RUNNER UP
Break or be Broken
BY REBECCA KLASSEN
Rebecca Klassen is co-editor of The Phare. Her work has featured in publications that include Mslexia Best Short Fiction, Shooter, Popshot, Burningword, Barren, Ellipsis Zine, and The Wild Word. She has won the London Independent Story Prize, and was shortlisted for the Oxford Flash Prize and the Laurie Lee Prize. Her stories have been performed at Cheltenham Literature Festival, Stroud Book Festival, and on BBC Radio.
‘Everyone
relishes lingering looks during these post-show photographs in his glistening costume. Women’s eyes combing the contours of his sparkling muscles, hands loitering on his glittering waist. Oskar sometimes holds me in our trailer and at points in our act, but he doesn’t touch me during these meet-andgreets. Audience remnants drift away across the muddy field.