Richard tore his house apart trying to find the object of his desire. He knew had one left. He knew it. He’d kept one hidden so that when his need was great it would be there for him to use.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember where he had hidden it.
His dresser drawers were taken out, turned upside down and their contents dumped unceremoniously on the bed. He’d quickly sifted through the scattered contents and then moved on. He had already emptied out his desk drawers, knowing he wouldn’t find it there, but needing a “logical” place to start. After the dresser had been checked thoroughly he moved on to the shelves in his closet. Every box was taken down, dumped out, and picked through.
He was beginning to panic.
Richard had known the day would come. The first time he had been told he was no longer allowed to turn in hand written assignments at school, that everything needed to be written on a computer and sent in via email, or loaded to a shared drive, or somehow otherwise transmitted electronically to receive credit, he had known the day would come when the written word would go extinct. Tragically, he had known that day would happen in his lifetime too.
He’d gone straight out and purchased as many writing instruments (paper, pens, pencils, crayons, paint brushes, paints, parchment, canvas, etc…) as he could afford and stuffed his car beyond capacity. He’d used his resources sparingly over the years, not wanting to ever see the day when he ran out. But that day was nearly upon him anyway. His love for writing, and drawing, and creating by hand, analog if you will, rather than digital, had outweighed his concern for his future needs and one by one, albeit slowly, he had worked through his treasure trove.
Richard tore his house apart trying to find his last pen. As the only person he knew who still deigned to use such an archaic creative instrument, and having not been able to replenish his stores in several years, for all Richard knew it was the last pen in the world.
With a sigh of relief, he released it from the taped hiding spot on the fourth slat from the top underneath his bed-frame and clutched it protectively to his chest. He let his breathing and pulse rate return to normal, crisis averted, and then went to write the last two items on his grocery list.
……….
Word Count: 405
This week’s response to the InMon prompt. I know, I know, it’s another silly one. What can I say? I am Jester after all…
Want to play along?
The Rules
There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.
OR
No really; I need rules!
Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.
The Prompts:
COUNTRY WITHOUT HISTORY
HAPPY HUNTING
WRONG NOTE
THE LAST PEN
THE CROWD GOES “MOO”
Yay! Another tackles “the last pen!”
I liked some of the other ones too (especially “The crowd goes ‘moo'” which instantly made me think of the musical Rent) but this one spoke to the writer in me. 😛
Where do all the pens go anyway? They just vanish.
They run off with the socks… It’s a weird relationship, but they make it work.
I have them. All. Of. Them.
I want them back. But only the black ones. You can keep the blues.
Well, we just have a symbiotic relationship, because I just want the blues (and other colors). Black is so boring.
Can I have some red ones? I have some editing to do…
One. You can have one.
Woohoo! That’s all I need. I don’t have THAT much editing to do. I’m mostly perfect, you know.
What’s a pen?
I think it’s something that is used to secure two things together… sometimes called “straight” and sometimes called “safety.” But, they didn’t teach us those kind of details in jester school, so I’m not really sure.
Hmmm. Cute! Writing for fun. Novel idea.
Writing for fun is the only way to go… well, except to uncover the truth,and some other equal important reasons: therapy, etc… But, yeah, “fun!”
at the very beginning i thought it was going to be a cigarette for an addicted smoker, took a twist and turned into a bit of a take on our society. i love to write with pen as well and can identify with this!
I rarely write with pen and paper anymore… the computer is just so convenient, my hand recalls the multitude of papers written by hand in school, and thanks me for not subjecting it to that kind of punishment too.
Nice science fiction becoming fact, piece. 🙂
Thank you!
HAHAHA! I have stolen all the pens. No one will ever get them back!
Rude… Very, very rude. If I write something about killing zombies will you let me have a couple?
I’m always on board for some zombie killing fun….
ill come back to this and may try and do the inspiration prompt.
Cool. I bet you’ll come up with something great!
I hope so, i am going to read through the rest of the blog that are in my reader and then try and draft something for a few days time.
I got progressively sadder and more despairing as this piece went on, thinking as he finally found it that it would soon run out of ink as well…and then I laughed out loud. Way to break the tension!
😀 Glad you got a laugh out of it. I was pretty happy with that bit of a twist at the end too.
[…] DJMatticus […]