Sunglasses - "Whiplash"

"Lacking one of your senses does not make the others stronger, that is like saying how wonderfully a boat without wheels must compensate by rolling on its sails."

Kevin Malcolm Benjamin Martin. With a name like that who needs names. Kevin Martin sounded like a curler or a character actor. Kevin Malcolm Martin is like having pudding in your mouth, and Kevin Benjamin Martin felt like a betrayal of Malcolm, since it was, after all, there first. KMBM sounded like a radio station call sign, so Kevin Malcolm Benjamin Martin opted for what he thought was the most non-threatening version of his name, but was secretly the worst one of all: K-Mart.

K-Mart arrived home to find the house cluttered but empty. Half-drank juice glasses, old t-shirts on the stairs, a bike with muddy wheels left leaning by the coats. The banister had a greasy stain on it, the door to the basement was dark and ajar, the kitchen smelled like soggy toast. The summer was here, the heat was baking everybody's judgement into a lazy puddle, and the neighbour's swimming pool was the only release. K-Mart had still not taken off his shoes and stepped on an army man, cracking him in two. He paused and looked at the dusty television. On the kitchen table, there was a note covering a jam stain: gone to Joe and Helen's, pizza tonight? K-Mart took the note without expression and folded it. He picked up the cracked army man and went upstairs. He passed open comic books, pencil nubs, and he could see there was a cactus in the bathroom sink. He went into his bedroom, the clean and tidy sanctuary at the end of the hall, and went carefully to his dresser. In the bottom drawer, he crouched and half-opened a large tupperware, marked "Don't Forget", and put the note, and the cracked soldier, a grenadier, inside.

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(drawing by Lindsey Nolan)