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The Shell

Story by Georgie Morvis (Read author interview) December 16, 2024

Art by Abishek

Your hands are stained yellow from the garlic shrimp. I had told you that you could eat the shells but your haole ass was never going to do that. You’ll never know that sucking on the head is the best part.

You’re staying at one of them Waikiki resorts with the towers and the tourists. You said you wanted an adventure. You’d never been with someone like me. So we go north.

In the rental car, you reach over to grope my ass. I slap your hand away and hand you a wet wipe. The last thing I need from a man is a UTI. But then I’d really be a woman; a real woman. Fish.

I’m facing the ocean when you show me the shell. A perfect little spiral. A grin smeared across your face. Is it true, what the tour guide said? That taking a shell off the beach is bad luck? I can feel you thinking: what can you possibly see in these waves that you can stare at every day?

On the horizon, I see your son taking the shell to show-and-tell. I see your son, shivering at drop-off while you see another woman like me in a seedy motel. I see you seeing your son on weekends and holidays only.

I laugh at you, a cackle sharp as coral. Just one superstition.

After all, you were going to take it anyway.

___________________________

“The Shell” was a finalist in The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2024.

About the Author

Georgie Morvis is a writer based in Chicago, by way of Kalaheo, Hawai’i and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Their writing has been published in Autostraddle, Pigeon Review, Cast of Wonders and New Flash Fiction Review. They were a Lambda Literary Fellow in 2023 and won the Judges’ Prize at the ‘Ohina Filmmakers Lab 2022. You can follow them on Twitter at @gmorvis and Instagram at @georgiemorvis.

About the Artist

Abishek is a photographer based in Coimbatore, India.

This story appeared in Issue Eighty-Six of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Eighty-Six
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We’re doing it again! We’re homing in on the micro: 100-word, 250-word, and 400-word stories. In March 2025 SmokeLong is hosting The March Micro Marathon, a 24-day workshop with a new writing task each day, peer review in small groups, 3 webinars, a reading and interview with Michelle Ross and the editors of 100 Word Story, and 3 competitions with cash prizes.