Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Teething Problems
    Teething Problems
    Teething Problems
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    Teething Problems

    By Mark Fletcher

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Teething Problems is a descent in to the consciousness of the narrator, a young man in his early twenties, after his life is upended by the discovery that his conception was the result of his mother being unfaithful to her then husband of less than a year and the realization that his hero dad is not his dad.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Fletcher
    Release dateSep 24, 2009
    ISBN9781452304427
    Teething Problems

    Read more from Mark Fletcher

    Related to Teething Problems

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      RSC and Representation

      Jun 17, 2023

      RSC and Representation
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Book Review

      Sep 17, 2023

      Book Review
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      My 21st-century Touchstone Play: Theatre Stars Share The Shows That Shook Them To The Core

      Feb 19, 2021

      Here at the Evening Standard, we recently tried to pull together the 21st-century’s greatest plays (read our list and see if you agree). But what about those plays that impact us more personally, that seem to speak to us directly and leave us getting

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Seeds of Change

      Sep 14, 2021

      Seeds of Change
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Theatre And The Last Pandemic

      Apr 27, 2020

      Theatre And The Last Pandemic
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Peak Time

      Jun 11, 2021

      Peak Time
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I Thought I Knew My Father, Then I Met Him in Prison

      Jun 12, 2019

      Editor’s note: This week, we’re running a special Life Inside series about fathers and incarceration. Read the previous essays about next-cell neighbors and dancing in the prison gym. I always called my father Mr. Moore. It didn’t seem strange to me

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mr. Bojangles

      Feb 26, 2022

      Mr. Bojangles
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      In Review

      Dec 20, 2021

      In Review
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Healthy Cigarette

      Sep 6, 2022

      A Healthy Cigarette
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      My father MY HERO

      Apr 30, 2020

      My father MY HERO
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why, Dad? Why?

      Oct 2, 2022

      Why, Dad? Why?
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Parminder Nagra

      May 2, 2022

      Parminder Nagra
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Protagonists

      Jun 18, 2021

      Was the craft of fiction around desire and obstacle taught by men and for men, for men protagonists and men readers? Was fiction part of the patriarchy? Was the craft of fiction part of the patriarchy? The answers were all yes. The post Protagonists

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

      Sep 20, 2021

      Sabrina Cohen-Hatton
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Gift from above

      Jun 6, 2024

      Big fat raindrops sploshed into the water around me and I looked up to the sky in delight. It was 1955 and, aged 5, I loved nothing better than venturing out to the bomb craters in the paddock by our home in Manchester, left behind after the war. The

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Monster

      Dec 1, 2022

      Monster
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Lies I Tell My Father

      Feb 10, 2024

      “How’s your job at the newspaper?” my father asks me. He is sitting on a couch, a plush throw blanket spread across his legs. “The newspaper’s fine,” I lie. I lie because it is simple. I lie because it is quick. I lie because it is easier than trying

      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Book

      Oct 30, 2019

      The Book
      20 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      James O’Brien

      May 10, 2021

      James O’Brien
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Letter To My Younger Self

      Dec 13, 2021

      Letter To My Younger Self
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Heavy Heart

      Feb 5, 2022

      Heavy Heart
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Teething Problems

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Teething Problems - Mark Fletcher

      Teething Problems

      Mark Fletcher

      Copyright © 2006 Mark Fletcher

      Smashwords Edition 1.0 September 2009.

      Published by Smashwords.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      For Jason who got up and went to work one day.

      Chapter One

      I’ve got to tell someone. To make it real, you know. I have to. Sorry, I can’t stop moving, it helps me, breathe. The phone call … it’s the closest thing to a beginning to all this.

      Two nights ago.

      Fuck I hate roller coasters.

      I rang her as soon as it happened.

      I know now, …

      *****

      Chapter Two

      It’s my side of the conversation. Okay? You’ll get the rest. Here’s how it went.

      How dare you.

      Of course I’m angry, he was at my front door.

      Because you told me he was coming. You set this up remember.

      He introduced himself.

      Through the door, before I opened it, he called out."

      I heard him say my name.

      No, I didn’t look through the peephole first.

      It distorts things.

      Their heads look all fat. Especially if they peer in.

      This isn’t about peepholes.

      Lies.

      You said he was dead. Or, gone to be with God, I think was your favorite term. That God needed an angel so he took Dad.

      "We celebrated his anniversary, Mother, for years - or cried over it at least. We went to the grave a few times too. How do you account for that?"

      Great, so I get a refund on the tears?

      Well don’t you be smart either.

      Whether he was always alive or not, it doesn’t matter. In my head, my father was dead. There wasn’t a day I didn’t think about him.

      Of course, I was pleased. A kid finds out that his father is not really dead and that he’s been away for some yet to be revealed secret reason. I couldn’t wait to see him no matter how screwy the story sounded …

      He wasn’t the guy in the photos. You lied to me.

      You told me he was alive and I believed you. I’ve always believed you. And now, now that I know, I’m just another fucked up bastard.

      I’ll be angry if I want to be.

      That put on voice isn’t going to help you.

      You are so.

      I’m not a kid reading one of your Walter the Wombat books.

      I’m not putting them down.

      This has as much to do with Walter as it has to do with you and me.

      "Walter is not innocent."

      He’s as real as you and me, Mother.

      To millions. You write wonderful stories. Pity you didn’t keep some of Walter’s wisdom for yourself.

      No, I don’t resent him.

      I don’t resent you.

      I’m proud of your success.

      Fuck Walter!

      "You want to know the sad thing? No one would believe me if I told them what you did."

      Well, tell me about it then.

      Because I know, Mother.

      I know the truth.

      He was fucking standing at my door, practically beating it down.

      No, I didn’t let him in.

      Because I didn’t want to.

      I was in shock …once I realized … At first I thought it was someone else and that HE was still on his way. But then he told me. He introduced himself as my father. He knew me.

      "He looked nothing like Dad, the man in the photo with me."

      So, which one is it, Mother? The man at the door or the man in the photo?

      Don’t! I know they’re not the same man.

      I’m not blind.

      Stop this!

      The door or the photo, Mother?

      Door or photo?

      So, who is the man in the photo?

      I see.

      Well, at least in my fantasy world I’m not a bastard.

      He didn’t know, did he?

      God, you’re a piece of work.

      My world Mother, because of a quick fuck you had one night when some navy was in town. You fucked your brains out and now you’ve fucked my life.

      "You’d been married less than a year for god’s sake."

      So I’m an accident then?

      I’ll feel what I like!

      No, you didn’t think. And with you such a paragon of righteousness now.

      You’re lucky I look more like you than him.

      Forgive? No.

      No!

      Well, don’t ask.

      I’m not going to continue this discussion.

      Goodbye, Mother. No, wait, did you love him?

      "You know who I mean. Did you love him?"

      Just answer the question.

      "I love my dad."

      After she’d kissed me and turned off the light and shut the door, I’d crawl out of bed and look out the window.

      Sometimes I’d just say good night. Other times I’d talk about what I did during the day. Other times I’d tell my secrets.

      It was the best part of the day. Him and me. Perfect.

      *****

      Chapter Three

      Like I said, it’s my side of the conversation. Him turning up at my door is how I found out. I knew my father was coming but I didn’t know it was him.

      No, you don’t need me to tell you her words.

      I’m not hiding anything. I know that with time things can get colored even though it’s only been two days. You have to take it into account is all I’m saying.

      She is my mother. It was always just the two of us. The bond, was, you know, close. Not unhealthy. But close. I trusted her!

      Yeah, poor me. Fuck.

      I never questioned her recollections of our time as a family before …

      She created him - warm and lush stories. By the time I was six or seven he was a superhero. Perfect in every way.

      If she was here you’d believe her too. What’s not to believe? Worldwide bestselling author, good looking, witty, politically active, well dressed but not overdone, a widow who’s had it tough and made good and a mother forever caring about her only child. Perfect.

      People like her more than their own Mother. I’ve heard them say as much!

      And thanks to her Walter the Wombat books, almost everyone on the planet must know her. She’s a star. I’ll choke if another person asks me how she does it. What do I know? Okay, what do I know?

      Ever since she got famous, I’ve been the son of the wombat woman. I know that I don’t look that great, not the ‘part’ for her. I’m not sidekick material.

      From when I can remember I was told he died. It was a veil of sadness over us people would say.

      Mother and I often talked about him until, one day, the subject was forbidden. "Time to move on" she said. But that didn’t stop me thinking about him.

      Oh, secret memories

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1