Fiona Foster ~ Most Don’t, Then Some Do

The source of the accu­sa­tion was a stu­dent who claimed the man had stolen her ideas for his last, most suc­cess­ful nov­el, stole them right out of her com­put­er, hack­ing in, she said, even after she bought a new com­put­er, care­ful­ly pro­tect­ed it, did not con­nect it to the inter­net, changed her name. Still he bore in and stole, wip­ing her words, leav­ing oth­ers in their place, vio­lent images, cod­ed threats only she could under­stand. Stole ideas she hadn’t even writ­ten yet.

Clearly, my friend said, this per­son is very ill.

And yet! Eyebrows, hands, up.

I had two cock­tails and a plate of fries. After, we talked about books, which I pre­ferred. Books don’t cause me to drink, alone, after I get home, to such excess that I lie on the couch all night think­ing I’ll fall asleep and being wrong about that until I show­er sick­ly in the morn­ing and go to work delirious.

~

Fiona Foster has pub­lished sto­ries in NOON AnnualThe New Quarterly, and Matrix Magazine. She is a grad­u­ate of Concordia University’s cre­ative writ­ing pro­gram in Montréal, Quebec and is at work on her first novel.