On "On the Surface" by Barron T. Byrnes (1295 words) ****

Split a story into fragments and make the reader reconstruct it. It's a strategy I found really exciting during my college years, but I've strayed farther away from such words as I've gotten older, falling more for straight stories. Byrnes's piece, however, is a throwback to that earlier fascination of mine. The story isn't so much one of a straight plot, therefore, but an accumulation of motifs and images--oceans, beaches, death, funerals, bodies, love. How do these all come together? Well, it's up to the reader to put the pieces of the puzzle in place. This one's worth a second read, here, at Super Arrow.