My story titled: “Red Spinny Dress” won third place in the 2023 Bucks County Short Story Competition. This is the second time I’ve entered and the first time accepted. The story should be available to read online at https://www.bucks.edu/academics/department/lang-lit/short-fiction-contest/ but if not, you can send me a request for a copy.
“Red Spinny Dress” is a love story between two men who have been together for decades and now one is dying. It’s a story told by the caregiver who never says how painful it is to watch his husband slowly die but you can feel it in his words and thoughts. But their lifelong love story was captured in the ballad: “Greatest Love Affair” by Jeffrey Osborne.
“Red Spinny Dress” is a story of how one man’s Halloween costume, a red dress that flared out like an umbrella when he spun, brought more joy to his heart than almost anything else. Only slow dancing with his husband to ‘their’ song, ranked higher. The last thing the two men did together was slow dance, one man in an old tux, the other in the red dress, to “Greatest Love Affair” one more time.
Originally written for a short story competition, the first draft’s word count far exceeded the limit. Try as I might, I could not tell the story in 3500 or less. But I very much liked the story and decided it might work as a full novel or novella-length story. I plotted the story out and wrote chapter outlines and character bios, but hadn’t yet found the time to write it.
When I started working on stories for this year’s BCCC contest, I stumbled across this story and decided to take another look at it. The word limit for this competition is about 5000. I was able to tell the story without compromising the atmosphere, details, conversation, or thoughts of the narrator. I ended up with what I believe is one of the most moving stories so far.
Now the bad part. I was asked to read the story aloud at the award celebration. Well, that is not something I can do easily. I have a bit of dyslexia and a bit more latent fear. When in grade school, before the dyslexia was discovered, I was called to read aloud at the front of the class. It was one of the most embarrassing and humiliating moments in my life (to date). I stumbled over words, flipped letters, and got hung up on sentences. I don’t think the teacher realized how hard it was for me to read, I believe she thought making me read more often would help. It didn’t and to this day, when having to read in front of people, I sweat, stutter, turn red and yes, cry.
So reading this story, which is very emotional and very close to home, was tremendously hard. I thank all who were at the reading for being so patient and so kind. I went through a bunch of tissues and made it a third of the way through before stopping. I tried to say the full story would be available to read in its entirety on the school’s website but couldn’t. I did my best to get off stage as fast as possible.
The next time I am asked to read one of my stories to an audience, I will politely decline or hire a professional.