Asylum by Greg Boyd (editor)

 

Here is one of first pieces of flash fiction I wrote back in 1989 that found its way into a little magazine - Asylum, edited by Greg Boyd.

LIFE STORY

The bold letters read "Harold Blackman - My Life Story." The book looks quite ordinary. One is required to make a special inspection to see a queer springlike device along the spine. Harold Blackman opens the book before him. The title page is completely blank as are all the pages. He runs gnarled fingers, tips calloused and slightly trembling, lightly over this ghost of a title page and reflects on the long agonizing nights where he tried to pen the fire of his youth and the spume of his manhood without success. What he saw when the ink dried always left him feeling flat, unsettled. Closing his eyes, he repeats an incantation learned from a half-crazed Argentine, then opens them slowly, very slowly.

Harold Blackman, weary adventurer, is now standing on the writing table, shrunken to the size of the book. Lying down on the title page, the back of his legs, buttocks and backbone relax to the paper's slight give.

He releases a catch on the spine; the leather cover snapping shut with the vengeance of a mousetrap. But for a muffled groan all is silence. Over time, the blood seeps through the pages, forming words, sentences, paragraphs.