Peter Grimes was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, before earning an MFA in creative writing from the University of Florida. He was the Stanley Elkin scholar at the 2009 Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and his story “Victoria” won Second Place in Narrative’s Spring 2010 Story Contest. A 2011 graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a PhD in creative writing, narrative theory, and Southern literature, Grimes lives with his wife in Cincinnati.


SECOND PLACE WINNER


Victoria

A Story

by Peter Grimes

Some things you want because they’re not yours. Other people’s candy, houses, spouses. You either keep wanting them till death or somehow get them out of your system. I read about a guy here in Bangor who lived in a mansion attic for three years, unknown to its residents. Each night he’d sneak down to the living quarters and lounge on the divan, make a pimento cheese sandwich, even play with the toddler’s toys. In prison, he’s very unhappy.

Exodus 20:17 says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” That book was written by people who had what they wanted. It might be a good book, but what can I say? I’m covetous of my rich and worldly neighbor, Jefferson. And he’s not accommodating.

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