Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
F Trope: hunter
hunts Humans
In a world with
seven billion people, there aren’t many frontiers left. There aren’t places for
people who want to “make their lives meaningful” to go. There’s no ground to
break.
This is what
Behiye Ozan’s parents think. Emigrated from Turkey, they came to the US to
start a new life. It happened, but that life included them living in a crappy
apartment in a crappy neighborhood and her going to a crappy school.
She wants
something better. She joined the basketball team, but the team is so bad, it’s
a city-wide laughingstock. She tried theater and choir with the same result.
Now it’s her senior year and the only college she’s liable to go to – despite her
straight-A average and being captain of both the basketball team and the lead
in the spring play, ANTIGONE, there’s simply no money for her to go. The
economy is bad and she’s desperate.
While taking the
bus home from school, she gets off at the corner store, a health food and
natural food place. She tried to get a job there once, but they weren’t hiring.
In front of the door is a wide cylinder with corkboard on it where it seems
everyone in the neighborhood staples, tapes, or nails posters.
Waiting for her
next bus, she notices a small, white note card near the bottom of the riotously
colored cylinder. On it, in block letters, are the words, “Feel Hunted?”
She blinks in
surprised – she’s NEVER felt hunted. NEVER had the feeling anyone wanted her,
not even her parents. What would it be like to have someone after her, intent
on finding her, WANTING to catch her?
She squats down
and reads, “FEEL HUNTED? I am a wizard in search of a quarry. To pass into the
next level of wizardry, I must find a person whose sole purpose is to hide form
me. I will use no black magic, only Earth magic. If you are interested, email
me at earthsyoungwizard@gmail.com”
She takes the
card from the cylinder. It seems to cling to the surface, but with a tug, it
comes free. Behiye pulled out her cellphone as the bus arrived and she absently
got on, staring at the cellphone screen. As the doors snapped closed behind
her, she sat down in her usual seat, typed, “I’d be interested”, entered the
address – and sent it…
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