Everyone’s a Writer
As you may already know, one of my goals for this year is to write and publish an article each month. From the start of this journey I have been feeling thankful that I not only have this platform to share my voice but also that people engage with what I write. It has been an enriching experience that I wish other people could join in on. So, I had this idea to create a collaborative relay story.
Over the past couple of days, I have been asking friends of mine to contribute to this Medium article without them knowing. I told these willing creatives to write as little or as much as they wanted and to run wild with whatever narrative their hearts desired. The only requirement I had was that they had to leave the story halfway through a sentence so that the next person could pick up where they left off. From start to finish, this piece was created by more than 20 people. I did not contribute a single word. Additionally, I kept identities a secret throughout the entire process.
While I couldn’t get everyone to add to this story, it’s been a great gift to see people from all parts of my life come together to create something special. Y’all are talented and great sports. Thanks to everyone who participated. This really could not have happened without you haha. Hope this story cracks a smile on your face today. Enjoy!
I was cooking dinner and was interrupted by a knock on the door. There was a box left on the doorstep where I found a note from my brother Sam! But Sam himself was nowhere to be found. I was confused since we hadn’t spoken in years. In his note he told me he hoped this brought me peace. Peace? I thought. How strange. I opened the box and I found a jar of peanuts. What in the world? Sam was always pranking us when we were kids, so maybe this was another weird joke? Except it wasn’t landing. I picked up the phone to give him a call. It rang and then I heard his voice. “Hello?” “Hey, Sam. Did you send me some peanuts?” “Ha! Gotcha. Leave a message.” I rolled my eyes. “I got your peanuts. What the heck, man. Call me back.” I opened up the jar, and I smelled roses. He always knows how to turn my frown upside down. Stuck inside this weird peanut jar was a beautiful, yellow rose. I decided I wanted to write him a thank you note since he wasn’t answering the phone but then I heard my mom yell at me to clean the kitchen and I quickly ran outside to double check to see if there was a chance Sam was waiting outside. He wasn’t. The rose and the short note was all I had from him, but strangely, it was enough. I missed having my older brother around.
I went into the kitchen to help clean up, and I couldn’t help but silently tear up while doing the dishes. Childhood memories came flooding through my memory. The times we would camp outside in our backyard on summer nights, indulging ourselves with marshmallows dipped in chocolate. The times when we would walk home together after school, and it would somehow turn into a race of who could get home first. The times when we would obnoxiously sing so loud during the 7th inning stretch at the home of the Dodgers. After finishing the dishes, I made my way back to my room. I started writing the letter and I heard my phone beep from incoming texts. Knowing it was probably from my talkative group chat, I paid no attention to it and muted my phone. I finished the letter, showered, and got ready for bed before giving my phone a quick glance. Scrolling through the texts, I spotted one from an unknown number. It was an area code from my town and said: “What’s the scariest thing you have ever seen? Well if you think that’s it, you’re wrong. Send this text to 10 other people by midnight or a little girl will come out from under your bed and cut off all your limbs.” How did a rando get my number? Also, I didn’t know people still sent out those cursed chain texts. Well, better safe than sorry! I send it to 20 of my friends so that instead of being cursed, I would be blessed. 200 IQ right here. Anyways, back to Sam. That text had nothing at all to do with this story, but I just thought I’d tell you everything that happened that night just because details matter even if they’re not actually relevant. I know I said I was going to write a thank you note, but let me just clarify that I wasn’t crying because I missed Sam… Well, even though I said I missed Sam, I don’t. I just felt like saying that at the moment to fool you. I actually hate Sam but I’m a polite person so I thought I should send a thank you note anyways. Remember how I said he used to prank me when we were kids? Yea. Those chocolate dipped marshmallows… More like poop dipped marshmallows. The races for who could get home first? Yea, he broke my arm once from pushing me down the stairs so he could reach the front door first. They say blood is thicker than water but like what does that even mean?? If anything, that mean blood gets in your way whereas water can be easily moved. PFFFT! What a dumb quote. Also, I’m allergic to peanuts. I only smiled once I found out the jar had a rose because I was relieved I wasn’t going to die from anaphylactic shock. Ok, enough about Sam. As you can see, we didn’t have the best relationship even if you maybe thought that at first. I want to talk about something else. Let’s talk about Chad. Yeaaaa Chad. I’ve liked Chad since the 8th grade. But I can never seem to get his attention except for the time I tried to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins dance with some cupcakes, but then I tripped and fell face first into the entire plate. Ugh, at least I got his attention at all. Unsure of how else to do so — preferably in more attractive ways. I still think about when our paths first crossed. We were in the same art class, and the teacher told everyone to pair up. Turns out, we were the only two left without a partner, so fate pretty much brought us together. The assignment was to make a portrait of your partner while they made a portrait of you. I was just glad I had an excuse to stare at his face without it being creepy. The only downside was that in efforts to make our portraits accurate, no one talked much, and neither did we. So that was that. The semester ended, and we never had reason to see each other again. But I was shopping at Trader Joe’s near my house the other day and it turns out he works there. Much to my surprise. I avoided eye contact with him so that he wouldn’t see I know he works there now. My plan is to figure out his work hours, and choose a time to visit the grocery store periodically — that way it will look like I’m on my own schedule (even though I’m only going to see him lol).
— 3 days later —
So over the past three days I went to Trader Joes every hour to check if Chad was working. Turns out he works from 9am to 12pm five days a week haha! After I returned home from my fifth trip of the day, I decided I wanted to look like a golden goddess so I put on the self tanner. I knew I was going to make six more trips that day so I wanted to surprise Chad with my summer glow even though we were in the middle of a Chicago winter. I scrubbed on my self tanner with my mit, and rubbed it all over my face. However, after I was done I put too much on; I achieved the orange, Trump complexion…even my under eyes were white. Most people would have stayed home looking like that, but not me. I thought to myself, “maybe he will think I’m funny… I don’t know I’m just gonna go for it.” Realizing it was already 11:15am, I ran downstairs to look for my keys when I saw Chad at my front door. I don’t know how, but I found the courage to open the door. And there he was, Chad was at my doorstep holding roses. I was speechless. I stood there, baffled as to how Chad knew my address. As thoughts were racing through my mind I panicked and shut the door. Ran upstairs and jumped on my bed to process what just happened. Chad was at my doorstep holding roses. CHAD. ROSES. Is this even real life? In the middle of my silent celebration, it just hit me how he’s still probably outside my house feeling confused. I quickly regained my composure and opened the front door, but Chad wasn’t there. The only thing that was left were the roses that sat on my doorstep. Shoooot. What did I just do? Chad probably thinks I hate him. I looked at my phone for the time — 11:50am. If I leave right now, I could probably see Chad as he finishes his shift! So I booked it to Trader Joe’s. As I was on my way to clear things up with Chad, I noticed my friend Peter. Now that’s an understatement; Peter’s not just a friend, he’s like a really good friend — almost like a brother! We’ve been friends ever since he moved into the neighborhood and was placed in my 2nd grade class. We shared the same interests: sports, coffee, sunset chasing, reading, and so much more! It’s hard to believe that a lot of interests are similar. He’s also the nicest person I’ve met: when Sam or my parents are giving me a hard time, when there’s drama among my girlfriends, or when life’s generally sucking, he’s always there to listen and give me some advice. But I try to not talk about boys with Peter. Again, he’s basically like my brother and I don’t really tell my brother about guys in my life. But I do appreciate Peter’s advice; I’m not talking about things that satisfy my sad moments; he gives it to me straight. That’s another thing I appreciate about Peter: he gives it to me straight, telling me what I need to hear versus what I want to hear. And that’s honestly a sign of a good friend. If your friends are like that, keep them; if not, eh, that’s up to you. But wow. I just went off about Peter huh. ANYWAYS, I saw Peter on my run to Trader Joe’s we just had a brief exchange (obviously):
“Hi (pant) Peter!”
“What’s up?”
By that time I blew by him; I didn’t have time to waste! My legs were getting heavier and my energy was depleting!
“Where ya going off to?”
Wth. I look to my right and there’s Peter who ran to catch up with me. Having lost energy to speak, I began to notice the Trader Joe’s sign in the distance and pointed to it for Peter to see.
“Cha-(pant)-ad”
It looked like Peter got the message as he looked back at me, nodded and said “I gotchu.” He then outran me and zoomed into Trader Joe’s — dang that boi quick! Eventually I found myself in front of Trader Joe’s, breathless. Geez I really need to exercise more often. I took out my phone again — 12:00pm. I made it! But, where’s Chad? Where’s Peter? To the left where the shopping carts were I heard some yelling that sounded like Chad. How could I not know Chad’s voice? Turning around the corner, I saw Peter holding Chad by his shirt’s collar:
“-bably do this regularly huh?!”
“Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Don’t play stupid with me Chad.”
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Both guys looked at me and Peter instantly let Chad go. I’ve never seen Peter like this; granted, even though he’s really competitive in football, basketball, and volleyball, I’ve never seen him so aggressive outside of sports. Peter’s a nice guy, right? Why is he so fired up right now? I then walked up to the two and pulled Chad away from Peter.
“What the hell are you doing Peter!?”
Peter looked at me, and I noticed there were tears in his eyes and he was breathing heavily. “Peter, get over here. NOW!,” I yelled at him. By this time a small crowd had formed around the two boys, and several employees were helping Chad to his feet and picking up the stack of baskets that had toppled over during the scuffle. As he walked over to me, Peter kept his eyes fixed on Chad. I grabbed Peter’s flannel shirt sleeve and dragged him out of the store.
“Peter! What was that!?,” I asked. He just looked at me and shook his head, while muttering to himself, “I won’t let him get away with it.” “Peter, let him get away with what?,” I responded. He just kept muttering to himself and refused to answer. I grabbed his elbow and said, “Well, I don’t care if you don’t talk to me, but you’re coming with me until you calm down.” We walked back to my house in silence. Once we reached, I told him to take a seat on my couch and gave him a glass of water.
“Ok Peter, now you need to tell me what is going on!”
He took a sip of water, and said, “He’s not who you think he is.”
“Who? Chad? What do you mean?,” I questioned. “You don’t understand, he always does this. And last time…last time, it was really bad,” Peter responded. He continued, “Remember last summer when you were away visiting your grandparents in Hawaii. Well, I ran into Chad at Carl’s Comics a few times. We got to talking and realized we’re both huge Star Trek fans. And after that, we began hanging out a lot more. Until that night.” Peter froze.
“Go on Peter, what happened?”
“I got a call at 2AM. It was Chad and he was panicking. He said he was at a crossroads. I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I was pretty sure he was in need of serious help. So I frantically ran to his house.”
I wanted to ask more. But I couldn’t help but notice that he was already dressed and ready to leave. “Why did you call me so late at night Chad??”. Embarrassingly he said “I just don’t know what to do. You know I never ask for help but I had no choice.”
“It’s okay! Just tell me what’s going on and I will help.”
“You promise?”
“Of course dude! That’s what friends are for. Now what happened?”
“I…I…” Chad stuttered with tears welling up in his eyes.
Right when Peter was about to tell me what Chad said, the sound of blaring sirens passed us down the street from where we came. Peter has always been very easily distractible. It’s not uncommon that he’ll be mid sentence, see a butterfly flutter past, and then immediately forget all about what he was talking about.
But this time was different. This time, his eyes were glued to those cars as if it were putting him in a trance.
“Go on Peter! What did Chad say to you?” I urged him.
“We need to go…” Peter murmured underneath his breath.
“What?”
“We need to go… NOW!” he said as he frantically grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the door. “No…no…no… I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
“Wait, what? What’s going on Peter?” I asked.
“That night I was talking about…” Peter responded.
“Yeah??”
“That night, Chad had a run in with your brother, Sam.” I yanked my arm from Peter’s grasp.
“What??” I almost shouted, I was so confused.
“What do you mean Sam? What does he have to do with all of this?” I asked, panic rising in my voice.
“I, I can’t explain right now, but we really have to go. Please? I’ll explain later, okay? I promise.” Peter pleaded, with his hands motioning me to step outside the door.
“Fine, let’s go.” I mumbled and quickly picked up my pace. I followed Peter out the door with Chad right behind him. In another moment of time, I would have been thrilled and filled with butterflies. Chad, the guy Chad, was running in front of me next to my best friend. Maybe in this dream we were all friends going to our local cake pop shop to grab a quick snack. I shook that thought out of my mind, now is not the time.
“Why are there sirens? Why is Peter so worried right now? Where are we even going?” all these thoughts raced in my mind as I stepped over an uneven crack in the sidewalk.
“And why Sam?” this thought lingered and chills ran up my arm. Didn’t he just send me a note of peace? This train of thought suddenly crashed as a large boom erupted from the hot pavement before our feet. From the ground, like some kind of otherworldly, all-powerful being, arose Sam. Indeed, it was my brother, but his eyes were brighter, almost to the point of glowing — and his body more massive and muscular than I’d ever seen it. From his skin seemed to radiate a great heat.
“Sam?!” I said in disbelief. What the fuck was going on?
“Hello, sister,” he said, the mass of his chiseled form still not finished arising completely from the earth.
“Oh, no…” said Chad.
“What?” I asked, turning to him. “What’s going on?!”
“Sam — Sam, you can’t use the powers I gave you this way… you took an oath, don’t you remember? Sam, please… oh, God. What have I done?”
“Silence, Chad,” said Sam. “Your oath is meaningless.” His voice was eerily monotonous and booming, like that of a dictator through blazing microphones. I pushed in front of Chad and Peter, but couldn’t make it much further when I heard a booming laugh. I looked straight up to see that Sam had grown 12 feet tall.
“WHAT THE-” I had no time to finish my sentence.
Peter swatted me out of the way as Sam’s fists swung down. I sat there, unable to contemplate what could possibly be going on, trying to catch my breath. With no time to recover, Chad grabs me and we start running. In the distance I hear Sam yelling something about peanuts. The peanuts? Is he really concerned about the peanuts? Was he really trying to hurt me over peanuts? Had I not been in such an oddly terrifying situation, I would’ve laughed.
I tried to wrap my head around everything that had happened recently with Sam. The box. The peanuts. It was a joke. The one yellow rose — a peace offering. At least I think it was a rose? Now that I think of it, I never took a good look at it. It was at the bottom of the box, and I had not picked it up because its stem was riddled with odd bumps, which I had assumed were thorns. But they were metallic, and dull.
“Wait.”
Chad stopped, “Huh?” He was bent over, trying to catch his breath.
“What was on that flower?”
Suddenly, Chad caught his breath. “That box wasn’t for you.”
What? “But I called Sam to thank him for the box. He said something like gotcha! I don’t get it. He knows I’m allergic to peanuts so he put them in there for me! As a joke! He used to always make fun of me like that. But what was that flower?”
Chad sat me down.
“Those peanuts? Those were to make you think that the box was for you. But the flower? Sam knows you don’t care about flowers. He also knew I would come to your house. That flower was a key.”
A flower disguised as a key? Seriously? He couldn’t just mail it to Chad like a normal person? Sam had always been the jokester of the family. Maybe this was just another prank. Still, I had to make sure.
“What was the key for?”
“That’s a long story. But has to do with why he’s 12 feet tall,” Chad’s eyes wandered, looking behind me as if Sam was standing right there, “The key was for me. Shit. Run.”
I turned around to see Sam about to throw another punch. Sam was always a dick growing up but man. “What a dick!”
We turned a corner and out of nowhere Peter pulled Chad and me into a tight alleyway in between two houses.
“Explain. Both of you. NOW.”
“We have to get back to your house,” Chad declared as if finalizing his decision on what ice cream flavor he’s going to get at the market.
“What the eff did we run all the way over here for then?!”
“We have to retrieve the rose. Where is it?”
“What? I just left the box in the kitchen.”
“I’ll distract Sam. Peter. Run back to the house with Lea.”
I was still trying to process when Peter took my hand before sprinting off towards my house. These damn boys don’t give me time to breathe! When we reached my front door, Peter let go of my hand abruptly as if finally realizing he was holding onto them.
“Get the rose.”
“Geez chill. Okay.”
We ran back towards where we had left Chad but Chad and Sam were nowhere to be seen.
“No no no no no no no.”
“NOW WHAT?” My stomach churned and I felt as if I was going to throw up.
“Sam took Chad again.”
“What do you mean ‘took’?”
“We need to get the rose to Chad asap.”
“But where are they?”
“I think I know.”
Peter drove us out of the neighborhood, pressed the accelerator down Lincoln Ave., and into the south part of town to arrive at my brother’s apartment.
“Sam’s place?”
Peter got out of the car without even parking and started climbing the front gate.
What in the world.
“Wait!” I got out and started doing the same.
The door to the staircase up was propped open thanks to a rock. When we reached the door to my brother’s apartment, Peter took my hand again, intentionally this time, and squeezed it.
Peter knocked.
Seriously? A knock?! We jumped the fence and ran up four flights of stairs to knock on a villainous creatures home?!
To my surprise, the door opened and there he was, Sam, my brother. But he wasn’t 12 feet tall. Quite the opposite. He looked small — shrunken and dull. His eyes weren’t glowing, they looked grey and lifeless. He looked at me pained, “Come inside you guys.”
Peter motioned me in.
“I am way out of the loop! What. Is. Going. ON!” I screamed. Two pairs of eyes stared back at me, but I could only focus on Sam’s. “What happened out there?? You look awful, are you okay? What happened to Chad? Also why are you HERE, who is that out THERE?” I pointed towards the door.
Peter glanced at Sam, biting his lip, waiting for permission to explain.
Sam waved him away and staggered towards me. He pulled the box (the key, the rose, whatever it was I didn’t know) from my hands.
He placed it on the coffee table and sat on the couch.
Gosh, he looked frail. I couldn’t stop staring at the way his cheekbones looked like stone, his bones all too visible under his tired eyes.
Peter wouldn’t sit, he paced. As I waited for someone to tell me what was happening my blood began to boil.
How could they keep something like this from me? Whatever “this” was? Why hadn’t any of them told me what was going on?
I cleared my throat to break the silence in the room. Peter, again, looked to Sam. Sam lifted his head and started, “I’m so sorry Lea, the key was never supposed to come to you, but now that it has you need to know…”
Peter watched me anxiously, biting his nails.
“That guy that you saw that looked like me, he is a clone version of me that Chad created. Chad has been testing around with 3D printers and he told me that he could build out an all-powerful clone that I could control at my own discretion but the key needed to be sent to the next person who would take over, and that was supposed to be Peter. Somehow it got sent to you… since you’ve touched the key, a giant clone of you will be created and for the next 29 days, you will have this all-powerful clone following you around. You can control it to do anything you want.”
