"The first time I saw him naked, I noticed the cuts."

I had read this story before, and was reminded of it when I was getting the links together for the review of One of Us. Afflicted is an powerful story that is difficult for me to read for many personal reasons. It brings me to tears each time I read it. It is powerful and deals with a subject that few are willing to talk about, and even fewer are willing to write about. It is short, even for a short story, at a little over 3,000 words, but is filled with emotional depth and intensity. Anyone who has loved someone that is intent on hurting themselves will understand this story and what the college student feels when he discovers his boyfriend is a cutter.

"I felt helpless in his arms, knowing that no matter how tightly I held onto him, he'd still manage to hurt himself when I wasn't looking. Why he'd do it was beyond me. How could I ever hope to stop something I didn't understand in the first place?"

This story is brilliantly written. There are no names for the two young men. There are the cuts on one man's skin, both fresh cuts and old scars. There are the emotions from both of the students: on one side embarrassment, weakness, shame, sadness, worthlessness and pain while on the other fear, anger, desperation and helplessness. It is narrated by the lover who discovers the cuts. We hear from him as he tries to understand and desperately looks for a way to make his boyfriend stop hurting himself. There is no easy fix when a person is a cutter, and J.M. does not provide one for her characters but what she does give them is hope and faith. J.M. has crafted a story that looks at the depths of love, and the lengths one is willing to go to help the person they love. It is a powerful and thought-provoking story that deserves to be read by everyone.

http://emily83176.livejournal.com/226... ( )

J.M. Snyder could make you laugh, like in The Positions of Love series, but when she decides to make you cry, well she does a very good job!

In this short story, less then 15 pages, the two characters don't have a name. They are Lover and Cutter for me. Lover is a good boy, an head to heart boy, I could think at him like an athlete or some other All American boy. And he loves Cutter. Cutter is a shy guy, maybe with some unresolved conflicts in his life, perhaps with his family. He loves Lover, but sometime, in the long hour of night, he is so lonely and he feels a great pain, and he has to exorcize that pain. He cuts himself, hoping that the physical pain helps him to forget the mental one.

Will Lover be enough strong for both of them to save his little Cutter?

A very short story, but you have to read it, it's heartbreaking.