Longlist – 2026 Gooseberry Pie Annual Writing Competition
by Beth Sherman
When I agreed to get married at the Long Island aquarium I didn’t think how confining it feels to be stuck in a metal cage, 90 feet below the surface, or that I’d regret not wearing the flouncy dress I’d found on Etsy, or how uncomfortable my wetsuit is, or that Alex, our trained dive instructor, might not be fully certified by the State of New York, or that I wouldn’t remember what the liability waiver said or the fact that we can’t speak, waving our Sharpie-written vows at each other like a couple of stunned turtles or how I keep worrying if there’s enough oxygen getting through to my brain, or how blurry our friends and relatives look through the smeared glass. Nurse sharks circle our cage like we’re the seafood special of the day. And I wonder if this is a preview of our life together: confusion, followed by outright terror. But then you grin. I see your eyes flash behind your mask and remember that you know all my secrets and still want to spend the rest of eternity with me. I stick my finger out to receive your ring before a shark mistakes it for a buoyant golden minnow.
Beth Sherman is the author of How to Get There from Here, a novella-in-flash (Ad Hoc Fiction). Her work has appeared in more than 250 literary journals and she can be reached on social media @bsherm36.
Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash
