May is short story month, and we’re taking the opportunity to share short gems of writing from Alberta publishers and writers. Today’s Sunday Short is from Seen Reading by Julie Wilson. Each microfiction in this collection is inspired by a sighting of someone reading on transit. It is perfect pandemic reading for those whose routine of people watching on their morning commute has been replaced by drinking coffee in their pajamas.

Miss Popular

Watching her reflection in the television screen, she practices smoking, leaning heavy into the couch cushion. Her friends look silly when they try to light a cigarette, wincing as if on Fear Factor and asked to chew through a hundred-year-old egg. She doesn’t see the point if you’re not going to enjoy it. Which is not to say that she does. She’s looking for things to be remembered for after they’ve graduated, gotten soft, and had three children with men they met at their first jobs. As if, twenty years from now, they’ll gather for a girls’ weekend and the prettiest of them will note the curl of smoke escaping her lips, washing over her tongue like mist, and sigh, “You always were the cool one. And you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Miss Popular,” from Seen Reading by Julie Wilson. Copyright ©2012 by Julie Wilson. Reprinted by permission of Freehand Books.

Julie Wilson is The Book Madam, a self-professed “professional publishing fan” living and working in Toronto. She’s the past Online Marketing Manager for House of Anansi Press and was host of the CBC Book Club. She thinks reading looks good on you. Follow Julie on Twitter: @SeenReading. Post your own reader sightings using the hashtag #seenreading.