Sitting Straight Up

He never paid attention in any of his classes. He would prop his text books up so it effectively hid his drawing pad. He was great at doing cartoon versions of the people around him. He told everyone he would be famous for it. He would make money, and support everyone's dreams. He never did get that big break. But he did meet a woman who loved him and gave him children and stayed by his side until the last moment. When he died, they put on his headstone that he was a great father, lover and artist. He would have missed the whole thing had he been there. 

Reviews

[Rochelle Tyler]

I got a paraphrase feel to this prose? Flash fiction? I like your snippets into your characters lives about the core of who they are. And you always have some kind of irony playing throughout. You like your reader to think and I can tell you like the actual craft of writing. Well done with thi shorter piece, I have always enjoyed what you are writing.

[Brittany]

I find it interesting that the main character wanted to use his fame to "support everyone's dreams". Like his caricatures were observations to merely hide behind. He meets a woman who loves him, but by omission- maybe doesn't love her back? I like the way the title feeds into this. In class we're all supposed to follow order. He's going through the motions and letting the things that define a person, define him in such a way his existence is merely a non-reality.And in the end he falls into the old conventions of growing up, having children, and pretty much living a normal life, and dying. I chewed on the last line for a bit...did you mean to state "had he been there."? It changes the whole tone of the story, turning him into a mere fictional character, a figment in someone else's imagination, a dream fragment. Very interesting. I might have missed the mark on this one completely. But, I did enjoy it.