Weekly Prompt Story: Jar

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The Jar

By Christopher Munroe

I keep an old jar in my bedroom.

It’s the sort of thing you’d assume was antique if you found it in a rustic farmhouse, but which you realize seeing it in my downtown apartment is almost certainly a replica.

It’s actually antique. One-hundred-thirty years old, in fact…

I keep it by my bed so as to grab it, first thing when I wake up.

I whisper my hopes and dreams into that jar.

And then I seal it, tight, locking them away.

And that way they won’t trouble me during my day, while I’m off working my day job…

Dream Lover

“He’s the man of my dreams.” She told us, but none of us knew what the fuss was about.

Gaunt and pale, with a shock of wild, ink-black hair, his presence struck us as off-putting. Otherworldly, as though he was somehow apart from what was going on around him.

Still, he made her happy and that’s what’s important, so we tried to welcome him into our social circle as best we could.

And he was better than her ex. That guy was creepy. Funny, in a sarcastic way, but always with an undercurrent of menace.

The fedora/sweater/glove ensemble didn’t help…

Dreams

Some dreams aren’t meant to come true.

I dream of power, and it’s exercise unburdened by conventional morality. I dream of bending the world to my will, of having it’s “leaders” bow before me as their rightful master. Of uniting humankind, if only to serve at my pleasure.

Cody Jamison has simpler dreams. Dreams of growing old with his wife, of watching his newborn son graduate, of weddings, grandkids and life’s simple pleasures.

Dreams of a world in which giant robots don’t rampage through the streets of major cities.

But, as I said, some dreams aren’t meant to come true.

The Shop

On the street upon which I walk to work, in the window of an unassuming little shop that wasn’t there yesterday, hung a sign reading “Come in, come in, and all your dreams shall come true”.

I was just passing by, and late for work already, but how can you resist a pitch like that? I hovered in front of the shop a moment, weighing my options, then decided and, expecting nothing but hoping for everything, pushed open the door and passed inside.

Suddenly I was falling, and I knew I’d fall forever.

This time, I wouldn’t be waking up.