A Missing Thing by G.A.M.

Star hit Marco's door loudly but did not wait to go into his room.

"Good morning, Marco!"

"Good morning, Star. But what did you and I talk about? You can't just burst into my room. What if I had no pants on?" Marco said putting on his top.

"Oh! Sorry." a blushing Star said. "Um, Marco? Can I talk to you?"

"What did you do now?"

"Why would you ask that so quickly, Marco?" Star said trying to look hurt.

"Star…"

"Alright, alright. What would you say if I took a thing that I had no right in taking?"

Marco now had a look of disapproval.

"Why would you do that, Star?"

Marco saw Star shrug. "I don't know why. It was wrong and I can't justify why I did it."

"Put it back, Star. Just put it back."

"I totally would, but I sort of can't."

"Why not?"

"I took it with my wand. But I was just playing around, Marco!"

"And what did your mom say to you about playing around with your wand?"

"My mom said, 'Don't'."

"So, you took this thing using magic?"

"Uh-huh."

"So why can't you just put it back with magic too?"

"I kind of… don't know what it was, Marco."

"You took a thing and you don't know what it was?"

"My magic took it from my past thoughts too."

"You forgot what it was."

"Yup."

"So, how do you know this thing is missing?"

"I just know. In fact, I think my wand took that thing totally out from this world. That thing, it was all around us last night, but today it's simply... not."

Marco sat down and thought hard. This morning so far had an unnatural quality about it. Although, Marco couldn't say what it was in particular. Was Star right?

"And your wand has no 'undo' function? No 'Ctrl' plus 'Z' button?"

"You know what? It was just a singular, solitary, insignificant, tiny thing. For all anybody knows, it wasn't that important." Star said trying to downplay this situation.

"Wasn't all that important?!"

"Uh-huh! Just go on without it, I say!" Star said grinning anxiously.

Without warning, scissors cut a portal into Marco's room. It was Buff Frog coming for a visit.

"You! Star and Martial Arts boy! What did you do?"

"What?"

"You cut out a thing from our world!" Buff Frog said.

"So it's missing from your location too."

"That is right! You must put it back! It is too odd without it!"

"But what's missing?"

"Buff Frog not know!"

Marco's hand shot out. With a quick punch and a pull, Buff Frog's portal was shut off. Marco and Star's visitor was now away.

Marco took a long drag of air into his lungs.

"Just calm down." Marco thought.

His sigh was caught by Star.

"I'm sorry, Marco." Star said softly.

"It's okay, Star." Marco said. "But you gotta fix this."

"How?"

"Just find out what's missing so you can put it back."

"Okay! I can just work this out."

"School is starting soon." Marco said upon glancing at a clock.

"Buck up, Marco! School has a solution to this!" Star said happily.

Janna was also going to school as Star and Marco ran past.

"Janna Banana!"

"What's up, guys."

"So Marco and I…"

"Just you, Star." Marco quickly said.

"...took a thing with magic and want to put it back. But Marco and I don't know what it was."

"Ah-ha! Just as I thought. It was you two!"

"Do you know what's missing?"

"No. But I know today is not normal. It has a kind of void in it now. It's uncanny how I know."

"All of us should just go on with our day. It might show us what's missing. It just has to." Marco said.

"Okay. I'll canvas school apart from you two. I want to try and find out what's missing first."

"Good thinking, Janna."

"Want to put a bit of cash down on my finding it first?"

"No, Janna!"

Star and Marco took an hour and a half quizzing school faculty and pupils.

"Missing anything, Alfonzo?"

"I don't think so. But I'll look."

"Anything kind of off about today, Starfan13?"

"Today is just so… unusual"

"What about you, Justin?"

"Naw."

Star and Marco would try to go on until lunch. But our duo only got similar accounts. It was an odd day, but nobody could say anything solidly about what was missing.

"Nobody knows anything, Marco! What now?"

Marco's crush got to class at that instant.

Star thought of that girl as a pal. But Star also thought of that girl as a rival.

"Hi, Marco! Hi, Star!"

Marco happily said, "Good morning, Jacky."

"Huh. That wasn't normal." Marco thought.

"You okay?"

"Uh-huh!" Marco said anxiously.

Star saw that Marco was having a bit of difficulty.

"I'll to talk to you at lunch. I should probably go to my chair now."

"Smooth as always, Marco." Janna said.

"You know, I thought you got past this point months ago." Star said.

"I did!"

"So what's going on with you, Marco?"

"I don't know."

Marco said it in his mind again and again. "Jacky... Jacky..." That word had an abnormality about it. A quality that was not right, but also not wrong.

Was it him? Marco thought. Did Star's magic shift a small thing in his mind?

"Am I going crazy?!" Marco thought, putting his hands up to grasp his hair in aggravation.

Star saw that Marco was now a bit jumpy.

"You should try to calm down, Marco."

"Miss Skullnick! Marco is losing his mind. Can I bring him to a doctor?" Janna said raising a hand.

"Marco is not sick! I think that Diaz is just faking! So sit down and shut up all of you! I just want to finish this class!"

"Just try to hang on until lunch, Marco!" said Star trying to comfort him.

To calm down, Marco thought of air going through his lungs.

"In… and out… in… and out…"

His panic was falling now. Good. Class wouldn't last too long.

It was now noon.

His crush would join him and Star for lunch soon. But right now, Marco did not trust his own mouth with talking.

Marco put tomato salsa on his burrito. Thankfully, his mouth was still good for consuming food.

"Chin up, Marco! I think that was our first hint!" Star said.

"Mmm-hmm." Marco said around a mouthful of food

A drop of liquid from Marco's burrito hit his top.

"Aw, man. That's gonna stain!" Marco said grabbing his napkins.

"It's okay, Marco. It won't show. That stuff is a similar color as your top."

Marco thought that was odd phrasing coming from Star. Why would Star say it that way?

"Star? What color is my top?"

"Duh! It's crimson!"

"Don't you think that sounds awkward? Why did you pick that word?"

"I know, right? Why would I say crimson? Why didn't I say maroon?" Star said.

"Maroon?" Marco said quizzically.

At that instant Janna sat down for lunch with Star and Marco.

"Janna! Quick! What color do you think Marco's top is?"

"It's blood color."

Marco thought that word wasn't right, but it also wasn't wrong. His top was in fact blood color. It was also crimson, or maroon, or cardinal.

"You know what? I think that this was a hint too!" Star said proudly.

Soon, Marco's crush sat down. "Hi, Guys."

Marco was smiling, but only said, "Hi."

"What was that in Miss Skullnick's this morning? You okay now, Marco?"

Marco had to account for his actions in class and just said what was on his mind.

"I think Star cast magic on my brain!" Marco said accusingly.

"I did not, Marco!" Star said. "Not right onto your brain anyway." Star said softly.

"I don't think Star would hurt Marco's noggin." Janna said.

"But why can't I say it without thinking it's... odd? And that's putting it mildly!"

"What can't you say without thinking it's odd?" said Marco's crush

"Jacky." Star said with a halt. Star now had a look of shock.

"Uh-oh." Marco said.

"That word. 'Jacky'. Now that I said it, I know it's just not right." Star said having had a similarly abnormal inkling.

"It's not just Marco. Now it's Star too?"

Marco put his hands in his hair in frustration.

"Look, funny as this is, I think it's just too awkward. I'll do you all a favor now and show you why that word is so fishy." Janna said.

Janna was scratching a ball point against a pink writing pad.

"All of you, just look at this." Janna said holding it up.

Star, Marco, and his crush all saw a word.

"Jacky." was said aloud by all.

"It looks sort of off, but it sounds right." Star said with curiosity.

"That 'Y'. It's what's wrong."

"But that is what you will call this girl for now. Introducing 'Jacky' with a 'Y'." Janna said indicating Marco's crush.

Janna was now smiling slyly. "I found out what Star did."

"So what is it, Janna? Is it us?" Marco said.

"No, it's not just you. It's all of us. In fact, it's all things in all locations." Janna said.

"But what's going on?" said Jacky.

"If you will all kindly follow." Janna said standing up.

Marco, Star, and Jacky all stood up to go with Janna who was asking about various things.

"What do you call that?"

"Grass."

"And that plant?"

"A bush."

"And that thing?" Janna said pointing upwards.

"A willow."

"Aha! Why did you call it a willow? What about that willow?" Janna said pointing an arm to a distant thing.

"That isn't a willow. That's an oak." Marco said.

"But it's similar. What word could signify both things?"

That word Marco was looking for. It was avoiding his mind. It's a word that Marco knows. A distinct word that is now hiding from him.

"Trunk? That's it! Trunk!" Star said.

"That's just a part of it, Star." Jacky said.

"Oh my Gosh, Marco! What do you call it?!" Star said.

"I… I don't know!" Marco said almost in a panic.

"I think Star took out a part of how all of us talk." Janna said.

"But what part?"

"I don't actually know, but it was small. And now, all of us can just work around that missing part."

"So now, all of us avoid that missing part in our talking and thinking. That's why today is so unnatural." Marco said clarifying Janna.

"That's right!" Janna said

"What about Jacky?" Star said.

"What you and I should actually call Jacky, how that word should actually look, I think it had that missing part. But what all of us formally call anybody is too hard to talk around. So all of us just kind of try to fix it." Janna said.

"So all of us automatically put a 'Y' on it in our minds knowing it's wrong? And that's why it bugs us?" Marco said.

"This is totally wild." Jacky said.

In front of school, Janna saw a boy. A chubby carrot-top.

"Fantastic!" Janna said approaching him.

Grabbing him, Janna said, "I want you to say what you call this guy!"

Marco was first to try. "Furguson."

Star and Jacky also had a go at it. "Furguson"

That word. It also had that odd quality. And it sounds just a bit off.

"Oh! Furguson had that missing part too!" Star said.

"It did?"

"It totally did, Furg."

"Okay, okay, okay. Now that all of us kind of know what's missing, can you fix it now?" Marco said to Star.

"You could call for aid from Glossaryck, couldn't you?" Janna said.

"Oh smart thinking, Janna! I'll just look in my book! And good thing that calling him Glossaryck still works too!"

In Star's room, our group was waiting to talk to Star's magical tutor.

Upon floating up and out from Star's book Gossaryck said, "Okay, what did you dingbats do?! This book is totally shot! All this writing is missing tiny bits!"

"Oh, no." Star said sadly.

"Now what?" Marco said.

"Should all of us just try to do without that thing from now on?" Jacky said.

"Don't you think that's too hard? Nobody knows what I actually did." Star said.

"Actually, it looks as if all of us do okay without it." Janna said.

"It's okay for right now. But I think that word part is a bit too ubiquitous for us to go without it for too long." Marco said.

"Glossaryck? Could this magic just simply fail on its own at, say, sundown? Or by dawn? Or upon a coming full moon?" Star said.

"Possibly. But nobody will know until that occurs. All of us should just stay calm and wait this out. Nobody should worry too much about this." Glossaryck said.

All options had run out. Nothing to do now but wait. How long could this situation possibly last, anyways?

Many, many tomorrows following… At a royal function...

"All stand for Woman Monarch Star and Man Monarch Marco of Muni" said a royal minion.

Star and Marco sat down in two gold chairs.

"Marco?"

"Star?"

"Do you still think about that thing that I took that day? That lost part of how all of us should talk?"

"I still do occasionally. To this day, nobody truly knows what that part was. But it looks as if all of us did alright without it. Though, you know what, Star? I still think you should allow us all to go back to using 'King' again and not insist on using 'Man Monarch'."

"If I did, you and I wouldn't match. 'King' was so fast to say, but 'Woman Monarch' always took so long by comparison. It's too bad that I forgot what to actually call a woman king."

"You could always just add a latin suffix onto 'King' to turn it womanly. You should try it out, Kingrix Star Butturfly." Marco said with a small laugh.

"Oh, stop joking around, Marco! That sounds ridiculous!" Star said smiling.

Upon concluding that night's royal function, Muni's two monarchs would opt to go upstairs to turn in. At that point a girl and a boy clad in pajamas, ran in through a door. It was Marco and Star's two young offspring.

"Mommy! Daddy!"

"Hi kids!" Star said happily.

Marco got down low to talk to his kids. "Hi, munchkins. Your mom and I know you want to go on playing, but don't you two think you should stop running around now and call it a night?" Marco said.

"Oh, Marco! Our kids just want a good night kiss from us. Group hug!" Star said in a loving way.

Marco saw his family and was happy too.

fin

Author's Closing Musings:

I took inspiration for this work from "Gadsby". But I did not, at any point, look at that book for aid in writing this.

I know that book is 50,000 words long. I had to claw my way up just to hit about 2,500. This story is just a low quality imitation.

And about this story's conclusion, you might ask, "Why add Starco?" You shouldn't ask, "Why?" You should ask, "Why not?"

This story was such a pain in my ass. But I had a lot of fun writing it.

Thank you for looking!

-GolfAlphaMaik? GolfAlphaMyk? Hmm… GolfAlpha...Mic?

So odd.