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December 1, 2008 Fiction

Everybody Said Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

Kyle Minor

Everybody Said Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps photo

The boy mastered the alphabet, but the other boys were playing soccer. The boy mastered subtraction, but the other boys were saying who could and couldn't sit in the back row of the cafeteria. The boy mastered the oboe, but the other boys were wearing black hoodies to the hip-hop show. The boy learned to masturbate, but the other boys were feeling up girls behind the bleachers. The boy mastered breakbeats, but the other boys were riding motorcycles up and down Clematis Street. The boy mastered botany, but the other boys were growing weed outside the tiger cages at Dreher Park. The boy mastered the SAT's, but the other boys were setting fire to couches. The boy mastered courting, but the other boys married pretty women. The boy mastered the bar exam, but the other boys had square jaws. The boy mastered tax law, but the other boys made partner.

Kyle Minor's recent work appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2008, The Southern Review, and The Gettysburg Review. His story collection In the Devil's Territory is just released by Dzanc Books.

image: Ryan Molloy


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