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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Today's short story #SwappingTheWorldAway


“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!”


Still working on that flash fiction series. CJ may be coming over again this weekend. (I bet you readers have noticed that he comes over a lot. Well that's the point of a best friend after all. Haha.) We'll probably edit my book of course. If you've ever watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 or any show that riffs on something while watching that we kinda edit like that but having fun with both the good and bad parts of it. Tons of shenanigans. We laugh at every part. He rephrases metaphors. Which I'm pretty sure I mentioned he did that before on the blog. Here's a funny specific example. I described something like “rotting meat on charcoal” and then he said “So like a zombie barbecue?” and said to him, “Well when you put it like that...” There are many more funny stories. However they require context and that would require me revealing ideas and the unfortunate part about writing is that until I publish my book I don't have any significant claim to my ideas so I can't share it but I think if I can get the book published I'll share some of the funny stories.


Swapping the World Away


I'm the smart kid. I know big words. School is easy. Boring. I don't bother talking. It's boring. No sense of accomplishment. It's as dull as the rest of the world. Which is why I swap it all out.
Nobody knows what I'm doing because it's all in my imagination. The teachers don't know I'm turning the floor of the classroom into an ocean and our seats into ships. They don't know I've turned the walls and ceiling into a starry night sky. They don't know that their lectures that I already understand are now the noises they make when they jump from the water as dolphins. They don't know any of that.
The kids and the coaches during football don't know I've turned everyone into knights on a battlefield. Baseball becomes a bank robbery or everyone as dueling wizards hitting and catching magic fireballs between each other. When my family drives me to the store I turn into a travel on a rocket ship to Mars. I can't handle the dull world.
Something different happened one day. One of my teachers walked up to me. Mr. Hedge. He spoke with a serious tone of voice. At first I thought I was big trouble.
“Kevin. I can't keep up with your potential. Not without leaving my other students behind. And even then I'm not sure if I could. I'm going to try to get you assigned to advanced classes but what would help you the best is that you became proactive yourself. Here.” Mr. Hedge then handed me a book. It was a kids book titled 100 Totally Awesome Inventors And How They Made The World The Coolest Place Ever “I think this book will show you what can happen if you apply yourself. This book will show you why you apply yourself.” He then smiled. “I'm not just giving this to you though. This is your book report assignment.”
Fast forward through time and not only did I get an A on the book but I eventually became an inventor myself. Instead of swapping out the mundane world for my imaginary world, I changed it. I made it more interesting. I invented the ability to control gravity and methods of atmosphere manipulation. Climate problems are solved and now there are cities are Mars. I got both Mr. Hedge and the original authors of the book to sign it and now it is my most prized possession. And whenever I feel like I can't apply myself further I just look at that book.

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu


Author Comment: I didn't put Scifi or fantasy in the title of the post since I'm not exactly sure it is that much of that kind of story. Sure the main character has an active imagination and he invents stuff at the end, but that's not the premise of the story. But I hoped you all enjoyed at the end. Maybe I'll write something with crazy robot dragons from another dimension that know how to bend time and have sentience beyond mortal men just to balance out the relative normalness of this story. 

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