Sketchy Business

fictionspawn Aak,

A sketch creature

Gerog came home from work, threw his bag in a corner and went out on the porch. He sat there for a while, listening to the silence. He loved silence. His note pad was lying on the table, he must have forgotten it outside yesterday. Lucky it didn’t rain. He made a little sketch. A sketch of a man with a big head and strange hair.

The phone rang. He went inside to pick it up. Wrong number. He grabbed a soda from the fridge and went back out. He looked at the note book. The sketch was gone.

That’s strange… He said out loud. He went through the pages, maybe the wind had turned them. Nothing.

Looking for me?

Gerog opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. His sketch was sitting on the fence, smiling at him.

You… You’re alive!

I am!

But how?

You made me, remember?

That’s…. That’s… That is awesome! You even talk!

I talk and I stalk.

Stalk?

You’ll see! The sketch jumped off the fence, ran into the bushes.

Gerog rubbed his eyes. He was going crazy, no doubt about that. He up to the bathroom. Sat down on the toilet, grabbed a magazine.

Hello!

Geroge almost fell off the toilet. -What are you doing here? Get out!

See you! The gnome disappeared behind washing machine.

He kept appearing everywhere. When Gerog was cleaning the dishes, when he was watching TV, when he was showering. Always in the same, annoying and startling manner.

He woke Gerog up five times that night. At least.

The next morning the sketch made Gerog spill milk at the breakfast table, made him stumble in the hallway and made the toilet ring fall down in a bad moment. At work he appeared every time he shouldn’t. Gerog almost got fired for destroying a box of bean cans.

On the way home he was seeing it everywhere.

If I just ignore him, maybe he’ll go away. He can’t be real after all, he’s just a product of my im…

Boooo!

Gerog jumped. He fell into the road. A car came. Turned hard. Ran into another. The drivers came out.

Are you crazy? Jumping out in the road like that?

You’re paying for this, asshole!

Gerog ran away. Back home the sketch was waiting for him.

Hello! It said.

Leave me alone! You almost killed me out there.

He went down the stairs leading to his room. The sketch ran out between his legs. He stumbled. Fell. Landed onhis back on the floor. It hurt. The sketch was standing beside him, laughing.

That’s it! Gerog grabbed him by it’s throat.

Let go! The little sketch was fighting as much as it could, but Gerog got him in a good grip. He walked over to his desk, opened the drawer. Searched around in all the mess inside.

Let go of me! I’ll tell!

Tell who? You’re just a stupid sketch. Gerog’s hand came out of the drawer. The sketch looked at it in terror. It’s worst nightmare was coming true.

Gerog moved the eraser towards its head.

Noooo!!! The sketch screamed. It burns! It burns!!!

Hahaha! Gerog laughed. He was winning. The stupid sketch was disappearing in his hand. Soon there was nothing left.

He breathed out. He sat down on the chair. Finally he could get some rest.

You killed my brother. The voice came from behind him.

He spun the chair slowly around. A monster was standing there. A demon with three heads. Fire was coming out of its mouth. It was holding a huge axe in one hand. Gerog knew him all too well. He had created him himself back in the days when he was making graffiti. The drawing had covered the whole wall. Permanent spray paint.

This one would not be erased.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosol_paint

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketch_(drawing)

A Story Come True

Published by fictionspawn Aak

Norwegian trilingual writer and illustrator. Contact information in my Gallery.

42 Comments

  4. Aren’t you afraid to draw now? 😀

    Did I read the part right about the toilet being in the same vicinity as the washing machine?

    Geroge almost fell off the toilet. -What are you doing here? Get out!

    See you! The gnome disappeared behind washing machine.

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        1. In my house it is 😀 Might be a consequence of lack of space, though, but it’s not a bad solution. In my last home it was in the kitchen, and my mother has it in the basement. Where would it go in the U.S.?

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        2. The toilet or the washing machine? Toilets almost always get their own space in the bathroom. Washing machines typically go in the laundry room, but in a small apt, they can go in a dedicated closet. I lived in a small studio apt back in the day, and the toilet was still in the bathroom. Didn’t have a washer, but there was a laundry room on the roof (inside an enclosure).

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  9. Oh my gosh, what a funny conversation…

    … back to the toilet in the bathroom and the washing machine in the bathroom. I’ve actually come across at least three bathrooms recently with washers and dryers in the bathroom… houses for sale. One was in the city proper (to me anyway, while it is historically one of the first suburbs in the area). While it is considered what would be a desirable house, it was slightly smallish compared to current standards. Another was also (but really) in the city proper and a cute and dolled up and well-maintained place (desirable for the price but not in the same category as the other one, not big enough for more than one person, not right next to the high-status private school as well as near much social action of society folks). I didn’t visit the little (tiny) one.

    Oh (just remembering), another I saw (this would be a fourth one) was only in a magazine. It was nice enough to be featured in a glossy decorator’s presentation. The third (among those I mentioned at first) was another I walked through. All four had the toilet in the bathroom [not at all abnormal, although higher middle-range houses are tending more to putting a room within the room for that or at least a little partition wall… but these are not houses everyone can afford] and the washer and dryer in the bathroom too [not usual]. Either a laundry room (all of its own or else set as part of an exit to the back or something like that) or a location in the basement are standard (and there are other creative solutions here and there). I’ve seen the washer and dryer in the kitchen quite a few times in my life (stacked in a closet), and of course the same stack in a hall closet. I grew up with laundry done in the basement.

    Oh (again remembering… I will eventually get to that third house… this is a fifth one). I went into an “open house” [meaning I didn’t schedule a look] at a property that was shown for sale to the public on a Sunday. It had a converted section of the house right next to the kitchen for a laundry room and a separate small bathroom (with the toilet directly in there) and with a door to each one from the kitchen (whereas there had been one door from the kitchen before and a door from that room to the other). I imagine this space used to be like a small version of what we would call a master suite. It hadn’t included the laundry “above stairs” [not a term we use in the U.S.] in the past; the laundry used to be right around the corner off the kitchen then down the stairs (or “below stairs” in English parlance). What the space used to be was a “maid’s quarters.” The real estate agent at the house, doubling as the grandson of the long-time owner, wanted this to be known. This address was again in an area considered an early suburb.

    The third house. I was a bit stunned by this one, in a confused way. It was a very pride-inducing (apparently, to the person moving out) but not ostentatious home in a newer yet established neighborhood. These people (I was being shown through the for-sale-by-owner by the husband) had redone their flooring throughout with teak, added copper pendants and maple cabinets and so on and so forth in the kitchen, put a pool table and cinema just off the kitchen; I won’t try to describe everything. They had added a wing so that they could do that “recreation” room on the main floor and expand their master bedroom right above it. What was unacceptable to me (besides a couple other things) was that as you approached the master bathroom from the master bedroom you found the laundry room (in the master clothing closet). This isn’t terrible, and it was all thought-out finishings. But… I had to ask …

    … whether there was another area for laundry in the basement. By contrast, my host was confused or bothered by the question. (Seemingly because if he had to take me down there I would see that the basement wasn’t “finished.” It was clean, though, and fine if the other levels provided enough space. And it did have another washer and dryer. Some people are ashamed* of the slightest things.) I had said, in an uptone, that if your children were small the other made sense (even so, not really). Or if you were only a couple or alone (which I didn’t say and they weren’t). Children should learn how to do their own laundry — and not be traipsing into and through their parents’ room to do so! And why oh why would you want to bring all the messy things children do in there? Top this off with there being no window to open in either the laundry room slash closet or bathroom (and no separate room for the toilet either). How would one air this out so the clothes (not only being washed in there but then kept in there) are fresh?

    * He still wasn’t wanting to show me the basement when I was asking.

    A basement mudroom (which can include toilet and shower) are good places for laundry.

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  10. {Oops. Created the beginning of that last sentence and the end of it separately, and they added up to bad grammar.}

    Now about “soda… ”

    You got “that right,” Aak. 😏

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