ON THE FRINGES OF THE FRACTAL

GREG VAN EEKHOUT

I was working the squirt station on the breakfast shift at Peevs Burgers when I learned that my best friend's life was over.

The squirt guns were connected by hoses to tanks, each tank containing a different slew formula. Orders appeared in lime-green letters on my screen, and I squirted accordingly. Two Sausage Peev Sandwiches was two squirts from the sausage slew gun. An order of Waffle Peev Sticks was three small dabs of waffle slew. The slew warmed and hardened on the congealer table, and because I'd paid attention during the twenty-minute training course and applied myself, I was knew just when the slew was ready. I was a slew expert.

Sherman was the other squirter on duty that morning. The orders were coming in fast and he was already wheezing on account of his exercise-induced asthma. His raspy breaths interfered with my ability to concentrate. You really have to concentrate because after four hours of standing and squirting there's the danger of letting your mind wander and once you do that you can lose control of the squirts and end up spraying food slew all over the kitchen like a fire hose.

"Wasted slew reflects badly on you," said one of the inspirational posters in the employee restroom.

"What's eating you, Sherman?" I asked, squirting eggs.

He squirted out twelve strips of bacon. "Nothing. Don't worry about it. Not your problem."

I'd known Sherman for a long time. We'd grown up as next-door neighbors, went to the same schools, had the same teachers. This year we were both taking Twenty-Five Places That Will Blow Your Mind (geography) and Six Equations You Won't Believe (pre-college math) and You'll Have Itchy Eyes After Reading These Heartbreaking Stories (AP English). We did everything together, and even though he was a little higher stat than I was, he never made me feel weird about it.

"C'mon, Sherman. Don't just stand there squirting in silent pain. Tell your pal Deni what's wrong."

He wheezed a while longer, really laboring. Then, like a miserable little volcano, he let it out: "My family lost stat yester