Member-only story
FICTION (originally appeared online in Tattoo Highway; republished in The 8th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Story Competition Collection; anthologized in The Rosetta Screen, permanent installation, Martin Luther King, Jr. Public and University Library (San Jose, CA))
Year of the Pig
Students share their pig knowledge
“1959,” says Miss Plotz at Group Circle Time. “In China, this is the Year of the Pig.”
She writes it on the board: “Year of the Pig.” She pinches the chalk hard. Her fingers are dry and white like the chalk. There is one little drop of spit on her bottom lip. I wonder if it will fall off or stay there all morning.
“Today is counterclockwise,” she says and she writes that on the board too. That means it’s a Vocabulary Word when she underlines it. “As we go around the circle I want everyone to share something that you know about pigs,” she says and she writes “Pig knowledge.”
Each thing that someone says, Miss Plotz adds it to the list, and after some of the things she puts a question mark. You’re supposed to listen to the others to practice your Listening Skills. I try to listen, but I only hear a few of the other things…
