Short Story Week: Day Three -Thinking Inside the Box

This was from day one of my second nanowrimo back in 2008. I had no idea what I was going to write, so I just let a character voice happen. I wound up liking this passage, but I honestly don't know what to do with it. So it's here instead.

As a little bonus today (since this one is so short) I was going through all my notes and stumbled across a silly anecdote about a dancer who was attempting to break a world record, in duration, by performing a Mobius Striptease. On the plus side she was able to perform it publicly, since even though she was constantly disrobing she was never actually exposing herself. And logically, the record could never be broken, once set. The downside of course was that the record technically COULDN'T be set.

I think that's probably a story best left without an ending. 

Thinking Inside the Box

I love walking into an empty room for the first time. There's nothing but potential. It can be a maze, a dungeon, a tomb, a prison, or a sanctuary. Yes! A sanctuary! I KNOW that was a sentence fragment. Do you want to check spelling as well? You're not looking at the room. Look at it!

You don't see a sanctuary? Then what do you see? I know you see nothing. What did I just say? I said the room was empty. Look at what isn't in the room. NOT ME! The room! What would you put in it?

Me? I wouldn't put anything in it. I love an empty room. Except I love being in an empty room. So I wouldn't put anything in it except for me.

Okay. I'm in the room now, so stop looking at me. Look at what isn't in the room. That means anything but me. What potential does this room hold for you? What belongs in this room? How about a rug? That would be pleasurable to lay on. To lie on.

Stop correcting my sentences! And look at the room! Forget the rug. What else can we put in the room? How about boxes? Empty boxes. I love empty boxes! They have nothing but potential. You can crawl into an empty box and it becomes your sanctuary. You can change the world from inside a box. You can put a whole world in a box. In the room.

Suppose the room is a box. Better yet, suppose the room is inside a box. It's like a box inside another box. Now what if they're the same box, and you climb out of the box only to find yourself still inside the box. Now what if you continued climbing outward only to find another room? Another box? And another? Are you trapped forever, or are you merely in the process of a perpetual escape?

Then what if you went the other way? Would you be hiding forever or would you be searching for that ever elusive treasure? The heart of all boxes. The center of all rooms.

What would be the point? It's the journey! Damn it! It's not how far you get, it's how you get there. It's why you get there. It's if you get there. And of course you get there, because you're already there. But because getting where you are is a struggle, that gives it meaning. All meaning has a struggle. If there's no struggle, there's no meaning.

But if you want it easy, then the room is empty.

It stays empty.

You're not listening.


I hate you.