On "Seamus, Then" by J. M. Patrick (644 words) ***

I'm not sure this piece qualifies as a story in terms of the conventions of rising conflict, climax, and resolution, but I like the way the author pulls the story of a life into a single moment at the blackboard, how the present and future mix here. What makes the mix of future tense with the present tense interesting is how the letters that Seamus writes are used as a kind of analysis of his future--and of the narrator's future. We're left wondering, is this the actual future or is it the narrator's imagined future. In the end, though, I suppose it doesn't matter. Read the story here at Contrary Magazine.