060706
Here’s my response to Unconventional Writing Exercise #1: Once Upon a Woz.
247 words in all their cheesy glory. I guess you could call this micro-fiction. The form is so short, that as soon as you know the character you’re writing about, you can whip out a 250-word narrative in one go. The whole story is small enough to fit in your head.
The Temporal Wrath of Butter McGee
Butter McGee punched his hand through the wall. That’s the last time he’ll ever take crap like that from Sorensen. Butter was a bulky man. Swarthy, with wavy hair, tinted glasses, and a temper like gasoline. Sorensen had him by the balls and he knew it. Butter, the great and eccentric genius. Butter, the inventor of the Flux Capacitor, the device that makes time travel possible. Butter, the sad little man who would give anything for a moment’s worth of attention, a pat on the back from someone important, or a smile from a woman.Sorensen had taken his invention. Taken it literally right out of his hands as he just stood there, absorbing all the complements and all the affection given by his assistant Maria. Her sweet words were still ringing in his head. He would show them! They may have the Capacitor. They could be taking it right now to the Science Commissioner, claiming their acolades and titles. But they didn’t know a rat’s whisker about time travel. And they didn’t know that the prototype they had stolen wasn’t the only one.
Butter McGee opened the bottom drawer of his desk. There, in a lead-lined box, he retrieved the other Capacitor. He embraced the device and muttered something about being friendless and miserable. Then he shouted to no one, “Sorensen! Now you will know what it’s like to never have had any friends.” And Butter disappeared into the past with a puff of blue smoke.
.