"Photo Booth" by Sarah Kartalia

For the icebreaker activity at the workshop we have to introduce ourselves to the group by imagining that our life is summed up in a four-square photo booth strip. There are so many ways to do this it paralyzes me from the neck down. Four animals that have mattered. Four teachers that curved my destiny. Four favorite pasta dishes. Gemini, Monkey, INFJ, Enneagram 5. Four apartments. Four things I never understood: barley, bangs, how I got tennis elbow from whipping cream by hand, remote controls. Four moments of shame. Four trophies. Four train rides. Wyeth, Hopper, Wright, Rothko. Four things everyone else in this room will say that will make me vomit just slightly: high school basketball, finance major, marriedwithtwokids, going to the movies. Four things about you that I miss but I can’t tell anyone because I wasn’t supposed to be looking: your hand on the cat, your hand on the steering wheel, your hand pouring me tea, your hand reaching out. Four dream destinations. Turns out there’s only one: back to that hand.

A native of Westminster, Maryland, Sarah Kartalia moved to France at twenty-one, where a six-month contract turned into three decades and counting. Today, she coaches multicultural teams and teaches Leadership and Business Storytelling in companies and MBA programs. She was the Grand Prize winner for Short Fiction for INKWELL Magazine, was shortlisted for the Fish Flash Fiction Prize and was a finalist at The Writer’s short story competition. Stories have also appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Kerning, and Sky Island Journal.