Annual 2018

About Annuals [Back to top]

Every day I try to write. Every time I finish a story to my satisfaction, I release it into the world. Any year I successfully manage this, I collect all my stories from that year into a kind of omnibus edition, or collection.

But as well as the published stories of that year, I include special little things: blasts from the past, tales from the vault, short pieces that have nowhere else to go, and, occasionally, a poem.

This is my third Annual (after 2013 and 2016), and I have every intention of it being an annual occurrence.

You may remember my 366 project, to write a short story a day, that turned into finding an idea a day? Well, I am still working on those stories, and hope to get the second volume of stories from January 2016 out sooner rather than later.

Occasionally I will be so enamoured of a 366 story that I will publish it alone, as I did with Catch, but otherwise it will go in a 366 collection and not appear in an Annual.

Since 2016 I realized I was pushing myself too hard, even though it was a fun ride those days that it worked and I actually got stories flooding out of me. So I switched gears to monthly stories. You might have noticed that none of these monthly stories have yet seen the light of day. They will. Some sooner than others, mind you.

Intro to Catch: [Back to top]

Catch is that rare creature: a 366 story completed out of turn and released alone. Catch was the designated story for July 14, 2016. It's a story about friendship, loyalty, danger, and a game you play on your phone.

Catch

1 Myrtleberry [Back to top]

The three girls walk side by side along the city sidewalk, their too-short skirts flapping with each step. They're thirteen. Just finished grade seven. Enjoying the summer.

Claudia is on the left, closest to the traffic. Her thick black braid swings like a pendulum. She has thick braces on her teeth. She hates them, and anyone who pays too much attention to them. In a few years, when they come off, she'll be happy she had them. But not now.

In the middle of the group is Melanie. She's blonde, and since school finished she's put streaks of kool-aid-pink in her hair. Her mom isn't thrilled about it, but at least she isn't going to get suspended for it now. Her face is already full of summer freckles.

Daphne is the quiet one. She has a thick curly mop of black hair kept from her face by a headband covered in pink sparkles.

They all laugh together, Melanie turning first to one friend, then the other, completely in her element. The leader of the pack. Daphne smiles, and laughs only sometimes.

A phone rings. It's the strange sound a dying phone might make. The first ring begins enthusiastically, but its energy fades, the tone slips into discord in the second ring, and in the third peters out in a pathetic gurgle. Claudia's phone.

Hi mom, she says. With Melanie and Daphne.... Yes, we're downtown.... In a park.... I don't know – guys, which park is this?

Memorial, says Daphne.

Memorial, says Claudia, into the phone. Uh-huh.... Yes.... I get it mom.... Yes.... Yes, I will.... Seriously? Okay, fine – mom says hi.

Melanie says, Hi Mrs. K!

Daphne says, Heya!

Claudia says, Okay, bye! She creases into laughter.

Melanie says, "She is like so transparent."

Claudia says, "She calls us the four musketeers.

"What does that even mean?" asks Melanie.

Maybe she means Mouse-keteers? says Claudia.

But there are more than four. I don't get it! says Melanie.

She's so lame, says Claudia.

"But at least you're safe, with your friends!" Melanie giggles, and Claudia giggles, and they both realize at the same moment that Daphne isn't giggling with them.

Now that they have noticed her, Daphne has to speak. Poor Monica.

Melanie snorts. "There's no point her being here if her mom's got her phone."

Claudia says, She can't play the game without it.

Duh, says Melanie.

"We're not playing the game now," says Daphne, without looking at her leader.

"We will be soon," says Melanie.

Melanie is right about that. They've reached the park. There's a wrought iron gate with the name shaped in fancy letters. The park is all grass and mature trees, and thronging with people. They aren't lounging about, having picnics, or reading books. They're all standing around in groups, like they're waiting for something to start.

Good, says Melanie. We haven't missed it.

The three girls stick together, because they're cooler than everyone else.

Melanie gestures towards a balding white guy older than her father, with a belly, just slightly peeking out from under the front of his superhero tee shirt. He's got no right to be here. Melanie doesn't approve of age. To her, eighteen is the pinnacle. Anyone older than that she has no respect for.

He has a phone, says Daphne.

That his grandchild taught him how to use.

"Great grandchild," says Claudia, automatically. Melanie laughs. Daphne doesn't.

Melanie considers her friend, and you can see the annoyance on her face. Daphne is studiously avoiding looking though. Melanie's features relax as she decides not to make a big deal about it, not with a monster so close by. But if Daphne doesn't find their jokes funny, why is she even here?

The girls have their phones in their hands. Every so often they take a peek, as if waiting for an important text from a boy. But the two hundred or so other people in the park are doing the same thing, boys, girls, men, women. All are waiting, for the same thing.

In the middle of the milling crowd is a stone pillar. Claudia looks at it, and says, I'll be right back.

Melanie huffs. Now she is stuck here with stupid Daphne. She studies her phone rather than talk to her. Many others are in the same pose so she doesn't look out of place. Daphne must feel it though.

Claudia navigates through the clumps of people between her and the stone pillar. She gets close to it, and sees a long list of names engraved into it. The names are in alphabetical order. It's something to do with a war.

An excited shout echoes through the hushed whispers. At once, everyone turns to their tiny screens. Someone had to be first, and now the rest have followed, including Claudia. No one notices the eerie silence as everyone braces for what is coming. There is a wave of frantic swiping and tapping, and a buzz rises, like electricity in the air, and gasps come from one side, and then the other, a groan or two, and even a whoot.

Claudia loves the feeling.

They are all in the thick of it now, young and old, black and white, girl and boy, all so focused, so united. Each of them may as well be alone in a deserted park. No one pays any attention to anyone around them, not even the people right beside them, or right behind them. The game is everything. They are here for the monster. They are here for the catch.

Myrtleberry.

She's a bulbous green monster with a halo of branches with slender green leaves on them, and a single white berry hanging from the end of her nose, like a ripe fruit, or a droplet of snot.

Myrtleberry bounds through the world as seen through Claudia's phone camera, jumping on the heads of people nearby (who, of course, are unaffected in reality), and stands before her challenger.

Myrtleberry plucks the snotball from her nose and hurls it at Claudia, who taps to dodge it. Within a second another white ball has grown at the end of Myrtleberry's nose and another attack comes.

Claudia's health is reduced with each impact of the white snotballs, and so Claudia must tap at just the right moment to evade the attack. With every failed attack, Myrtleberry takes longer to make her next snotball. Claudia must swipe her lasso at exactly the right time, as a snotball attack will disrupt it. The lasso takes time to swipe properly, so the time between snotball attacks must be long enough for the lasso action to complete.

Then, with a full lasso swipe, Myrtleberry is captured, and the game becomes a battle of health and perseverance. Claudia's taps counter Myrtleberry's attempts to free herself, and the balance tips in Claudia's favour. Myrtleberry's health falls to zero, and Myrtleberry hangs her big round head in defeat.

Claudia jumps up, excited about her victory. She remembers her friends, and looks around for them, wondering how they have done. There is a commotion all around her, a festival atmosphere around this sombre monument.

A black teen boy with an intricately shaped pattern shaved into his short black hair fist bumps the pear-shaped middle-aged white guy that Melanie despises. Claudia stares for a moment. How are they friends?

The answer is obvious. The game. The game has brought them all here, together, for the same reason: to catch Myrtleberry. No matter what part of the city each person is from, whether the gentrified east end, the classy downtown condo buildings, or the dilapidated and poverty-stricken north end, the game has brought them together.

Claudia is most pleased that it proves her dad wrong. People are not always out for themselves, always hating, hurting, killing each other, like they say on the news. These are real people, just hanging out together, making friends, playing a game, having fun. Someone other than Claudia might say there is a heady sense of camaraderie, but Claudia wouldn't use either heady or camaraderie. She just thinks it's cool.

Claudia!

Melanie's voice draws Claudia's eyes, and Claudia can see the impatience and annoyance there. The sense of joy and connectedness drains away from Claudia. She visibly deflates as she returns to her friends.

Did you catch her? Claudia asks, wanting to recapture a bit of that lost feeling.

Stupid snotball, says Melanie. That's a no. Let's get a slushy.

Claudia glances at Daphne, who smiles softly. She looks exactly like the Daphne who just caught the Myrtleberry: quietly glowing, but keeping her happiness to herself to avoid upsetting Melanie further.

Sure, Claudia and Daphne say, sharing private smiles as Melanie flounces away from them.

2 Kukupan [Back to top]

When Claudia gets to the intersection of Kirkwood and Bushel there is already a crowd, and a lot of honking.

The spawn zone is centred in the intersection, right in the middle, so that the four street corners are just outside the edge of it.

Drop another treat! A blond, bearded college-age guy with an unnecessary scarf is only a few feet away from Claudia. He turns to his comrade, wearing a similar scarf, but with his long black hair tied into a messy bun on the crown of his head. Drop them all!

I don't have any more! says Man Bun.

Claudia clearly doesn't understand why they are dropping treats for Kukupan when they are outside the spawn zone.

There are more than fifty people walking back and forth on the nearest crosswalk each time the lights change, feeling that the spawn should happen at any moment. If there were enough players they could just take over the whole intersection, and stand there in the middle, and get a good chance of a catch.

She's almost jealous of the passengers in the cars. She can see one girl in the front passenger seat of a left-turning jeep trying to catch Kukupan. It would be the perfect place, but it isn't the perfect time. The girl complains to her dad as he completes the turn, taking her out of the zone.

There is the telltale buzz