The Missing Page

I'm trying to think of something witty to say about this piece. Though I can only tell you why I wrote it. My friend, Jessica, has a habit of telling me to write stories about normal things. Which I don't do. Strangely, when she suggested I write a story about someone losing their assessment outcomes for a uni assignment, I got inspired to do something with it. This is how it turned out. 

This is how I tell the story of a normal, boring, everyday situation...

Jessica sat at the desk in her study, staring at the computer screen. She’d left this assignment till the last minute – again.

     There were only two weeks before she had to hand this report in; she couldn’t believe she’d been so slow in getting started. Her Occupational Therapy course was her life, but lately she’d managed to get distracted by sport and friends, baking and leisurely reading, though she was always aware these weren’t as important as excelling in her studies.

     Jessica shuffled through her papers. She needed that page ... that page ... where was it? She would never know the direction her words should go if she didn’t have the assessment outcomes for the treatments of fatigue that are supported by evidence-based practice. How would she ever succeed at this most important of assignments without it?

     She stood up, frantic to find this recently missing link to her scholarly success. Two weeks was already pushing the time she needed to write an outline, find appropriate quotes from her textbooks and get her beautiful and incredibly intelligent friend to proofread it to find any mistake or grammar problems that might make her work anything less than perfect. So these precious minutes she was wasting searching were absolute agony to her.

     “Jessica?”

     Responding to the voice of her husband from the other room would only further delay the beginning of her work, so Jess pretended she hadn’t heard, flipping again through her folder of notes for the elusive page.

     “Jess!”

     Jessica paused in her hunt. Mitchell’s voice was ... worried. She let go of the paper in her hands and stepped cautiously forwards. She opened the door slowly and saw Mitchell. He seemed to be struggling with something. She moved out of the study and could see the complete picture. Mitchell was holding one side of a few pages of paper and pulling as a little creature tugged on the other. Jessica could only stand in place and watch.  The small monster was only as high as Mitchell’s shin, but was holding his own in the strange tug-of-war.

     “Mitch ... what ...?” Jessica could only stand and stare at the bizzare scene in front of her.

     “Jessica ... he has your assignment ...”

     Jessica looked at the top page and the printed text all over it. “It’s a draft, Mitchell. You can let it go.”

     Mitchell looked down at it, too. “Okay.” He dropped the paper and the little creature fell backwards.

Standing at her husband’s side, Jessica watched as the small creature recovered itself and gave a triumphant grin at his prize before disappearing amongst tiny smoke-like whisps.

     “What the hell was that?” Mitchell asked, putting a hand on Jessica’s shoulder. Jessica was still staring at the space where the monster had been and turned her face to look at Mitchell.

     “I think that may have been the thing that took my assessment outcomes.” Jessica glanced back to where the creature had disappeared from and frowned. “I'm going to have to call someone in my class and ask if I can borrow theirs.”

I'm thinking there's more to this story. Ask and I'll take a shot at making it longer. :)