The 291

A short story.

The greatest game that Marty Richardson ever bowled turned out to be the worst thing that ever happened to him. Then again, his life was due for a restart, so perhaps this is what it needed.

My short story “The 291” is a social satire about how bowler Marty Richardson’s near-perfect game all but destroys his life and sets him up as a viral symbol for what is wrong in America—and how he fights back, becoming a self-styled champion against what he calls “Big Bowling” and what it represents to him.

It’s bowling for subversion.

This is a story about the reckless anarchy of the Internet and what its swarms of trolls—I used to call them “flying monkeys” when they were after me—can do to random people in their sights. It’s also about fighting back, but not on their terms.

I’m very excited to announce that the new sports-themed literary journal TheSportScribe has published “The 291.” It is available for all to read on the website.

Excerpt:

“I have to let you go, Marty,” Jenkins said.

“What? Are you kidding?” Marty raised his voice. “Why?”

Jenkins was pudgy, with greasy, dyed-black hair, pencil-thin mustache, pressed white shirt, and yellow Tofino’s tie. He swiveled his computer toward Marty. A full-screen video frame showed Marty standing in front of the bowling lane, back to the camera.

“Come on, Howard. You can’t fire me for what I do in my private life. I was playing a sport, for God’s sake. I was bowling.”

“I look at that video, and you know all I see is? ‘Tofino’s Turkey Tossers’ written across the back of the latest viral buffoon. And you stood there a good ten seconds to make sure everyone could read it. You made a mockery of this company.”

“I missed my last shot. That’s all I did.”

“I got a call from a Daily News reporter trying to track you down. The whole damn world is identifying what you did with this company. Mrs. Tofino called, too. She’s furious. She said she cried when her nurse showed her the video.”