Sour Candy

by Kealan Patrick Burke

The boy did not look up from his picture. “I am a boy.” And with that simple response, Phil’s doubt died. The answer seemed an automatic one, too rehearsed, almost played out, as if the child had had to say it so many times it had lost all inflection, all meaning. As if he’d had to say it to himself just as many times to believe it.

Then he went to the bathroom, careful not to look at the man patiently waiting in the mirror to look back at him,