Wil Wheaton is a writer, actor, and originator of the most important rule of the Internet: “Don’t be a dick”. I’ve known Wil ever since Warren Ellis introduced us, and have valued the friendship more every day. It’s not that well known that Wil can break a man in half by blinking in his general direction.
Title: Around and Around Again
Challenger: Wil Wheaton
Length: 200 words exactly
There is a bank in New York containing a room, the door to which is ostensibly kept permanently locked. Seventeen people possess keys to the door, and sometimes, meetings are held in this room. There are no minutes, no formal record of proceedings, but all who attend remember what occurs.
Those who are invited to such meetings know that their decisions and actions change lives, influence governments, decide the fate of all the people on the globe. This knowledge is limited to 364 days annually.
For occasionally one more attends. He wears a suit not of his choice, one fully stained with blood, trimmed with the remains of crushed bones, and his voice, even when lowered, is louder than all of the others present.
And it is agreed without discussion that one day a year is his to command: one festival of merriment, a day when joyous celebration is not only allowed, but positively encouraged. Then they leave him, alone in the room.
For 364 days a year, the former hero hides and weeps in his place of solitude. At least they let me have Christmas Day, he tells himself, again and again. At least they let me keep Christmas.
© Lee Barnett, 2012
This story is part of The Twelve Days of Fast Fiction (More information on the Twelve Days here)
Day 01: Why Can’t Reindeer Fly? – challenger: Neil Gaiman
Day 03: Hell Comes To Greenland – challenger: Jason Arnopp
Day 04: It Shines Like Mud – challenger: Greg Rucka
Day 05: Frederick The Unopened Package – challenger: Amanda Palmer
Day 06: Under Hetty Pegler’s Tump – challenger: Warren Ellis
Day 07: The Impossible Box – challenger: Mitch Benn
Day 08: Away In A Manger – challenger: Tony Lee
Day 09: Typos and Typography – challenger: Kieron Gillen
Day10: Why Santa’s A Jerk – challenger: Ed Brubaker
Day 11: The Wrong Christmas Cookies – challenger: Matt Fraction
Day12: The Christmas That Wasn’t – challenger: Jamie McKelvie
“There are two hundred stories collected in this volume. They are funny, they are thoughtful, they are romantic, they are frightening. To me, though, they are more than entertaining. They are inspiring.” – Wil Wheaton, from his introduction to volume 2 of The Fast Fiction Challenge
Two volumes of The Fast Fiction Challenge, containing 180 stories in Volume 1 and a further 200 stories in Volume 2, are available from lulu.com, and in some countries on Amazon. ebooks available from the author; email for details.