50 to 1

Pepperoni by David Erlewine
My son hides under his bed. I squat. “Come on, kiddo.”
His little hand drops a sheet of paper at my feet. “No more school.”
If alive, my father would drag him out, say stop being so damn afraid of everything.
“Come on kiddo, please, it’s time for dinner. Pizza.”




David Erlewine's stories appear (or soon will) in Pedestal Magazine, Keyhole Magazine, Mud Luscious, Monkeybicycle, elimae, and a number of other journals. He is a fiction editor for Dogzplot. His sad little blog is http://www.whizbyfiction.blogspot.com/