[Short Story] – The Biography of Euan Redmond

First published in Silver Apples, Issue 2 (Box of Tricks), I wrote this specifically for the prompt after reading a kid-friendly one-page run down of the Pandora’s Box legend. I had fantastic fun with this one, mainly thanks to the Silver Apples editors’ brilliant submission guidelines.

 

The Biography of Euan Redmond

Euan stood in front of his grandfather’s dust-thick desk in the family library. He pushed his hands deeper into his trouser pockets and resisted blowing his fringe out of his eyes as he waited for the inevitable reaction to his announcement. Euan’s father, Henry, was somewhere behind him, his sunbed skin blending in with the leather book spines stacked from floor to high ceiling. He’d allow Euan’s grandfather to have the first say. He would think it only proper.

Alexander Redmond eventually looked up at his grandson with a tight spectacled sneer. “Is she of old stock?” he said, and though Euan knew precisely what the old codger meant, he gave a contrarian answer.

“She’s not stock at all. She’s a person, if you’d believe it. Fancy that.” Euan rocked on his heels.