"Un-selfish-ing" by Kat Meads

In child terms: share candy. Step in front of no one. When a whine or sob bubbles up in the throat, swallow hard. Do not call attention. Do not ask for special favors, treats, a push-back of the bedtime hour. Fight not with others, even if one of those others snatches your favorite doll and starts to chop off her un-grow-backable hair. Whatever is asked (or isn’t), avoid any statement or response that frontloads “I.” Let it be known to one and all (without bragging! without fanfare!) that you are a willing and brilliant listener and will go on brilliantly listening for however long anyone cares to take over your time and wee ears. Before owning a full set of permanent teeth, become the very model of conciliatory patience, preternatural stillness, while those around you kick and scream and wail at a volume that scatters birds from trees. Give up your seat on the school bus to anyone (friend or foe) who demands it. If you have been awarded a dollar, resist thinking that the whole dollar belongs to you and can be spent entirely on yourself, as you wish, and for your pleasure. If your favorite pie in the world is lemon meringue and there is but a single slice left, before taking the tiniest taste of that heaven, offer it to anyone in the vicinity who displays passing interest. It will take effort, the un-selfish-ing. It well may take a lifetime.

Kat Meads's recent flash has appeared in Gone Lawn, Maudlin House, Does It Have Pockets, Your Impossible Voice, FEED and elsewhere. Her novelette, While Visiting Babette, is forthcoming in 2025. (katmeads.com)