‘SCROLLING FACEBOOK MEMES WAITING FOR THE PAEDIATRICIAN’ - THE FORGE LITERARY MAGAZINE
I was very happy to win the 2020 Forge Flash Fiction Competition.
The Forge Literary Magazine is a real dream publication, and this is one of my favourite stories. I know you are not supposed to have favourite children, as it makes the others into serial killers, but
SCROLLING FACEBOOK MEMES WAITING FOR THE PAEDIATRICIAN
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny ipromoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses, yuo can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid does not raed every lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
The Dcotors take me into a pink room of folral 1970’s wllapepar, a samll plasitc plnat and a box of tssiues on the tbale, and tell me ‘Baby’ is not OK.
‘Baby’ is yuo, and I’m ‘Dad’—myabe tehy can’t rembemer our nmaes, myabe this is infantsiliing-hopsital-mandetad Dcotor-spaek—but eethir way, I like it.
I am a ‘Dad.’ Yuor Dad.
A Dcotor spaeks.
‘Baby has bad cennoctions, like brkoen wriing or msifirings.’
‘The organs mgiht fail,’ one says, and I thnik of big pink church noises.