A Short Story

I was working on Saturday and was incredibly bored by my work. Thankfully, there was an entertaining e-mail thread that sparked my interest. One of our supervisors was competing in the IronMan challenge in Florida and a co-worker was following his progress online and updating those of us in the office via e-mail. At one point, however, some co-workers started responding to the updates and voicing their encouragement. I tried to picture the practicality of someone being able to pass this encouragement on to Marc during the race. So I did what any rational person would when put in such a situation. I wrote my first short story since grade school. Enjoy.

“Super Awesome”

Mark Freeze goes on break and calls the race co-coordinator in Florida. He tells him he has an urgent message that must be given to racer Marc Massaro.

Moments later, an exhausted Marc Massaro (on mile 4 of his first leg) is jogging away. All of a sudden, a man in street clothes starts running alongside of him. “Marc?” he asks. Marc does a double take and looks over, confused. “Yeah (pant), I’m… Marc (breathing heavily between words).

“I have an important message for you, Mr. Massaro,” says the man. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I felt this could not wait. Apparently a Mr. Jerry Johnson back in Bloomington has this message for you: (clearing throat) “we are all behind you, Marc.”

Moments later, Marc is re-focused on the race. With the knowledge that Jerry Johnson is behind him (figuratively, literally, in spirit, or however), he has extra incentive to finish this race. All of the sudden, the man in street clothes reappears and is running alongside him again.

“Another message?” Marc asks.

“Yes,” says the man. “this one comes from a Miss Jaclyn Demes. She says, ‘Run Marc Run! Super Awesome!’ Also, in between those two phrases, she included a smiley face.”

Marc, clearly energized by this new message, smiles at the man and looks straight ahead and quickly pulls away once again. The man in street clothes jogs to a stop and watches Marc run off in the distance. “Super Awesome,” he echoes.

Sick

I just called our Absence Hotline at work to let them know I would not be coming into work tomorrow. It said to leave my number and my mind went completely blank. I said:

"My number is... 692... (silence, chuckle)... 692-9200."

Nope. My real number is 531-6955. WHAT???

I blame the fever, lack of appetite, and stomach problems. Help.