Blink, blink, blink… (cursor taps the untouched page). Aren’t you going to write something? Haven’t you anything to say? You really just used the word “haven’t”? Ridiculous.

Don’t you mock me! I’m a human, I have thoughts! I’ll write on you when I have a worthwhile idea.

     Blink…blink. That says a lot about your ideas then.

Shut your mouth!

I don’t have a mouth. I’m just a cursor.

Well you’re in my head, get out!

I’m only on the page. This is like when you blamed the tennis ball for your lack of hand eye coordination.

How would you know how I feel about anything if you were only on the page?

I come from your thoughts. It’s complicated.

Just give me a minute…give me a minute to think.

Ok…blink, blink blink…

Stop it!

What? Blinking is what I do. I’m waiting for you to get your brain together and utilize me.

Well I’m trying.

Are you?

What is that supposed to mean?

I’m just saying…blink, are you one of those writers who works hard when you feel “inspired” or is there actual effort there to make something happen?

I can’t write with nothing to say.

Can’t…blink, blink…or won’t?

Won’t I suppose, though there’s not much of a difference. I won’t write anything pointless. You know how that goes. I start on a paragraph, realize how stupid it has become and delete the whole idea before it turns into an even bigger waste of time.

What if you’ve scrapped your best idea?

I honestly don’t think I could have made a book out of any of those monotonous paragraphs.

Maybe not, but you could draw from the feeling the little story gives you. Say you write about a hamster…but what you’re getting at is entrapment.

Ha…haha. Because of the cage.

Blink…blink…blink…remember how easy things used to be? All of that Redwall fan fiction you loved to write?

Yeah… (smile). I wish I had that back. The feeling that everything I wrote and did was awesome. How does a kid lose sight of that?

I dunno…blink. Maybe life becomes less of a joke. You have deeper things to write about and they can’t just run out of your head crazy and unpolished. It has to be good because it happened.

Reality, then?

I suppose. It’s not like I had a childhood.

So what do you want to write about?

I’m not the writer. Only the scribe. It’s up to you, but I will keep blinking until you come up with something.

And if I close Microsoft Word?

I’ll just be waiting for you, blinking in your head.

Luciana, 25