White Flag, Isle of Wight, 2007
Word Play
“What do you write in there?”
“Lots of things, sometimes I write stories, sometimes poems, sometimes just ideas”
“But that book is tiny! You can’t write a story in that!”
“I can. A very short story. You know, I wonder if it’s possible to write a story in one word? Have you got a one word story?”
“Um… no.”
“Haha, there’s one! I think I’ve got one: ‘Wow’”
“‘Wow?’”
“‘Wow’”
“What about ‘Cool’? Or ‘Exciting’?”
“What’s the story behind ‘Exciting’? Would the characters say it? What’s it about?”
“I don’t know. How about ‘Enchanted’?”
“‘Enchanted’? Isn’t that a film?”
“Not the film. The people in the story would say ‘This place is enchanted’.”
“Would they though? Surely it’s just normal for the people who live there?”
“Maybe. How about Peterborough?”
“That’s a very dull story.”
“England.”
“Probably a sweet little story that one.”
“ENG-GER-LUND!”
“Ah. Maybe not”_________and the girl across the aisle reminds me of someone I used to know, someone striking and beautiful but also utterly human. She looks at my little sister and I playing word games and winks at her. The sun starts to shine from behind the clouds as we leave the groggy, grim north and get closer to home.
© Matthew Sheret, 2008
