By J. S. O'Keefe
“Every time you tell me something I will reply that you said the same thing yesterday. Let’s start, okay?”
“That’s stupid.”
“That’s what you said yesterday.”
“We didn’t even meet yesterday. Come to think of it, I am not sure I know you.”
“Yesterday you said we hadn’t talked the day before. You also said you were not sure if we’d ever been introduced.”
“Listen, help me out here. Why are we talking, you and me?”
“Very funny! Funny, indeed. We’re talking because we’re continuing yesterday’s conversation. Capiche?”
“No capiche! For the last time I’m going to say it, this is stupid. An imbecilic mind game. You’re trying to play with my head. It is stupid.”
“Stop repeating yourself. You’ve already used the word stupid three times today and said stupid yesterday. The average adult in an English-speaking country knows a total of thirty thousand words and actively uses about twenty thousand in his daily life. Don’t tell me you only know one word for stupid. Just off the top of my head, brainless, dumb, ludicrous, dull, foolish, witless, inane, simpleminded, idiotic.”
“Those are called synonyms. And leave me alone, okay? Find someone else who enjoys blubbering hodgepodge. Or get a thesaurus and learn about synonyms. Come back after you develop real language skills and have something interesting to discuss.”
“That’s the word, synonym! I remember you mentioning synonyms yesterday. I’ve been searching my memory ever since but kept drawing a blank. It’s an elegant expression, synonym, probably from Latin or Greek. Anyway, thanks for repeating it.”
“That’s it! I’m never talking with you ever again.”
“That’s the very sentence you screamed at me yesterday, word for word. And yet, here you are talking to me.”
“Enough! Listen, stupid, I’m going and from now on you are dead to me and I am dead to you, okay?”
“Big deal; both of us are dead. Coinkydink, they put us in the same morgue, next to each other. At least we can talk until we run out of things to say.”
About the Author
John O’Keefe
J. S. O’Keefe is a scientist, trilingual translator and writer.
His short stories and poems have been published in Roi Faineant, Scribes*MICRO, Every Day Fiction, AntipodeanSF, 101 Words, Microfiction Monday, 50WS, Friday Flash Fiction, Medium, Paragraph Planet, 6S, WENSUM, Spillwords, Satire, etc.
You can find out more at his website: <https://www.szjohnny.net/>
About the Artist
Toni Verkruysse
Toni Verkruysse has authored three fantasy novels: Marking Time, Iron and Intaglio, and Pale as Hope.
She is also an artist whose works are displayed in the Olympic archives and Palm Beach galleries.
Our weekly podcast features the stories from recently published issues, often narrated by the authors themselves.
Sarah Jane Justice is an Adelaide-based fiction writer, poet, musician and spoken word artist.
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Emma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
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Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Chuck McKenzie was born in 1970, and still spends much of his time there.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.