I'm trying to work on some short fiction that centers around a brief section of life. I'm trying to go for events that happen to a lot of people. Unfortunately, I've been out of contact with a lot of things for a while, so it's a little difficult to recreate things that didn't specifically happen to me. Anyway, I wrote these two last night. They both center around recent times in my life.
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I
Alex woke to uncomfortable warmth. He slid out of the covers and turned off the space heater. With two hours until work, he made breakfast for himself and with enough time, he played his latest video game.
At work he felt fine. He was comfortable with his job performance and the people he worked with. He grinned wildly and laughed with his co-workers at the world around them. Every day he would walk into the warehouse doors and feel alright.
He worked hard, very hard, because he knew he had to. Because that is what a man does with his life. He was okay being a simple labourer.
At home he watched movies and thought about things that happened or could happen.
Sometimes, he thought about a few years back when he was a writer. He wrote a brief, but touching short story about people and their place in the world. A popular magazine published it and for a moment he was truly successful. Just enough for himself.
When he laid down on his bed, turned on his space warmer, and got comfortable he would think about doing it again.
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II
There was a lost feeling inside, where it was that he existed, but he didn't really know why.
He drove to the district mall and looked at things. A book he had read a good review about, a CD that was by an artist he enjoyed, a new pillow that needed replacing.
He looked and thought and somehow he couldn't get it in his head to commit to them. He bought them all and more things he didn't need.
By the time he got home, he had bags from many different stores. He purchased a vareity of things that didn't mean anything. And in the car in his driveway, he felt that he and these items all had something in common.
When he walked in a shop and couldn't find anything, it only perpetuated the feeling. A warm clerk who he says "no thanks" to and a nice girl he thinks "maybe I could talk to her".
A young child looks lost and the man comes up and says "are you okay, little boy?"
The child says "i need my momma"
He smiles and takes him to the information desk. After warm 'thank yous', he leaves the store.
He sits in his car in the parking lot and thinks "Where do I go now?"
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Some Ideas
Some things I have written.
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