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.
H Trope: Attack
of the Killer Whatever
Current Event: “In
various Stephen King short stories, he has had people attacked by novelty
chattering teeth, paintings, a toy monkey, evil toads... If it can be seen as
even vaguely creepy by anybody in the Western world, chances are it's killed
somebody in a Stephen King story.”
Liam Johnson
held his Kindle, staring down at it.
Sophia Smith,
sitting next to him, said, “What are you waiting for?”
The roar of
voices in the lunch room was almost deafening. He didn’t hear her – or didn’t respond
– until she nudged him.
When he looked
over at her, there wasn’t any color in even HIS usually pasty face. His
freckles, even now that he was fifteen, still stood out on his face like
spaghetti sauce blotches. At least he’d got his hair cut super short over
winter break, Sophia thought with approval. The red stuff at shoulder length
had been almost too much to stand! He said, “The last time I read a new Stephen
King book, I almost died.”
Sophia shook her
head and took a bite of her taco salad then made a face. “The food didn’t get
any better over break, I’ll tell you that much. Why can’t they just order out
from Taco Bell?”
“You’re not
listening to me!” Liam said.
“Sure I am – the
last time you read this guy’s book, you almost pissed yourself.”
“I didn’t say
that. I said I almost DIED.”
Shaking her
head, she toasted him with another forkful of salad and said, “Whatever.”
He stood up
abruptly, looking down at her with the strangest look then said, “I gotta go.”
“Go where? It’s
the first day of a new semester. You don’t have any homework.” She sighed, he
could be almost as dramatic as her friends. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled
him down on his chair again. “OK – let’s start at the beginning.”
The cafeteria
was jammed and someone had been moving in on Liam’s seat when she pulled him
back. If it had been another freshman, she wouldn’t have bothered, but the look
the guy was shooting at her was deadly. She grabbed her lunch tray without
letting go of Liam and said, “This was making me sick, anyway.” She tossed it
into the nearby garbage can and towing him after her, made her way to the
stairwell.
The supervisor
knew them both and waved them through. When the door shut behind them, muted to
a dull roar, she said, “The last story this guy wrote almost killed you…” she paused.
He wouldn’t meet
her eye, looking down at his ereader. Finally he lifted his chin and said, “Listen,
I know it sounds crazy, but his stories...they’re somehow linked to me.”
“You mean like ‘Stranger
Than Fiction’ linked to you?”
He make as if he
were thinking, then shook his head, “Not that closely linked.” He pursed his
lips, sucked the top one between his teeth then said, “I love reading…”
“Duh!” she said,
slugging him softly on the shoulder. “I do, too.”
“Nah, you like
your Ebony and Essence,” he held up one hand defensively, “Not that that’s bad!
You’re like my only friend that reads as much as me, but,” he looked down
again, “When I read a Stephen King book or story, I get sucked into it. I can’t
explain it, exactly. It’s like the book is about me, but not about me. That’s
why I don’t dare read his newest one...which I got for Christmas...which I can’t
NOT read...which, if I do is gonna kill me. Like, for real...”
She grabbed his
Kindle, cussing, and thumbed it on. The cover of the book showed a guy who
looked like he was delivering mail in a tornado. In bold, red letters across
the bottom – smaller than Stephen King’s name in bolder, redder letters across
the top, was the word, MAIL…”
Names: ♀ ; ♂
Most common US names 2014
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