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        • Lindsay Athoe "Study I" and "Study II"
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        • Ronnie Clarke "It Is Hard to Say"
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        • Liam Creed "Untitled"
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        • Alexa McKinnon "The Feminine Uncanny"
        • Amy Ngo "Untitled"
        • Jill Smith "Shelf Self String Thing" and "things a, b and c"
        • Rebecca Sun "Untitled 1" and "Untitled 2"
        • Gabriele Tyson (Andrew Fraser) "Strong Strides"
        • Val Vallejo "Digital Scaring"
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      • The Art/The Poems >
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        • Gabriele Tyson (Andrew Fraser)/Hashini Puwakgolle Mudiyanselage
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      • The Poems >
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        • Hashini Puwakgolle Mudiyanselage "Silent Battles"
        • Jill O'Craven "She is an Ocean"
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    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3 >
      • Judges: Issue 3
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    • Issue 4 >
      • Judges: Issue 4
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      • Poetry: Krista Bell
      • Poetry: Josh Garrett
      • Poetry: Erica McKeen
      • Poetry: Katharine O'Reilly
      • Poetry: Victoria Wiebe
      • Poetry: Eric Zadrozny
      • Creative Nonfiction: Ryan Bates
      • Creative Nonfiction: Devin Golets
      • Creative Nonfiction: Jonas Trottier
      • Experimental Writing, Film Sound: Rachel Ganzewinkel
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      • Fiction: Yulia Lobacheva
      • Fiction: Alexander Martin
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      • On the Night Before Your Father's Funeral, By Katharine O'Reilly
      • Market Blooms By Robyn Obermeyer
      • All That Glitters By Julia Cutt
      • Mosaic By Evan Pebesma
      • love song 2 By Joy Zhiqian Xian
      • Student Writer in Residence: Steve Slowka
    • Issue 5 >
      • Judges: Issue 5
      • Contributors: Issue 5
      • Poetry: Rayna Abernethy
      • Poetry: Chelsea Brimstin
      • Poetry: Natalie Franke
      • Poetry: Kevin Heslop
      • Poetry: Katarina Huellemann
      • Poetry: Cara Leung
      • Poetry: Tamara Spencer
      • Poetry: Travis Welowsky
      • Poetry: Victoria Wiebe
      • Creative Nonfiction: Lyndsay Fearnall
      • Creative Nonfiction: Gary Jackson
      • Fiction: Patricia Arhinson
      • Fiction: Lyndsay Fearnall
      • Fiction: Levi Hord
      • Fiction: Richard Joseph
      • Fiction: Erica McKeen
      • Experimental Writing: Laura McKinstry
      • Experimental Writing: Brittany Renaud
      • Short Film: Ethan Radomski
      • ALFRED R. POYNT AWARD IN POETRY >
        • Poynt Award: Emma Croll-Baehre
        • Poynt Award: Robyn Obermeyer
        • Poynt Award: David Witmer
    • Issue 6 >
      • Judges: Issue 6
      • Contributors: Issue 6
      • Ficton: Sam Boer
      • Ficton: Sydney Brooman
      • Ficton: Erica McKeen
      • Ficton: Esther Van Galen
      • Creative Nonficton: Erica McKeen
      • Creative Nonficton: Brittany Tilstra
      • Creative Nonficton: Nathan Wright-Edwards
      • Poetry: Chelsea Brimstin
      • Poetry: Rachael Hofford
      • Poetry: Elana Katz
      • Poetry: Erica McKeen
      • Poetry: R. A. Robinson
      • Poetry: Elizabeth Sak
      • Experimental Writing: Sydney Brooman
      • Experimental Writing: Erica McKeen
      • Experimental Writing: Brittany Renaud
      • Experimental Writing: Brittany Renaud
      • Short Film: Dejvi Dashi
      • Short Film: Matthew Carr
    • Issue 7 >
      • Contributors: Issue 7
      • Judges: Issue 7
      • Poetry: Michelle Baleka
      • Poetry: Jenny Berkel
      • Poetry: Kevin Heslop
      • Poetry: Katarina Huellemann
      • Poetry: Nathan Little
      • Poetry: Erica McKeen
      • Poetry: Kaela Morin
      • Poetry: Elizabeth Sak
      • Poetry: Kate Zahnow
      • Experimental Writing and Film: Erica McKeen
      • Experimental Writing and Film: Shauna Ruby Valchuk
      • Fiction: James Gagnon
      • Fiction: Megan Levine
      • Fiction: Erica McKeen
      • Fiction: Cassia Pelton
      • Fiction: Julia Rooth
      • Creative NonFiction: Noa Rapaport
      • Screenplays: Sydney Brooman
      • Screenplays: Nathan Wright-Edwards
    • Issue 8 >
      • Judges: Issue 8
      • Contributors: Issue 8
      • Poetry 8: Danielle Bryl-Dam
      • Poetry 8: Leah Kuiack
      • Poetry 8: Jameson Lawson
      • Poetry 8: Maxwell Lucas
      • Poetry 8: Kaela Morin
      • Poetry 8: Joanna Shepherd
      • Fiction 8: Mason Frankel
      • Fiction 8: Rylee Loucks
      • Fiction 8: Celia Kate Shapcott
      • Fiction 8: Amy Wang
      • Fiction 8: Blake Zigrossi
      • Screenplays 8: Naomi Barghel
      • Screenplays 8: Amanda Inglese
      • Screenplays 8: Jeff Simpson
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Tiffany Austin
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Jenny Berkel
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Carolina Jung
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Leah Kuiack
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Li-elle Rapaport
      • Creative Nonfiction 8: Amy Wang
      • Experimental 8: Lauren Lee
      • Experimental 8: Kirah Ougniwi
      • Experimental 8: Carlie Thompson-Bockus
      • Plays 8: Camille Inston
    • Issue 9 >
      • Contributors: Issue 9
      • Fiction 9: Chris Chang
      • Fiction 9: Tegan Wilder
      • Fiction 9: Hyacinth Zia
      • Creastive Nonfiction 9: Aidan Gugula
      • Poetry 9: Rachel Fawcett
      • Poetry 9: Matthew Simic
      • Experimental Writing 9: Shauna Ruby Valchuk
      • Screenplays 9: Naomi Barghiel
      • Screenplays 9: Alicia Johnson
      • Screenplays 9: Keaton Olsen
      • Screenplays 9: Rachel Yan
    • Issue 10 >
      • Contributors: Issue 10
      • Experimental Writing 10: Akshi Chadha
      • Experimental Writing 10: Adelphi Eden
      • Experimental Writing 10: Nicole Feutl
      • Experimental Writing 10: Isabella Kennedy
      • Experimental Writing 10: Christopher Paul
      • Poetry 10: Meaghan Furlano
      • Poetry 10: Li-elle Rapaport
      • Fiction 10: Meaghan Furlano
      • Fiction 10: Carly Pews
      • Creative Noniction 10: Nicole Feutl
      • Creative Noniction 10: Courtney WZ
      • Screenplay 10: Margaret Huntley
  • Issue 11.1
    • Contributors: Issue 11.1
    • Fiction 11.1: Tega Aror
    • Fiction 11.1: Chloe Bachert
    • Fiction 11.1: Kelly Ge
    • Fiction 11.1: Asia Porcu
    • Fiction 11.1: Taryn Rollins
    • Fiction 11.1: Pauline Shen
    • Poetry 11.1: Jennifer Adamou
    • Poetry 11.1: Katherine Barbour
    • Poetry 11.1: Akshi Chadha
    • Poetry 11.1: Emma Graham
    • Poetry 11.1: Li-elle Rapaport
  • Issue 11.2
    • Contributors: Issue 11.2
    • Fiction 11.2: Victoria Domazet
    • Fiction 11.2: Mackenzie Emberley
    • Fiction 11.2: Rachel Oseida
    • Fiction 11.2: Cindy Xie
    • Creative Nonfiction 11.2: Alex Rozenberg
    • Creative Nonfiction 11.2: Alanna Zorgdrager
    • Poetry 11.2: Cassy Player
    • Poetry 11.2: Madeleine Schaafsma
    • Experimental 11.2: Mackenzie Emberley
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Epiphanies at Discount Grocery

Charlie pushes his shopping cart down the deserted crackers and cereal aisle at Discount Grocery, wandering in the glow of florescent lights reflecting on polished linoleum. The ten- foot-high shelves of garish rainbow boxes closing in on either side of him dampen the rattling of his cart and the static PA system summoning cashiers in the interludes of tinny Muzak. His eyes strain at the words on bright packaging though he’s wearing his tortoiseshell Ray-Ban bifocals. He rolls up his jacket sleeve and checks his Rolex. It’s almost eleven p.m. A long day of filming the same scene over and over again for the next superhero blockbuster, never getting it right, missing three-word lines, tearing his spandex Captain Xilabur costume, has left him exhausted by monotony. He sees the same cereal branded under three names and shudders. The repetition has followed him out into the ordinary world. He considers how average he feels, how normal he must be, and he wonders if anyone else is watching and if they can see his discomfort in the grainy black and white security camera tapes. He might be in the tabloids tomorrow, exposed as Charles R. Macey, the latest Oscar winner and a narcissist who must’ve fired his housekeeper if he had to lower himself to buy groceries in a dingy 24-hour place far outside of Beverly Hills. Or, if the welfare mothers and the crack addicts mumbling delusions to themselves keep pushing their carts past him, he’ll have no Hollywood scandal made of his venture into middle-class America.

When Charlie looks up from his scrawled list, he sees that a boy in a striped shirt is staring at him from the brightly lit frozen food section at the end of the aisle, swinging around a post by one arm and clutching a box of Fruit Loops to his chest with the other. The boy’s mother ignores the antics and compares two brands of fish sticks set out in an open freezer. Trundling onward with his cart, Charlie breathes in the relief of remaining lost to society among narrow rows of processed foods that attract a larger following than he has.

This is what everyone else does, Charlie tells himself, needing to repeat the idea it to make himself believe it. I am like them. Maybe.

“I’m flying!” the boy announces, hopping from one canvas sneaker to another.  While other shoppers walk past in more of a hurry to nowhere, Charlie smiles at him.

Charlie’s starred alongside enough child actors to know the length of their attention spans. He understands their frustration with adult routines. He’s had enough of it all himself. He slips off his glasses to read a price tag. The boy halts his play and sprints to his mother. He pulls on her faux leather purse’s strap.

“Mom! It’s Captain Xilabur from New York City! He’s the one I was telling you about in the car. He saves the Empire State Building from the aliens with purple spaceships. Look! He’s just wearing normal clothes right now, but it’s him.”

“Don’t bother that man, Ryan. I’m sure that he’s had a long day at work,” she sighs, sparing a glance at Charlie. Charlie slides his Ray-Bans back on. He isn’t sure if she recognizes him or not. Her eyes are both wide with surprise and apologetic.

“Don’t worry. I’m always happy to meet loyal citizens,” Charlie assures her in the overly-authoritative Captain Xilabur tone that he’s perfected with a voice coach. His words echo around the steel ceiling rafters louder than he intends, but they fade fast in the quiet of late-night shopping.

“You know what? I’m a superhero, too. I can fly, shoot fire from my hands, and stop missiles from hitting the earth,” Ryan boasts, striking his fist at the air and shaking the Froot Loops with his other hand.

His mother takes his hand and pulls him off to the next aisle. She looks back at Charlie and mouths an apology. He waves them on and silently thanks her for not bringing all attention in the store to him.

That’s what it’s like, Charlie realizes before steering his cart to the next aisle for coffee and raspberry jam. That’s how it feels to be someone. No one but you knows who you really are or tells you who you
Elorah Fangrad writes news and opinion articles for Huron’s magazine, the Grapevine. Her short story “Moon Rock Candy” was published in Huron’s student-produced Grub Street. She hopes to reach the wider Western University audience through Occasus.

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