You're Doing It Wrong

"Tickets" by Matthew Fertel

The four-year-old, obsessed with tickets, demands passwords to enter the kitchen, bits of bark-chip at the playground, and QR codes for his bedroom—But you HAVE to—always so serious, he is belligerent, sensitive to borders, plastic brain molding to the rules, holding them in, keeping them all safe and who knew kids could be such cops but he is trying so hard, such a good kid—NO! Not like that, you have to do it PROPly!—and you watch it, all that effort, every day a new part of the world pressed into him, becoming him, and you feel it, how he tugs your hand, shakes it with such desperation, guiding it to your pocket—Oh honey, but I just need to… Look, ok, fine… quickly—and you pull out your phone, scroll to the photo of the ticket he drew, the scribble you’ve starred, and hold it for him to scan with his little plastic gun—Alright, here we go, here’s my ticket—and you wonder then about the years ahead and what he’ll remember of all this; if he will see that you were trying too.

About the Author

Jane O'Sullivan is an Australian writer. Her work has won the Joanne Burns Microlit Award and appeared in Meanjin, New Flash Fiction Review, Passages North, Micro Podcast, Milk Candy Review, Mascara and the Spineless Wonders anthologies Pulped Fiction and Play. She lives on Bidjigal and Gadigal Land in Sydney and can be found online at janeosullivan.com.au and @sightlined.

About the Artist

Matthew Fertel is an abstract photographer who seeks out beauty in the mundane. Small details get framed in ways that draw attention away from the actual object and focus on the shapes, textures, and colors, transforming them into abstract landscapes, figures, and faces. His goal is to use these out-of-context images to create compositions that encourage an implied narrative that is easily influenced by the viewer and is open to multiple interpretations. More of Matthew's work can be seen on his website and Instagram: https://mfertel.wixsite.com/matthewfertelphoto https://www.instagram.com/digprod4/