

-INTRIGUE GOLD MEDAL WINNER-
TANTRA BENSKO
Pinhole: Spying on the Neighbor

The Girls Play a Unique Game
A clean, translucent short story about young teen girls who spy on the neighbor who lives alone.
A group of innocently mischievous girls are curious about a quirky gal who doesn't try to fit in.
"The other girls and I liked to sneak over and take photos of Wren, the girl who lived at the end of the road at the top of the hill, using our leader's pinhole camera. Anything involving Wren got our group of girls speculating. Some girls weren't even neighbors but spent the night with us to get a chance to stalk her. The photo shoots became legendary. Missing out on one of those could mean exclusion from the deepest levels of our secret society. Terry knew private things about Wren and would release the info to us whenever we passed initiations in the game.
Terry's big idea was this: "Hey, I know. Let's sneak something into Wren's overnight and put it someplace in her yard that she likes to go to a lot." I wished I'd thought of that. But I thought of everything else. Like putting the statue of a swan in her yard. Temporarily of course. And taking a photo of Wren and the swan with the pinhole camera. That would make beautiful art. Really, really beautiful. Magical. But what if Wren caught us taking the picture? Would she shoot us with death ray hands?"
7500 words. This Coming of Age tale is meant for sophisticated YA Lesbian Romance and adult Literary readers as long as you don't judge girl crushes. Like all the books found on this site, there's a Gothic intense fascination and inky trepidation about a love interest's mysterious world.
