Dorothy Bennett

Dorothy Bennett holds a masters in Theology & Literature from the University of St Andrews and lives in Austin, TX, where she writes and co-runs a creative agency with her husband. Keep up with her recent work at dorothybennett.com. 

An Excerpt from “Up the Bleachers”

Ms. Smith saw D’Angelo steal the candy bar from the concession stand. There were kids in the bleachers, in the parking lot, in each other’s laps, and on each other’s nerves, but Ms. Smith’s eyes were on D’Angelo, and D’Angelo knew it. 

            It was Friday night football, and the stadium was flanked on either side by private land. A few cows had nosed up to the fences to bask in the man-made light. The team’s mascot, a pungent furred replica of a longhorn in a kitsch vest and cowboy hat, pranced down the sidelines. The many parents and grandparents and siblings were well bundled, with fleece blankets and scratchy scarves. The band players, gearing up for their halftime performance, were just starting to sweat in their inherited uniforms, though their fingers were pink from cold. 

            And lounging in a metal folding chair just outside the gate of the football field but well within the lights was the portly middle-aged policeman that law required to attend. It was usually Mr. Arroyo who sat through the games, checking up on the kids he recognized and getting to know the ones he didn’t. But tonight, it was this man. He was smoking but trying to hide it by securing the cigarette between his forefinger and thumb, covering the rest with his remaining three fingers. He knew he was an ornament of the Friday night ritual – the parents knew it, Ms. Smith knew it, and the kids knew it. But he had to be there. And so, he waited, bored, giving the slightest homage to hiding his indiscretions, with a plume of smoke rising like a beacon above his shiny head. 

            Through the plume of smoke and the students and the teachers and the parents, Ms. Smith could see D’Angelo in a gaggle of students at the concession stand. 

            It was a Snickers, what D’Angelo stole. 

Read more of “Up the Bleachers” in Solum Journal Winter 2022.