Longlist – 2026 Gooseberry Pie Annual Writing Competition
by Melissa Flores Anderson
Ethan stayed silent the entire 45-minute drive to work, with the sound turned down on the radio, like he was punishing Katie for making them late again, and he grunted when he pulled into one of the only spots left on the fourth floor of the parking garage. It was one of those slanted compact ones with barely any space between the cars next to them, and Katie squeezed out the tight fit and swung her right arm behind her to slam the door shut, unfortunately, right on her left-hand pointer finger.
She thought to herself, “that’ going to hurt tomorrow” as she walked to the back of the car to retrieve her briefcase and lunch bag from the trunk, eager to get away from Ethan’s bad mood, but that’s when she noticed the blood dripping onto the gray cement floor, the bone protruding from a wound, and a glance back at the passenger door showed she had left the tip of the finger behind in it.
Ethan handed Katie a bandage from a first-aid kit he kept stocked in the back of the car, and took the torn flesh and wrapped it carefully in a paper towel as he repurposed a Ziplock bag into an ice pack.
“Guess we’ve got the day off work,” he said, as they got back into the car to drive to the nearest emergency room, while Katie focused on the shape of skyscrapers outside the window to keep from going into shock.
In the ER bay, Ethan held Katie’s hand, the good one, and kissed her forehead, carefully writing down the care instructions for how to keep the wound clean and allow it to heal, whispering, “It will be alright. I love you,” while she nodded at the doctor.
Melissa Flores Anderson has published work in swamp pink, Chapter House, HAD and Best Small Fictions 2025. Her debut short story collection “All and Then None of You” is out now from Cowboy Jamboree Press.
Photo by Femke Beirens on Unsplash
