Shortlist – 2026 Gooseberry Pie Annual Writing Competition
by Kip Knott
I knew the day was off to a bad start when my reflection refused to leave the hall tree mirror on my way out the door to work.
I checked every shop window on my rainy walk to the office, every small puddle and pool of standing water, and even a couple of side mirrors on cars waiting for the lights to change at the corner of Naughton and Main, but every time I saw only reflections of the world around me, a world empty of me.
When a couple of passersby bumped into me and kept on walking as if they hadn’t even seen me, I began to wonder if I was disappearing on this side of the mirror, too.
I stood like a stalk of chalk in the middle of the sidewalk and stared up into the rain, daring it to dissolve every bit of me just so I would know in the end that I was actually something tangible that could be washed away.
But when, like a cruel joke, the rain stopped and the sun forced me to look down, I saw my shadow reaching up to me from the wet pavement at my feet.
“Take my hand,” it cooed reassuringly in a smooth, velvety voice, “and I promise you that wherever it is you need to go, we’ll get there in the end together.”
Kip Knott is a writer and part-time art dealer from Ohio. His writing has appeared in Best Microfiction Anthology and The Wigleaf Top 50. His most recent book of stories, Family Haunts, is available from Louisiana Literature Press.
Photo by Ammar ElAmir on Unsplash
