Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Willis Takes A Vacation

There are days I wish I'd just walked on by Willis when I saw him lying on the ground, up there on Hill Street. I mean, sure, he's friendly (most of the time) and helpful (occasionally), but sometimes the hassle of having a pet rock outweighs the benefits.

Take last week, for instance. I was puttering away on one of my websites when Willis - who hadn't spoken to me for about a week and a half - announced out of the blue: "I think we should take a vacation."

I considered this. Actually, it had been quite a long while since I'd taken a vacation. Maybe it was time for a change of pace, and a little relaxation. "Did you have anything particular in mind?" I asked.

Willis nodded. Well, he would have nodded if he wasn't an inanimate chunk of mineral. Instead of nodding he said, "Yes. I thought we should go to New York City."

"And do what?" I said, thinking of how little I wanted to drive to and in and through New York City. I hate city driving.

"We could stand on a street corner and watch the people."

"Watch the people?" I said, disbelieving.

"Sure! Just think what fun that would be! All those interesting, beautiful, magnificent people all together in one place for us to look at and admire! It'll be WONDERFUL!"

I said, "That s0unds like the worst vacation idea I've ever heard of. What are you, some sort of twisted stalker?"

"And you have a better idea?" Willis said.

"Well, to be honest, I've always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon."

"The Grand Canyon?"

"Mm hm."

"And what, pray tell, would you do there?" Willis said.

"Are you kidding? There's so much to do there!"

"Like what?"

"Well, just think: you and me, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, looking out over all those magnificent, beautiful, rocky precipices!"

Willis glared - or, at least, I think he glared. His tone of voice was glaring, anyway. "You want to just stand in one place and stare at a bunch of rocks? How is that any less twisted than me wanting to stand on a street corner and watch people? What kind of sick, twisted person are you? A rock stalker?"

"Better than being a people-stalker," I replied.

"Maybe we should compromise," he suggested.

I hate compromise. Particularly compromise with a chunk of rock like Willis. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do the thing you don't want to do. So now you know why, even though neither of us were particularly happy about it, we ended up vacationing at Mount Rushmore.

More writing by this author

Blogs on This Site