THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE SEEN by STEVE GERGLEY
December 31 2024On Friday night, I eat a sixty-three ounce bag of assorted chocolates while watching a mediocre action movie from the 1990s. For the next nine hours, my stomach roars like a silverback gorilla. While lying on the cold bathroom floor in agony, I swear I will never commit this horrific and indulgent transgression again. But two days later my sadness and hunger return with a vengeful fury, so I buy another sixty-three ounce bag of assorted chocolates. That night I throw the bag away without opening it. Hours later I wake up at 2:47 a.m. and sprint into the gloom-thick kitchen. I take the bag out of the garbage and stare at it in wonder. It is the most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire miserable life.
Steve Gergley is the author of The Great Atlantic Highway & Other Stories (Malarkey Books ’24), There Are Some Floors Missing (Bullshit Lit ’24), Skyscraper (West Vine Press ’23), and A Quick Primer on Wallowing in Despair (Leftover Books ’22). His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Wigleaf, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, Maudlin House, Passages North, Always Crashing, and others. He tweets @GergleySteve. His fiction can be found at: https://stevegergleyauthor.wordpress.com. In addition to his own writing, he is also the editor of scaffold literary magazine.