative boundaries.
We’ll discuss some of our favourite examples of writing that explore the beauty and brutality of femgore — from predatory characters to the philosophy of what repels society most about unredeemable or unlikeable female narrators and then together we’ll all write together, in the moment. You’ll leave with tools to help you write deep into disgust and elevate your work.
Cost: $100
When: Sept 1, 12pm PST / 3 pm EST / 8 pm GMT
Please write write your name/email in the notes section. From here we will email you everything you need to attend the workshop. If you have any questions, DM me or reply to this email.
Goth Book Club! Writing sprint returns!
I’ve had to jumble some things around in my calendar this month as August and September are busy with travel and events.
Upcoming dates:
August 25, at 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST/ 8 pm GMT. We’re reading Triadic Intimacy by Emily Leon, a personal meditation on art, desire, and more (I need to read it to figure it out, its an enigmatic book) out from Inside the Castle.
September TBA: Love Letters to Dawn by Aileen Wuornos. We’ll be joined by author Nicola Maye Goldberg, author of Nothing Can Hurt You, to discuss this work and writing about crime-adjacent subjects.
October 27, at 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST/ 8 pm GMT: Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn. We’ll be joined by the author for a live chat and Q+A!
The return of Brute Force
August 25, at 1 pm PST / 4 pm EST / 9 pm GMT, after Goth Book Club, I’ll give you all a writing prompt and you’ll sprint write for 30-45 minutes. We’ll do a Q+A at the end.
I cannot wait to discuss Triadic Intimacy. I’m now obsessed with it.
Well. Except that red-tailed hawks would eat soft white kittens. :)