Short Story Review: "Heartburn" by Stefan Bourque

Stefan Bourque's short story "Heartburn" is available on his website, www.darkwriter.com as a free download. You can download it for free here.

"Heartburn" is a weird little short story written by horror author, Stefan Bourque. It is distinctly different from Bourque's previous short horror stories, as "Heartburn" takes a turn into the drama genre. Although one could argue that "Heartburn" contains no plot, it is a great story nonetheless. In fact, the lack of a plot serves to make this story that much more believable as a real-life event.

The beginning of the story opens with a couple driving over to Mattie's house, an acquaintance of Alex, to do some shrooms. The girl, Rebecca, is clearly uncomfortable with the situation, as she struggles against her guilt-induced Catholic upbringing. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Alex, sees no big deal with what they are about to do and secretly wishes that Rebecca would loosen up.

The awkwardness continues once the couple arrives at Mattie's house, and it carries through until all three begin to feel the effects of the shrooms. Suddenly, shy Rebecca turns into a chatterbox and carries on a lively conversation with Mattie. Meanwhile, Alex begins to suffer from heartburn, one of the side effects he experiences when he does shrooms.

After several hours, Alex's heartburn is no better, so the couple take their leave for the evening. Rebecca realizes she left her purse inside the house, so Alex waits out in the car for her while she goes back inside to retrieve it. He waits what he feels is more than a reasonable amount of time, and then heads to the house to find out what is taking so long. What he witnesses next leaves him feeling perplexed and dumb-founded. Stefan Bourque describes this scene perfectly with a dream-like quality and the reader gets the sense of having gone on a little trip themselves, wondering if the event actually happened or if it was a trick of the imagination. In the end, the term "heartburn" takes on new meaning.

"Heartburn" ends with little to no resolution, but with many questions instead, again lending a realistic quality to this story that some people will find frustrating. Other people will enjoy the ending that does not neatly tie up loose ends but instead leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. I personally liked this little adventure into new territory and feel that Bourque's foray into a genre besides horror holds great promise.