As finals week approaches, I find myself wanting to read more flash fiction during my study breaks instead of watching TV, in order to keep my brain active. The story I read this week comes from the book Long Story Short, which contains stories made by writers and writing teachers from North Carolina. The story is named runners by Ben Fountain. Fountain graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, and he is a screenwriter, novelist, and short story writer. He is famous for his 2012 novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which was recently turned into a movie.
Fountain was able to fit a lot of thought and emotion into the story I read this week. The story is told from a first-person perspective, but the narrator is talking about another character named Jerry. The narrator is a cross country runner, who took part in bullying Jerry, a chubby football player, when they were younger. As the boys grew older, Jerry’s younger brother got killed in a car accident. Years passed, and the narrator moved away and gave up cross country and running in general. He traveled back to his hometown and saw a skinny Jerry running on the side of the road in the pouring rain, which reminded him of his cross country days.
In the story, the cross country runners made fun of Jerry because he was chubby and because they thought he was a dumb football player. But in reality, Jerry was an intelligent guy who was passionate about football and his little brother. When Jerry’s little brother died, it changed him. He took up running and slimmed down, while the narrator (one of the guys who bullied him) gave up running and gained weight. The message that I took from this story is that we should all move beyond stereotypical labels and realize that everyone is human, which means that they deserve to be treated with respect no matter what.
It was a short and simple story that packed a punch. If you are interested in reading this story for yourself or reading other stories from the novel, I highly recommend getting Long Story Short today!