Weekly Finalist: The List, by Jacob Batchelor
The rules dictated that he go to California. It had been two long weeks since the mysterious list of commands had slid under his door, and he was no closer to discovering the meaning of life as promised by what he had come to call “the List”. Was it a prank? Some nihilistic post-modern propaganda meant to break him away from the fetters of reality? Or was this finally his chance to do something real with his life, to finally adventure? He regarded the checkmarks in the margins of the list with a smile, recalling how each mission had segued into the next—how each of the nineteen acts of randomness, discovery and mischief had helped unlock the next, and how with each completion he had felt imbued with the same sense of accomplishment and emptiness. He had to know how this ended, what it meant.
Now here he was, sitting at the kitchen table, the cacophony of New York’s streets overpowered by the buzz of confusion in his mind. For an hour he sat, staring into space, cajoling himself into this option or that. Its bullshit he thought; a game. But what wasn’t? He affected a look of destined bravado and took one more look at the coordinates on the list. With that, he grabbed his keys and walked outside.
One week later found him in an abandoned parking lot on the coast of California. Birds chortled and the wind whipped around him. He felt big. Searching, he finally found the words “David, look up” painted on the pavement. He raised his gaze to a large weathered billboard, stared and began to smile. “ESOPHAGUS” was scrawled across its entirety, signed with a smiley face.
He turned to the ocean; it was beautiful. With purpose, he walked to the shore.
Tags: creative writing, writing contest, writing contest finalist
