Punch!

by Lydia Ondrusek

Ray’s parents are divorced and shuttling him back and forth. Nobody seems to realize how hard this has become for Ray. His only comforts are eating, and hiding out in video games. Now, gaming at school has gotten him suspended. Will taekwondo help him lose weight? Give him more discipline? His parents hope so. It’s the first thing they’ve agreed on in ages.

His gran doesn’t think Ray needs to worry about losing weight. She does agree he needs taekwondo, though. Taekwondo will mean somewhere to go, friends his age to spend time with outside of school, and something for Ray to feel good about besides his skill at video games.

Ray finds out that no matter how bad he thought things were, they can always get worse–and that when life punches you in the heart, it’s good to rely on friends who aren’t made out of sugar or pixels on a game screen.

12 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 20, 2011

About the author

Lydia Ondrusek is a long-married mother of two who describes herself as writing her way out of a paper bag. Her fiction (mostly flash) and poetry can be found various places, including Flash Fiction Online and Apex Magazine. Like everyone else in this and all other parallel universes, she is writing a novel. Okay, two. She tries and mostly fails to keep www.lydiaondrusek.com updated, and spends too much time on Twitter, where she is known as @littlefluffycat.