SOUNDTRACK:
[READ: December 18, 2022] “The Skin of a Teenage Boy Is Not Alive”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fifth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
Like we always do at this time: the Short Story Advent Calendar is back for 2022. We had such a great time last year working with our first-ever guest editor, the one and only Alberto Manguel. This year, however, we’re bringing things back to basics. No overarching theme or format, just 25 top-class short stories, selected in-house, by some of the best writers in North America and beyond. It’s December 18. Senaa Ahmad, a Canadian short-fiction writer, has never been that bored.
There was an earlier story in this collection about the Satanic panic of the 1980s. This story about demonic possession in high school (metaphorical or not, I’m not entirely sure).
Parveen is a good Indian girl. There is one other Indian girl in their town, Aisha. The resolutely ignore each other at first but eventually become best friends.
Parveen isn’t there when Benny falls off the roof. But everyone knows the story. Benny is part of a demon cult. Of course. The cult is made up of the beautiful kids. The dumb kids. Benny told them he wanted to get possessed. It’s five months until graduation. And Benny won’t be the same (although he will live). Later she will talk to Benny for the first time and its very possible she is talking to the demon rather than Benny. “Benny” says that being human is a temporary state for him.
After benny’s accident the cult starts following Aisha. But not Parveen. Aisha tries to bring Parveen into the group but they seem to mutually repel each other.
The cult initiates Aisha in March (three month before graduation). When Aisha asks Parveen if she should go through with it Parveen says absolutely–saying no would be worse.
The story flashes forward thirty years. Parveen has long left that town behind, but that demon lingers. He always returns to a teenage body. There is no escape.
Parveen cannot forget the demon either. It comes up on a first date when the man asks her if she has any crazy sties from high school.
he question is of course how Aisha will remember high school.
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