Olympic Games

An Exclusive Preview Excerpt

By Leslie What

Fiction · Excerpts · October 21, 2003

They played with Igor’s trucks for a while, but then the little girl started to pout and said that since she had played his game for a while it was time to play hers. “I want to play house,” she said. “You be the daddy and I’ll be the mommy.”

“Okay,” said Igor, though he didn’t really want to.

They made a sand baby and then made sand food for all of them to eat: sand salad and sand pudding and sand cookies served on polished stones.

The little girl tried to serve the food in Igor’s trucks, but everything fell apart. “That’s okay,” she said. “It all falls apart in your stomach, anyway.”

They washed the dishes in the sandbox. They forgot about the sand baby.

The little girl yawned. “Time to go to bed,” she said. She took off her shirt right there in front of him and lay down on the sand.

Her chest was flat, not at all like his mother’s, but somehow different from his. He wanted to be close to her.

“Aren’t you going to put on your pajamas?” she asked.

“I don’t have any,” he said.

“Then you’ll have to pretend. Like me.” She closed her eyes. “It’s okay. I won’t look till we turn out the lights.”

He unbuttoned his shirt and stretched out beside her. He gave her a dry kiss on the cheek.

“Can I look now?” she asked.

“No!” Igor cried. “Not yet!” He gave her another kiss. And then another one.

“I’m cold,” said the little girl. “Wish we had a blanket.” He was scared, but hoped against hope that she wouldn’t make fun of him. Igor took off his shirt and unfurled his wings. He wrapped them around her.

The little girl smiled and put her arms around him. That was when she noticed that the blanket grew from his back. She sat up abruptly, stared at him and screamed. Then she ran away.

He didn’t dare tell his mother because he worried she might hurt the little girl or turn her into a lobster. Igor decided then that he would never again try to make friends. And he would try never again take off his shirt in front of anybody.

Olympic Games by Leslie What will be published by Tachyon Publications in May 2004.

Copyright © 2003 by Leslie What.