Julie C. Day
Assistant Editor Jess Jelsma Masterton: When reading through miCRo submissions, I always find myself drawn to stories that blur boundaries; boundaries of form, genre, time—you name it! In “City Magic,” Julie C. Day introduces us to a protagonist who straddles place, time, and reality. Pamela is stuck between the forest and the city, the past and the present, the mythic and urbane. It is this conflict, the conflict of existing between two realms, that drives the three-paragraph story to its poignant conclusion.
To hear Julie read “City Magic,” click here:
City Magic
Two years in the city, and Pamela’s day still started with memories of the woods. Memories were crabbed and twisted ghosts. They ruptured the night when you longed for silence. They finger-painted your bedroom walls, smeary pictures you wish you didn’t understand.
Grandfather used to braid Pamela’s hair down the middle with a part that was always true. Damp mornings, they wandered the woods, Grandfather revealing the difference between harmless paddy straws and death-cap mushrooms. “Don’t look. Focus on the smell.” The magic of overcoming, Grandfather called it. Paying attention to the right things.
In the city there were no stands of pine, no ponds with mud that slipped between your toes. At night, the scent of damp rot leeched through the floorboards. The chemical sap of wallpaper paste broke through Pamela’s sleep. And with each person she met, the scent of lies lingered long after the bent and broken words had been silenced.
Julie C. Day has published over thirty stories in magazines such as Interzone, Cream City Review, Black Static, and Split Lip Magazine. Her debut collection Uncommon Miracles was just released by PS Publishing. You can find her at @thisjulieday or on her blog stillwingingit.com.
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