E.R. COOK

Today’s story started a little different. I wasn’t really finding any photos that were speaking to me. So, I decided to try something a little different and go with a writing prompt.

The Prompt: “You receive a mysterious cardboard box. Written on the side in large letters are the words: Caution! May Bite.”

THE BOX

I was startled by the knock on my door. No one ever knocked at my door. I looked out of the peephole, but didn’t see anyone. Carefully, I cracked open the door. A cardboard box sat on the top step. The hackles on my neck started to rise. I wasn’t expecting any packages. There was a shipping label, but what drew my eye was the large bold black letters on the side. “Caution! May Bite.”

I shut the door, swinging around to grab my phone and call the police. However, I roze as my eyes focused on my kitchen counter. Where the cardboard box sat. As I watched , it twitched. Then again. Soon, it was twitching and bouncing all over.

Against my better judgement, I walked over and gingerly cut open the top. The flaps on the top burst open and I jumped backward, my heart in my throat. Then I laughed.

A small pointy nose poked above the box, whiskers twitching inquisitively. The nose was followed by a triangular head with small round fluffy ears. Two black beady eyes surveyed my living room. Then, in one fluid movement, the furry snake hopped out of the box and onto my counter, shaking itself.

A ferret. Someone had sent me a ferret.

“About time. It was getting stuffy in there. I keep telling them they need air holes, but no.”

Someone had sent me a talking ferret.

The ferret looked at me, standing up on its back legs like a meerkat. “I suppose you are my new mage.”

“I’m sorry. Who are you? What are you? How are you talking?” I couldn’t believe I was talking to this ferret. I decided it had to be a figment of my imagination. I ate something bad. I was dreaming.

The ferret shook its head in disbelief. “I am Rocco. I am your familiar. You are a mage. I serve you. Standard stuff.”

A laugh bubbled out of my lips. As long as we were suspending reality, I could humor the little creature. “A mage? I can’t even make coffee.”

The ferret snorted. I didn’t know ferrets could snort. “What are you talking about? I can smell the magic on you. That’s what I do, you know, beside’s know things. Smell magical objects and abilities. Oh, most mages want cats and bats, the cliche animals. But us ferrets are better at all the familiar things.”

“I don’t know how to break this to you, but I don’t have any magic. Unless you can count hitting the lights on Main all green.” I laughed feebly.

“Actually that is a form of latent magic, but huh. You look old enough. Your magic should have emerged by now.” He looked at me quizzically. “I wonder who screwed this up at the Office.”

“The Office?”

“The Office of Modern Magic, of course. Who else?”

My confused looks made him sigh. “You don’t even know about the Office? Oh boy. Someone screwed up big.”

AFTER THE STORY:

This story was really hard for me to get into. Not that I didn’t have the plot, I had that from the second I saw “Caution! May bite.” My boyfriend and I love ferrets, and are always laughing at the war dance videos of ferrets. So, I knew I wanted a ferret. A ferret in a box that just magically arrived at your door. So, why wouldn’t you be a magician?

But even though I could visualize the story, I found myself struggling to get the words down on the paper. I was very aware of the clock and how much time I was wasting. It was an odd form of writer’s block. The more I thought about the clock, the more I couldn’t write, the more anxious I got that I wasn’t writing, the more I started getting this impending sense of doom that I wouldn’t get the story to where I wanted it in the time frame.

With these quick exercises, I realized that sometimes you need to go for “good enough”. Just like first drafts of everything else. Just get to “good enough”. Get the words down on the paper. Then, unlike these story exercises, you can go back and fine-tune and polish the works. But at least getting to good enough, can get you further down the road than staring at a blank screen or sheet of paper because the “best words” aren’t coming to you.

Obviously there is so much more to this story. But I like that even in its shortness you get to meet the characters, you get to meet the scene, and you get to imagine all the adventures that are to come. And I’m starting to think that those are some of the best short stories. The ones that make you start asking questions and making up you own stories and endings.

Wonder what Rocco the ferret will get up to next?