Staying In

by Nathalie Boisard-Beudin

The pressure started early: Get out (join the race)! But he wanted nothing of it, so comfy was he in his perfect nest, safe and warm. If each of us is really a unique specimen, he thought, why must we all behave the same way? It was thus decided: he would not be just a random and insignificant member of the outside world; he would be the one that would have dared to stay in the room. Nobody had told him that this was not an option. When they finally opened a door into his world, he was declared still-born.

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Nathalie Boisard-Beudin, whose full catalog is here, is French but currently lives in Rome, Italy. Most of her writing is done in English, her second – and working – language. She works as in-house lawyer for the European Space Agency and has published micro-stories in the multi national anthology Wonderful World of Worders.