Projects > Story-of-the-Day > olympia-sm9

I looked at the nearly identical houses lined up to either side of me. I was in a suburban garage sale and about to buy a typewriter. I hesitated for a bit, thinking my friends would continue to call me a hipster, but I had to have it. I paid the suburbanite $245 and loaded the Olympia SM9 in the passenger seat of my Volkswagen Golf. I may have patted the top of the typewriter a few times as we drove back into the city where we belong. Finally I could become a writer.

I carefully place the typewriter on top of my levelled desk and load a piece of paper. I press the carriage return button and watch with joy as the carriage zooms left. Then there's the satisfying ring at the end. Wonderful! Time to take this thing for a test drive. I think it would be nice to have a hardboiled crime book under my belt.



Wait, maybe I should change that to a specific handgun from the 1930s. Google says a Colt 1903 would work. Okay, let's just change that. Oh. That's right, this is a typewriter. We'll get to that in the second draft. Stephen King says to just keep writing. I'll do that.

Suddenly, I hear a scream outside. I pull open the mini-blinds and see a man in a trench coat grabbing onto the screaming woman. He's got a gun to her head but is just standing there. I get 9-1 dialed just as a police car pull up. Over the next minute, the police manage to get the woman freed and handcuff the man. I sit and absorb the scene thinking about how great my environment is for writing.

I pull the paper out of the typewriter. I need to write something happier, a comic relief, after all of that. Anyway, I've heard it's good to have two stories going at once. So you can get your head out of one while working on the other. My second book should be like a children's book, but have concepts that only adults would get too. Those are super popular now. Oh, I can make some pages that you can color in. People love coloring books now too.



Perfect! I'm on a roll today!

Another scream outside. I run to the window and almost can't believe what I'm seeing. Three elephants just walking down the street: two big ones and one youngster. They don't look upset at all with the cars honking at them. Now, I don't want to make any assumptions about their sexes. But one of the elephants starts mounting another one.

This is all just too weird. First I wrote about a man grabbing a woman with a gun, then it happened outside. Next I wrote about three elephants and they appear right out my window. I think an experiment is in order. I sit down at my typewriter and put a new sheet of paper in. Hmm, I'm going to have to look into paying for carbon credits from all this paper when I get more established.



Okay, let's see what happens. I walk into the kitchen and see a steaming cup of coffee on my counter. Oh my! I go to take a sip. Even though I saw the label on the cup, I can tell the "vintage" of this brew. Wait, that's right. I do live alone. That means somebody else is in here? I go through my bedroom and bathroom but don't see anybody. Phew.

I come back and take a seat on the pew that I've repurposed into general seating. I can literally feel the responsibility of my typewriter grow. I think of writing about how my entire building decided to start complying with recycling laws today. But if I can do that, I can get the whole city to do it. Or even the whole world.

Okay, let me think big here. World peace? That's not bad... Pollution? I could get rid of it all... Oh, I know! Global warming.

I run to the typewriter. I have my fingers poised above the keys while I think of the perfect sentence to write.



Hmm, the ribbon is out of ink. I should have another one in the next couple days. It's a good thing I have Amazon Prime.

I look outside and see snowflakes. That's weird. It's still summer.