“Ere, Simon, how do you know you can die?”
“What?”
“I said, how do you know you’ll die? Or that you even can?”
“What are you on about now?”
“I was just thinking. You could have superpowers or something, so how do you know you even can die unless you try it?”
“Don’t be stupid, everyone can die. It’s a given.”
“Yeah man, that’s what they want you to think.”
“Oh don’t start with all your conspiracy theory rubbish. It’s too early in the day for that.”
“It’s not a conspiracy theory. What if it turned out you’d gotten superpowers during the night and you were now invincible – how would you even know?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“So come at it another way – we all reckon we can die because people keep doing it, but how do you know you actually will?”
“It’s the natural law.”
“But how do you know?”
“I don’t, but I’m certainly not going to try it to check either way.”
“You’ve got no vision, have you?”
“Well you do it then.”
“Fine. I will.”
“No! Don’t! Don’t jump out the-“
THUMP
“Eric? Eric?!”
“It’s okay, I’m alright! I told you I couldn’t die!”
“Oh don’t be stupid. I just looked out – you landed in a dumpster!”
… just for one day!
Nice portrayal of youthful dreams and imaginations let off the leash
marc nash
Ha! Thank goodness for the dumpster! Thanks for the smile Icy!
“You’ve got no vision, have you?”
certainly not x-ray
One thing he is sure of now: He can’t fly.
Funny and realistic bone-head banter, Icy.
He’s certainly dumb enough to be an immortal…
This had me thinking about Unbreakable but ended in a much funnier place.
I hope there will be more strategically placed dumpsters in this guy’s future so his friend doesn’t have to mourn him before his time!
Well, maybe he has the superpower to manifest dumpsters beneath any reasonable fall. You won’t know until further testing!
A wonderful laugh for Friday morning! Good to know things worked out. Kids always do think they’re immortal, huh?
Heh. These two sound like the co-champions of the Knucklehead League.
Scary and hilarious at once, which means You’ve Got Talent Icy. 🙂
Truly great portrayal in dialogue alone, super work!
I liked it!
I absolutely love the tone you set in the first line Icy. The “ere” was especially well-observed.
Their seeming stupidity hides an intriguing philosophical conundrum and it was fun to watch them grappling with it.
It’s a great question: how would we know? I love the dialogue, super way of telling this story and giving us the characters without other clues. Really enjoyed this, Icy.
Take care,
JC
This is like a new level of dare!
The dialogue had me smiling throughout the read and for a moment you had me with the finale – I was sure it would be a grim ending, but thank God for that dumpster!
Heheh! Let’s hope that Eric doesn’t get himself, or anyone else killed trying to prove his theory.
Thanks for the smiles Icy. 🙂
You know I actually knew a guy like that when I was 16 :/ He grew out of it after a shattered shin.
Thanks for sharing.
Saffy
But a dumpster full of WHAT? Mattresses? *rimshot*
LOL God protects madmen and idiots. So he might be immortal.
Phew – you had me worried there. Brilliant all dailogue piece Icy, you really set the tone and pace nicely. These two sound like they could become regulars… maybe?
Perfect pitch on this one — sounds like a lot of “morning after the night before” discussions I’ve had the bad luck to overhear.