I Dream of You by Scott Gordon

Author:Scott Gordon [Gordon, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cat, cats, house cats, humor, humorous, fun, funny, comedy, childrens books, children, kids, pet, pets, felines, ages 9 to 12
Publisher: Scott Gordon
Published: 2017-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

THE END

Without a Prayer...or a Can of Tunafish

This is one of those short pieces of fiction that shouldn’t exist.

I was on a plane from Orlando (MCO) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) when I realized that I had an hour where I could either sleep or get some work done. I was really tired, but decided that I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to write a new story.

At first I had trouble picking a project. All of my files were at home. The laptop screen that reflected back was just an empty slate. So I wrote a brief journal entry for a few minutes, and acknowledged that I wanted to write fiction, not my inner-most thoughts. So after 100 words or so, I switched over and told myself to latch onto the first thing that came to mind.

And sure enough, something came along.

I was reminded of a piece of public domain artwork of a kitty in a swing with the title I Dream of You floating overhead. Since I already had the title, why not explore it to see where it would take me? I had thought that a traditional story would have come out of me, told from neutral viewpoint. I did not expect a dialogue to unfold between a cat and (to a lesser degree) the reader. The whole thing seemed a bit bizarre, but what the heck? I had an hour to burn, so why not jump in with both feet?

Unfortunately, I miscalculated. About forty minutes in, the captain announced that he was preparing to make the flight’s final descent. What?! I’d only put down about 500 words, and still had more in my head. So I did as much as I could before I finally had to shut down.

Once I arrived, I didn’t have an instant where I could sit down and put down the rest of the story. There was the matter of getting off the plane, getting my bag (hopefully it made it along with me), calling for a ride (I’d lost my cell phone at one of the Disney parks, making things more interesting), dropping off Ligia at her job, beating the traffic home, setting up Aidyn’s new Nintendo Switch, getting Ligia from work again, driving home in rush hour traffic, taking Aidyn to his favorite pizza place in the world, Ledo’s Pizza, racing home before the city closed the streets, missing that deadline and having to find parking elsewhere, taking Aidyn to the Halloween parade, trick-or-treating, playing Super Mario Odyssey with the kids, eating Aidyn’s candy (shhh...), etc., until I was too tired to do anything but sleep.

When a series of events like this drives a wedge between you and your work, it can be hard finding a way back to the story. The following morning I was reminded of the second of Heinlein’s Rules, an indispensable set of business guidelines for professional writers. “You must finish what you write,” it read. So I thought back to the brief writing session and decided that I’d take a shot at finishing I Dream of You.

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