Week 2, Theme 3

Prompt: Write a narrative that has the form of a list embedded in it. It might be the story of a particular day, or a series of errands or some other simple actions or events. Suggest but do not explain the implications of the order of the items in your “list.” Push the sequence toward a surprising conclusion that illuminates the list’s secret coherence---or possibly that undermines the expectations you have built up.


Had Jess sat down at her desk in 1998 rather than 2008, it would have been colored with pale yellow sticky notes, climbing up the walls in the corner of the room until they mirrored the ivy tangles outside her window. Instead, one piece of clean, perfect aluminum sat alone on her spotless desktop, gleaming in the late afternoon light. With some trepidation, Jess opened her laptop only to see virtual post-its, with the same yellow pallor as those real-life monsters, spill everywhere on her screen.

Professor Reisenbach had emailed her two – no, now three – days ago asking her to rewrite the footnotes of her paper. A snippet of the message with the words “very disappointed” bolded and underlined glared at Jess from the first note on the screen.

Jess’ flatmate had four days ago left a real-life post-it on her door reminding Jess that it was her turn to buy groceries for the week. Jess had taken the note, transcribed it into a pixilated sticky, and then shredded the paper promptly.

Mother had called yesterday, and with the help of the voicemail Jess had typed a note about old Dottie’s operation. It was now thirty-four hours since Dottie had left surgery; a patient might be sleeping thirty-four hours after operation, no? Best not to call and disturb her.

This morning Seth had tried to stop by the house. Upon finding the door locked, he had slipped a long note with something to the tune of “let’s get back together” under her door. Jess had bullet-pointed the letter in a sticky to summarize for herself and then shredded.

Jess’ iPhone lit up and diverted her attention from the screen. It was Marcie; she wanted to get takeout margaritas. Looking once more at the screen, Jess navigated to write a new note. “Get to all of this tomorrow. Really this time.”