Helen: Chapter Two

I’ve been really jonesing to write some more fiction, but I am also knee-deep in a novel revise and rewrite, so I’ve made a compromise with myself: Allie’s take on flash fiction.  Each Saturday, I will craft another 100-word chapter for Helen’s story.  Want to join us?  It’ll take less than a minute of your time. 

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It started in grade three.  That January, a transplant from a grammar school in Croyden joined her class; a new arrival also named Helen. This “Helen G.” possessed an otherworldly ability to exhume our Helen’s greatest fears of inadequacy, then swiftly and maliciously put them on display for what began as an affable group of nine-year-olds. On the bus four decades later, she could hear the reverberations of her adversary’s favorite claim.  “People fancy me more, certainly.”  This revealed itself over time. Eventually, her classmates’ eyes would divulge what Helen hated even more than the ceaseless cruelty: pity.