Flash Fiction

This is the initial inspiration for my narrative project. The concept remains the same where a book of post its is discovered that can create anything, but instead of using them to become cool, two rivals use them to create and feud over “the perfect girl.” My story explores the idea of what might happen when no limitations are put onto what a person can have, and how they might react to this change.

 

Sticky

It was 3:42 when Jon decided to stop waiting for his mom and walk home, and 3:45 when a curious cardboard box changed his day. Glued to his phone screen, Jon didn’t see where it came from, only that it was tossed onto the sidewalk in front of him. He bent and picked the package up, and after looking around to try and find its owner, he took it home, figuring he should try toand find who it belonged to.

All ideas of generosity disappeared, however, when curiosity got the better of him. Jon cut into the small cardboard box, pulling out an even smaller cigar tin. He apprehensively pulled back the top, worrying about what might lay inside his mysterious package. But his fears were assuaged when he finished opening the lid to find a book of Ppost- it’s sitting alone in the vintage metal. Three already filled notes read; “Create a person”, “No Commands”, and  “No Take-Backs!”. While disappointed, he was of the belief that if you were given an opportunity, you took it. After a brief hesitation, he took out a note and pen, and thinking back on the rash of missionaries that had seemingly appeared recently, shrugged and filled out two notes with the word “Mormon”. He took the notes and put them on his door, an action which was almost immediately followed by a knock. Opening his door, he saw two boys his age dressed in a white dress shirts with matching nametags.  They stood, beaming, in his hallway. He recoiled, and quickly shut the door before they could say a word. He tried to tear up the Ppost- its but couldn’t, and thinking quickly, he wrote another with the words “Teenage Boy” followed by, “Interested in Mormonism”. He heard a third pair of feet outside, followed by the start of a conversation that then made it’s way away from his door. Relieved, he turned back to his desk, thinking about how he could use this newfound ability.

The next day, he walked into class with a thick book of Ppost- it’s which he slapped down onto the empty desk next to him. Moments later, Ingrid, a slender, Swedish, foreign exchange student with luxurious blonde hair walked through the door and took the empty desk. Jon smiled to himself. He did however encounter a problem when he found out his conjured classmate had somehow managed to get a boyfriend between her creation and this class. After thinking over the issue, he added a card “Single” to her growing stack. Two weeks later, with a few well-placed notes to stop potential bachelors, he almost had the opportunity to ask out his new desk mate, but not before encountering another problem. This problem, named Sara, sat in the back of the class. Normally shy, he only learned of her after walking into class one day and seeing Ingrid sitting next to her, a different colored note posted on the side of Ingrid’s new desk. After class got out, Jon stomped over to the offending post it and tore it off, reading “New Girl”, “Sits next to Sara”, and a hastily scribbled, “Likes girls”. Following futile attempts to tear up the notes, he rushed home to orchestrate his comeback.

Weeks later, a series of mysterious circumstances allowed Jon to once again be seated next to Ingrid. He had added a note to the now substantial stack of post its reading “Also likes guys”, so now all that was left was to see who she would choose. Or find some way to make it him. After seemingly weeks of indecision from their desk partner, Sara and Jon had their confrontation on, ironically, a Tuesday at 3:43 pm after school. Pulling from their now limited stacks of cards, they conjured a variety of warriors to do battle. Starting innocuously, the fight quickly grew to involve clans of samurai clashing with biker gangs, until eventually both post it note stacks lay empty.

Jon and Sara looked upon their battlefield, now still as both sides had fought to a draw. It was then they saw Ingrid, standing, having seen all that had happened. She looked angrily at the two, the last post it in her hand. On it, she scribbled, “Independent”, before striding off into the distance. Although school slowly returned to normal, Jon and Sara never found out what happened to Ingrid, and the desk between them stayed empty.