Sunburn by Laura Stamps

“Dear Elaine,” she writes on a new postcard. “I used to drink in high school. I did. Not my fault. The drinking. It was JoBeth. She started it. Best friends in high school. Yes, we were. Went to Daytona Beach together our senior year. Spring break. I’ll never forget it. Two days on the sand, and we were burned to a crisp. Lobsters. That would be us. JoBeth said bathing in milk was good for sunburn. Prevents peeling. Okay, then. Off to the 7-Eleven we went. JoBeth bought a carton of milk and two beers. I bought a jar of Noxzema. (I‘d heard it was better for sunburn.) In the car she gave me one of the beers. Said she bought it for me. I didn’t drink. But we were eighteen. And legal. Okay, then. Why not? That first beer. Tasted like pond scum. (How could I do something so stupid?) Three days later I was drinking like a pro. Tasted great. All of it. Beer (lots of that). Drinks with tiny bamboo umbrellas. Wine spritzers. Margaritas. Anything. Everything. I tried it. Loved it. All of it. By the end of the week JoBeth looked like a tanned goddess. Not me. I was peeling like an orange. (Noxzema? Total fail.) A year later I stopped drinking. Started dating a drug addict. (How could I do something so stupid?) No brain cells back then. None. Obviously. I blame it all on the beer.” 

 

 Laura Stamps loves to play with words in her fiction and prose poetry. Author of 49 novels, novellas, short story collections, and poetry books. Forthcoming: “The Good Dog” (Prolific Pulse Press 2023) and “Addicted to Dog Magazines” (Impspired, 2023). Recipient of a Pulitzer Prize nomination and 7 Pushcart Prize nominations.