Here’s a snippet of a fictional short story I started and didn’t finish — inspired by The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. I’ve left it exactly as I wrote it near Halloween in 2023. Not sure I’ll ever finish it, but Edward deserves some screen time.

We begin with Edward’s first day of Senior year in a psychology class.

Chapter One: Edward

Edward hated the nickname “Ed”. He especially hated the nickname “Eddy”. Ed was bad enough, shortening both a beautiful and professional-sounding name. Eddy was worse; it tried to enhance Ed. Unfortunately for Edward, he grew up being called Ed by many, especially his teachers. It was never with intention or with disdain, but Edward hated the first day of a new school year. His senior year, however, he was pleasantly surprised.

Edward enjoyed human psychology. It wasn’t simply the study of why people called others by ridiculous nicknames; Edward enjoyed learning the Latin names of brain systems and identifying their job functions. He felt that one day he would become a most well-known psychologist with a unique and well-published theory. On the first day of senior year at Brennet High, Edward entered the classroom after preparing himself to be disappointed. Sitting neither in the front nor in the back, Edward found the most centric desk. 

Chapter Two: Mr. Jasper

After settling in, the professor arrived. Mr. Jasper was the first Hispanic educator in the Brennet school district. Comprised mainly of white students, the school board had felt the staff should represent that distinction. Mr. Jasper had studied dozens of psychologists. He had, of course, received a degree, but he was mainly self-taught. When he walked into the board room, he instantly recognized the types of people inside. He saw a representative who was envious of the superintendent. The treasurer was clearly involved in something illicit. And the vice chair was into the secretary. Mr. Jasper played them all. And when the board had finished their banter, they awarded Mr. Jasper the position of psychology teacher.

Mr. Jasper set a stack of books on his desk. Many students watched him do this but instantly moved their gaze up to Mr. Jasper. Not interested in actually learning anything, but also fascinated by the color of Mr. Jasper’s skin. Edward was the only student to settle his gaze on the names of the authors: B. F Skinner, Abraham Maslow, Jean Piaget, Alfred Adler, and Ivan Pavlov. Mr. Jasper noticed this, observed Edward dressed in a sweater vest and tie, and knew Edward completely.

“We’ll begin the roll. Maggie?”

“Here.”

“Drew?”

“Present.”

Edward tensed.

“Edward?”

Edward’s eyes nearly exploded. His throat tightened. 

“Edward?”

“Uh, here.”

Edward looked at Mr. Jasper, who moved on to Pat. And for the first time in his life, Edward felt seen. Not looked at and quickly passed over. He felt seen. Mr. Jasper finished his roll call and slowly scanned the room. He figured out several psychological tendencies in his students.

Chapter Three: The Offer

“There are fifteen of you. I can see nine don’t care to be here. Four of you are going to fail. Two of you will grow up to live on the streets. And one of you will become a great psychologist one day,” Mr. Jasper simply scanned the room again as he said this. He twisted his mustache thoughtfully.

“I am going to make an offer to the class,” Mr. Jasper sat on his desk, propped up by the tip of his toe, “For those of you who don’t care about psychology and simply want the elective credit, I will give you all between an 80 and an 85 for the semester. You will not need to do much work. And all I ask is you do not disrupt class. If this works for you, I’ve created a contract for you to sign. Please pick one up from my desk here and fill it out.”

As Mr. Jasper had declared just prior, nine students shot up. They crowded Mr. Jasper’s desk, cramming to fill out the contracts. Edward watched, certainly surprised at the following events. When the commotion had concluded, Mr. Jasper filed the contracts in his satchel. He approached the blackboard and picked up chalk to write his name.

“I am Mr. Jasper,” he said, “welcome to Human Psychology 101. If you signed a contract, you will neither speak during class or disrupt us in any other way. To the remaining six of you: this is our class. Our job will be to understand why nine of your classmates jumped at the deal when you’ll do the same amount of work for a 100.”

This admission earned a few yelps from the group of nine. Mr. Jasper withdrew the contracts from his satchel. “Pat, Amy, Ren: that outburst cost you one point, as per the contracts you signed.” Mr. Jasper penciled a dash on each of their contracts. “Now, Edward, why do you think your classmates took the deal?”

Chapter Four: Frankie

Edward felt the gazes of fourteen senior high kids pouring onto him. None were more harsh than Frankie’s. Edward had known since the fourth grade that Frankie’s real name was Frankfurt. His parents honored their hometown by naming their kid after it. Frankie hated it. So he demanded to be called Frankie. One time, Edward called Frankie by his full name, believing it to be more respectful. Edward wound up in the nurse’s office, and Frankie got suspended for piledriving Edward into the woodchips.

Edward hesitated despite knowing the answer. He rubbed his finger along the small scar on his chin from that day on the playground.

“Well, Edward? Your thoughts?” Mr. Jasper didn’t give him a way out.

“This is an elective, which is historically supposed to be easy. Most of us are here to fulfill a credit with minimum effort,” Edward thought his use of “us” would move him closer to his peers.

“Don’t include yourself with us,” Frankie said. “We know you’ve read all those books on Mr. Jasper’s desk.”

“Minus one point, Frankie,” Mr. Jasper sighed, dashing a mark on the contract.

“Those contracts are stupid,” Frankie shouted.

“Another point. And I’d remind you that you signed the ‘stupid’ contracts.”

Frankie moved his eyes back to Edward, stinging him with hatred.

Who knows if I’ll return to Edward or Mr. Jasper, but this is as far as I got.

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