Matt Valerio Clay Hope Galloway

2020 Nason Smith Lit Prize

Images annually awards The Nason Smith Lit Prize to a Delgado student with exceptional literary talent. The prize includes publication & acknowledgement in Images, a $100 award, 10 broadsides posted around campus, and 2 broadsides given to the winner. Nason Smith was a faculty member and exceptional literary talent who passed in 2016. He was a devoted Grateful Dead listener so a quote from the song, “Box of Rain,” seems fitting: “Such a long, long time to be gone / And a short time to be there.” For 2020’s prize, the student editors have chosen Matt Valerio’s short story, “Clay.” Enjoy the ride!

CLAY Matt

Valerio

They were walking up an orange dune. The sun shone so brightly it seemed to be punishing the sand around them. The strange green cacti-like plants were every 10 feet. The deep green offered quite a contrast to the dark red clay that made up the ground. These were the only things they could see - clay, sand, cacti, clay, sand, cacti. The galaxy’s sun had rings surrounding it, which eerily caused each cacti to have two shadows. They stopped walking He put his pack on the ground to use to hold his back up while he lay

once they made it down the hill.

down. Before he did, he grabbed a cigarette from one of the many backpack pockets.

“Can I have one?” she asked.

He paused and said, “Why don’t you smoke some of that other stuff you brought?”

“I’m rationing it. It’s the only thing that helps me sleep. Who knows how much longer we’ll be here?”

His face muscles tightened, and he reluctantly pulled another cigarette

out of the pack. “I’m running a bit low. Try to enjoy it instead of inhaling it like a vacuum, okay?”

“I’ll do my best,” she said as she grabbed it from his outstretched hand. She lit up her cigarette and sat up a little bit.

She smirked, “Do you ever question why us? It’s almost comedic. We had all the characteristics they were looking for: husband and wife team, no children, no qualms about accepting the invitation. All the right ingredients to be exploited. You should be angry they took advantage of us like this.”

The wind blew her flowing, quite wild looking brown hair into her face. As she stared at him, there was a tsunami brewing in her eyes. He looked at her, almost mesmerized. He snapped out of it, reached into his pack, and pulled out his pocketsized Bible. As she saw him doing this, she knew exactly what he’d say. She rolled her eyes and said “unbelievable.” He flipped through and read “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”

He closed the book and looked at her.

She looked dumbfounded, and said “we’re scientists. Our entire profession is built on questioning. Now you suddenly don’t want to question anything.”

“I’m choosing to question things that matter. You wondering and complaining about the unfairness of it all does us no good.”

“I think our time away from Earth has turned you into a fanatic” she said.

“And I think our time away from Earth has turned you into a cynic. When I first met you, you were starry-eyed and full of belief in the importance of our mission. Find a new place for humans to live, somewhere full of untouched resources.”

“I don’t see any resources here.”

“That’s why we came here: to see if it was a viable option. It’s not, so let’s make it to the mountain so we can tell them we’re ready to make the journey home.”

She sighed and surveyed the area in front of them. Looking past the dunes and the cacti-like plants peppering the landscape, about 30 miles away, was the mountain they were supposed to make it to. The ice on the top third of it reflected the sun, making the snow look so white she couldn’t look at it for an