Matt Kendrick
Writer | Editor | Teacher
WELKIN PRIZE 2026 - HIGHLY COMMENDED
His Girl, Forwards and Backwards
by Randal Eldon Greene
Back in town. His girl always resurfaced. Eventually.
This was his girl’s sister’s place. Should’ve been with her hens. His girl’s family didn’t run in their circles, their hood. A beautifully soulless suburb.
Brother-in-law: We really don’t want you here, Blaine.
I don’t wanna be here either, Steve.
Brother-in-law: Just leave.
Sister: Ain’t you tired of the on-again, off-again?
I thought you girls weren’t talking.
Sister: You need to take responsibility.
Why should I?
His girl: Let him hold it.
On the floor wrapped in blankets was a bluish egg the size of a basketball.
Silence.
I’ll leave, he said.
Randal Eldon Greene is a father, author, and avid reader. His novella Descriptions of Heaven (Harvard Square Editions) is a poetic allegory of climate change concerning a linguist, a lake monster, and a house riddled with hidden passageways. His latest book is Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Fictions (Corona\Samizdat Books) which takes the traditional genre of literary dialogue and interrogates the form in our era of hyper-communication and viral misinformation. Greene’s creative works have appeared in publications around the world. Find links to his writing and live readings at AuthorGreene.com
Judge's comment:
This is the sort of piece where I see something new every time I read. I sit and ponder about the blue egg. I marvel at how it reads both forward and backward. I sense the tensions in both directions. And however I read it, I experience a journey that's different in some way to the ones I've experienced before.
