3 Quick Narratives

1


A man is employed stamping the papers of soliders being sent to war. Performing this job as a service to his country, he has purchased a comfortable upper class living for his wife and children. His Supervisor is a very patriotic man named Shepherd whose motto is, "let's win one for Victory and Freedom." One day like any other he arrives at work and finds his own son's papers on his desk. He hesiates for a moment, staring at them. He seems to falter just as Shepherd emerges, saying, "Well aren't you going to stamp those papers?"

He shakes his head as if waking from a dream and grumbles, "Of course, of course."


2

A man and a woman and their son were performers in a circus. They were trapeze gymnasts and performed inside of a massive, three-tiered tent. There were four trapezes, each at a different height. Their routine, a famous crowd favorite, went like this: all three would leap to the lowest swing, clinging to one another and acrobatically dangling upside-down, then each would toss the other up a level, until the family collectively occupied the first three swings. The son, displeased with what he felt to be an anticlimactic finale,always wanted to reach the fourth and uppermost swing. He was forbidden by his parents. One day, at the end of the family's act, the son leaped up to the top swing all on his own, defying his mother and father. His weight swung him up and through the highest wall of the tent, and he was gone.

They were going to search for him, but figured that leaving the tent was pointless.


3


Three fish were conversing inside of an shipwreck. One said, "I believe the things that lived inside of this were very square and probably noisy." The second said, "No, I think they were brown and quite possibly tube-shaped."

There was a pause and then the third said, "No, I don't believe anything ever lived inside of this."