Elementary School (Scenes of Winter: Episode 4)

By Chris McAuliffe

After almost having his lights punched out by Michael Worthington, third-grader Gregory Browning misses the bus, changes into clean pants and imposes on his mom for a ride to school. He finds the car radio's report of Julie Creggan's accident confusing but suspicious. At school he meets up with Kev and Nick, his two best friends. He lives for their approval. So, he panics when he's lumped in with the "United Nations' kids" for a game of Scrabble led by high school Senior Mentor Danny Woods. At least Gregory will win because he always beats his parents. But Danny keeps changing the rules, setting Gregory off-balance, and sending him and the game in an unexpected direction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris McAuliffe
• Release date: Jul 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463329535

Chris McAuliffe

I'm a long-time resident of Windsor, CT living with Cheryl, who I've known since first grade and been in love with since senior year in high school. We've raised three children: Aaron, Kay and Rose. Raised three children? That's a vast understatement. Together, these four people have given me experiences and insights which have continually redefined how I see myself and the world I live in.Job-wise, I'm a retired mechanical engineer who designed and developed a specific type of machine used in an aircraft system which few are aware of, but all air travelers depend on. At its best, the job was creative and rewarding and payed the bills. At its worst, it’s something I'm grateful to never have to do again. And now I get to write every day!So call me Chris. I use he/him pronouns. I'm a cis-gender heterosexual white upper-middle-class male who respects the power of labels, the freedom of no one to be limited by them, and my own evolving ignorance.

Book preview

Elementary School

Scenes of Winter: Episode 4

Copyright 2019 Chris McAuliffe

Published by Chris McAuliffe at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Notes on Scenes of Winter

Summary of Earlier Episodes

Elementary School

About the author

Other books by the author

Connect with the author

Acknowledgements

Learning about writing has been a never-ending quest, and I would have long ago been lost without the companionship and education provided by the Northern Connecticut Writers Workshop and the Windsor Writers Critique Group. Thank you all.

Special thanks for help on this short story to Sarah Gilligan, Annalisa Deal and Kay McAuliffe.

Cover art provided by Tom McAuliffe (Contact at @mcletters or mcletters.co)

Notes on Scenes of Winter

Scenes of Winter is a fictional work of linked short stories inspired by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's 2018 hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. This story is not about the hearings, but focus on how the issues raised--sexual violence, gender roles, racial biases and classism, competition versus cooperation--intersect in our day-to-day lives.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Summary of Earlier Episodes

Where’s Julie? (Scenes of Winter: Episode 1)

Twenty-six year old Julie Creggan has been out of sorts for days. Eric, her boyfriend and two years her junior, has a vague uneasiness that he refuses to unpack. Instead, believing a winter storm has passed, he pressures her to go snowshoeing with him. In the aftermath of a sexual assault—in the shadow of the perpetrator and the resurgence of the storm—a victim and the bystander deal with their inability to communicate with life-altering consequences for them and the world beyond. If Julie survives, where will she go?

Rough House (Scenes