Title: An Ordinary Day
Chapter 1: Fog
Warnings: Nothing of any consequence…. I lied. Blood, ish. And stuff.
Other Notes: This was written as part of my second portfolio for the Writer's Craft course (EWC4U) with Mr. WW. It was pretty fun…. At the end is the snippet of my portfolio reflection that related to this piece of work.
Instructions: Write a short story or flash fiction based on the style presented in "An Ordinary Evening" by Saphire.
It was such a nice day. Of course, I always hated getting up early, but there were times when a reason was good enough to drag me from my slumber before noon. The sun was out for the first time in days, melting all the snow around and creating those giant puddles cars and parents hate and children love.
The fog was expected, normal. The avoidance of the fog also expected, though it was more for safety than anything else. The fog banks could get extremely thick and dangerous. It was a game for us, to see who could go the furthest before we turned back. People would stare at us, wondering what we were doing. Those who knew instead wondered what our parents would say if they caught us. Or, sometimes, commenting what they would do to us if we were their children.
Thankfully, we weren't their children. We were our parent's children, and either they let us play this game, or didn't know about it. For the most part, it was the second option. In this game, we controlled what happened.
This was one of the few days and one of the few reasons I didn't mind getting up. Along with the game, we always turned out to see who would come to monitor the fog, if anyone would venture into it. Today was a special day: we saw two shadows enter the fog, though they hesitated briefly. They were obviously new at this- even we didn't hesitate to enter.
We were somewhat sad to see the fog start to fade, but grateful. We knew that as fun as the fog could be, it could also be extremely dangerous. We had heard enough stories to warn us off staying around the fog for very long.
We turned to go, ready to enjoy the rest of the day. I paused, wanting to see the two who had entered, maybe talk to them. Congratulate them on a good first monitoring session. Nothing untoward had occured- that was always worth some praise. It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing through the wisps of fog left.
I never thought that a human body could contain so much blood.
Reflection
The first story was "An Ordinary Morning: Fog". I had actually written another 'Ordinary Evening' before this, but it relied heavily on inside jokes and ridiculous theories that myself and my group of friends have come up with over the years. I got it, Aracely got it, Jen got it, Kristy got it, and my mom, dad, cousin and other friend, Maggie, did not. This second one made a bit more sense, though I think I disturbed my parents by the ending. The idea of the fog being dangerous actually isn't entirely mine- I must admit, I have been, and probably always will be, a digimon fan. The third season, called 'Tamers', was actually fairly philosophical once you get over the usual childish 'the heroes must save the day… again!' thing. One of the major points was the value of life, as well as the usual existential questions and interpersonal relationships. In 'Tamers', when a creature (digimon or otherwise) biomerged, or emerged in the human world, it would do so in a thick fog bank. The fog wasn't necessarily the dangerous part, though it was made up of particles that could burn your eyes and eat away at your skin should you stay in it long enough. I liked that idea of something so normal suddenly being so dangerous, and felt that the 'Ordinary Evening' assignment was a great place to use that idea.