This won the October 2023 First Prize from Bath Flash Fiction. It’s a devastating piece about raising a child after the death of a parent.

Because for Tyler’s fourteenth birthday, I took him to Disneyland and thought we were having a good day, until his eyes brimmed with tears while we were in line and he mumbled, “I’m sorry, Mom — I don’t think I want to be here anymore.” And I knew he wasn’t talking about Space Mountain. 

If the last paragraph of the story doesn’t make you tear up, you might not be human.