Powers
by Dan Crawley
It was Mindy’s turn to keep an eye on her little brother while her parents and sisters wandered from one western arts and crafts store to another, and she was not happy. Mindy yelled at her little brother to get moving from the back end of one store that reeked of leather and burlap and mildew. She wanted to go try on moccasins with her sisters. But he wouldn’t budge from his spot below the many shelves displaying Kachina dolls high over his head. Their faces of strange looking animals or otherworldly beings, their colorful wardrobe, and a few in some kind of frozen dance, kept her little brother absorbed. She pulled on his arms and attempted to shove him off his feet. If he did stir out of place, he immediately bounced back to the same spot. Mindy told her little brother how much she hated him as she strolled backwards. She glanced at him one more time from the open door of the store and wished he’d disappear once and for all and waved so long forever, sucker. She passed a few storefronts, looking for her sisters. But when Mindy saw her parents trying on cowboy hats through a large window, she panicked. They hadn’t seen her, alone, she kept telling herself, and ran back to her little brother. But he was no longer in his spot under the dolls. Mindy quickly searched the whole place, calling out his name. Then she stood in the middle of the store and slowly turned around and around. It really happened. Her little brother really disappeared. When she found her sisters, she told them the greatest thing ever just happened. Her sisters, though, were too busy trying on moccasins and didn’t care much. So Mindy sat on the woven rug, shoving her bare feet into different slippers of soft leather until she felt tapping on the top of her head. She told her mom towering above that no one was messing with her little brother. Her mom told her eleven-year-old girls should know better. She told her mom he was stuck in the same place she’d left him, looking at the same things, like always. Mindy tried acting nonchalant as she led her mom back to where her little brother vanished, preparing herself for the worst. And when they entered the store, Mindy couldn’t believe it. There he was back in his spot, gawking up at the dolls. After her mom scolded her and left, Mindy stood by her little brother. She placed her hands on the back and top of his head, a gentle cradle. She told him she wasn’t going to hurt him. He didn’t have to be afraid of her. But she wanted him to know that her powers were just getting started.
Dan Crawley’s stories have appeared in a number of journals, including Wigleaf, New Flash Fiction Review, New World Writing, Jellyfish Review, CHEAP POP, and North American Review. He is a recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts creative writing fellowship. Along with teaching creative writing workshops and literature courses, he is a fiction reader for Little Patuxent Review.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Powers”? “Powers” is part of a linked collection of flash fiction, following a family on an endless vacation. I wanted to write a flash with only one of the sisters and the brother alone and figured I’d place them in a setting where tourists would go (I pictured shops in Sedona, AZ). This little flash was a different writing experience for me. Usually I think through a story and have an idea of where I’m going, possible resolutions, when I start writing the first few drafts. I had no idea where “Powers” would take me. All I had was a conflict: the sister wants to go with her sisters instead of watching her brother, and he doesn’t want to move from his spot, staring at the dolls in a store. Everything else was a surprise as I wrote it. The magic, the ending lines. I read a final draft to my dad (someone who is not very interested in fiction) and after the last lines, all he said was, “Ha. Nice.” I knew I had something then.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
05/04 • Leath Tonino
05/11 • Chris Pellizzari
05/18 • Chris Clemens
05/25 • Clayton Eccard
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
07/13 • TBD
07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
08/10 • TBD
08/17 • TBD
08/24 • TBD
08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD