“Sally Pinkerton was Here” — a free short story by Nat Weaver
Sally Pinkerton is about to graduate high school and she wants nothing more than to stay connected with her best friends in this short story by Nat Weaver.
Genre: Young Adult.
Rated PG: Mild teenage mean girl behavior.
Hello, and welcome! I have another free short story for the Library. You can read it in this post or download it as an ebook and read it on your favorite reading device. This time around, I’m sliding in with a piece I wrote several months back and have been sitting on. It was a special experience for me to write it and I explain that in the author’s note below — the author’s note is also included in the ebook, if you’d rather read it that way.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sally Pinkerton was Always There.
Dear reader, you’ve just read a story I never intended to write. Sally Pinkerton was never meant to be a main character or even a supporting character. She was always intended to be a reference, a name in passing. In the early 2000s, likely 2005 to be precise, I started dabbling back into short stories again while making indie films. As a writer, I tend to put a lot into choosing names, even when the role is small or a one-off character. I also sometimes write flashback moments for a main character, bits of nostalgia – a memory – to another time with some character that isn’t part of the main plot, but a part of the character’s past. In 2005, this was a new tool in my writing, and after I did it a handful of times, I became annoyed. I realized I was throwing away good names. The names I developed for these reference characters would only ever be used once. This infuriated me and I thought long about a solution to my problem. The solution I came up with was a bit of a running gag, I suppose, but I developed the name Sally Pinkerton as a disposable character that would appear and reappear throughout my works. I would never write her, I would never flesh her out in her own story, she would just exist for those nostalgia moments where I needed a disposable name. And thus, Sally Pinkerton was there.
Sally has made appearances in short stories, at least one book thus far, articles, blog posts, monologues, and even my standup comedy routine. Sally has been coming and going through the lives of my characters’ stories for 20 years. And what better way to celebrate Sally than by making her the main character for once?
One thing that’s been fascinating about Sally Pinkerton through the years is that most memories of her have been positive. The characters who remember her for a moment almost always remember her in a positive way, the two of them having fun together. Just living their best lives over a game of pool as teens or whatever. So, if you see Sally out there, tell her she’s remembered fondly and by many people. Tell her she’s left positive footprints all through this world. She may not be the main character, and you may not be either, but there are people out there who remember you with a warm smile. And if I had to leave you with one morsel of wisdom today, it would be to remember to thank people. Remember to tell them they mattered to you. People need that. Especially the Sally Pinkertons of the world.
Thank you for the memories, Sally. Here’s to 20 more years of good ones.
Be good to each other.
Download.
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Copyright © 2025 by Nat Weaver.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or used in the training of AI, for either commercial or non-commercial purposes. For permission requests, write to Nat Weaver, with subject “Sally Pinkerton was Here by Nat Weaver” at the following email address: nat@weaver.wtf.
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To all the Sally Pinkertons of the world. We love you.
Sally Pinkerton was Here
A short story by Nat Weaver
Sally Pinkerton only had one month of high school left before graduation from Herbert Hoover High School and as graduation grew nearer, she kept thinking about her friends. She didn’t want to lose her friends as everyone went their separate ways. All through school, Sally had always been moving in and out of people’s lives. Her father was in the army, so she never knew when he was going to get new orders, and they were going to have to pack up and move away from her friends again. She felt like she was a side character in everyone else’s story. Disposable. That she would enter, serve some small purpose for them, but then disappear and the movie audience of life wouldn’t even notice her absence. She had served her purpose as a supporting role to some lead character in some story she wasn’t allowed to be a part of in any meaningful way.
She determined this time would be different. She was going to get her friends’ email addresses, and they were going to stay in contact. When they came back home for holidays, they’d email and meet up. They’d talk about life, school, and partners – or in her case the lack thereof – over pie and coffee. They’d laugh and everything would be just as it used to be.
She sat in a bathroom stall and looked with teary eyes at a piece of paper with two email addresses on it. They belonged to her two best friends over the last year of high school: Stacey and Mona. She was really going to make it happen, she was going to change things, stay in contact with friends. For life. Forever. She was going to be a main character in her story. These were her supporting characters. She felt a warmth rush her body like warm water pouring over her from head to toe. She felt as if she was in a warm bath of the fuzzies.
The door to the bathroom opened and she heard two girls enter laughing. She recognized the two distinct laughs as belonging to her friends. She smiled.
“Oh my god, Mona,” Stacey continued some conversation that had started outside of the bathroom, “Did you see the look on Sally’s face?”
“Yes,” Mona laughed. “She looked like she was gonna cry.”
“The way she rushed off, I bet she is crying somewhere,” Stacey added.
Mona let out a belly laugh and turned on a sink. She was brushing her teeth after breakfast in the cafeteria where Sally had gotten their addresses.
Sally didn’t feel warm anymore. She was getting goosebumps and started to shiver. In the belly of her stomach, she could feel her anxiety knocking at the door.
“I will never understand Sally,” Stacey said. “She’s pathetic. Like a little, lost puppy. Not sure where to go, not sure who to turn to, and attaching to anyone she comes in contact with as if she has known them her whole life.”
Mona spit out toothpaste with a laugh. “Don’t make me laugh while I’m brushing.”
Sally turned her head and watched them through the crack between the stall door and wall. Stacey wrapped her arms around Mona and started humping her leg like a dog.
“Guess who I am!” Stacey yelled and barked like a dog. Mona laughed and pushed her off, but Stacey came back humping her leg again. She howled.
Mona pushed her off and with her toothbrush dangling from her mouth, she said, “I didn’t give her my real email address. It’s my throwaway for websites.”
“Oh, my god, same!” Stacey screamed and they both laughed.
Sally stared at the email addresses on the piece of crumpled paper in her hand. Clumsily written and just like their friendship — fake. Those email addresses on that paper were a symbol of their friendship — disposable. She swung open the stall door and it hit with a bang. The girls stopped laughing and looked at her. They looked horrified. Sally walked to the sink and dropped the paper in it. She ran water over it and the ink bled off the paper a black liquid that trickled down the sink like alien goop from an episode of “The X-Files.” She spat on it and turned to leave. As she reached the door, she looked back at the two girls she thought were her friends. She had been a side character in their lives, just like all the past friendships she’d known. She was still living her life like a nondescript cameo in a bad movie.
“I’ll see you in Hell,” Sally said and glided out of the bathroom and their lives. That was the last time she spoke to Stacey and Mona.
The End
Please sound off in the comments to let me know what you thought of “Sally Pinkerton was Here.” Have you known any Sally Pinkertons? Have you ever felt like a Sally Pinkerton? Should I be writing more young adult stuff?
