When I am particularly lacking in motivation or ingenuity, I sometimes go through the documents on my laptop. It's not actually as boring as it sounds; I've had this laptop for 5 years now, so it's almost like an archive of my activity for the last half-decade. I have an entire folder of artwork transferred over from the family computer that stretches back even farther. My writing folder is inevitably the biggest time-sink; I have spent hours (or at least one) reading old writing, poems, freewrites, even. It's not that any of it is particularly thrilling. It's interesting to reread where I was in life and in writing.
I have my writing folder divided up into various folders based on particular stories or universes. But then, at the bottom, lie all my unfoldered files. Some of them aren't even Word docs. And they all have vague, ominous titles, such as, "Seasonal Worldbuilding," "Panic Episodes," and such favorites as "YOU IDIOT YOU SAVED OVER IT AGAIN DIDN'T YOU."
Now, usually, all it takes to decipher these files is a quick read. Even if I don't remember what the title refers to, I can usually catch myself up by skimming the first few paragraphs of the document. One document in particular, however, is both intriguing and inscrutable: "The Last Rice Crispy."
"The Last Rice Crispy" was last modified in 2011, at nearly midnight, but I suspect that the actual origin of this file is far older. I suspect that the "last modified" date is just another curious "open" and paranoid "save." But upon opening once again, I am given a few scant sentences that reveal nothing about the significance of the title:
"In a world far in the future, post-apocalyptic nuclear
warfare has ripped all traces of oxygen from the planet Earth 2.5.1. Human life has evolved and mutated into an
aquatic race dependent on nitrogen-enriched plasma to keep them alive."
That is it, ladies and gentlefolk. Keep in mind that while I am a casual fan of science-fiction, I do not have nearly the adequate scientific background to be making claims like "nitrogen-enriched plasma." Personally, I'm picturing a clear liquid similar to water but just barely more viscous. Like warm jello maybe. I am also, right now, adding "patent pending" after "Earth 2.5.1."
I will never know how rice crispies were going to figure into this sci-fi story nugget. I will never know if nitrogen-enriched plasma is the appropriate breeding ground for oxygen-intolerant future-people. I am considering pursuing this storyline to see where it takes me, but I have little hope for its survival. It's going to be touch and go here for a while. Should further anomalies be discovered, I will inform the public immediately and gently. Be alert. Be awake. Be ready for an invasion of nitrogen-enriched plasma-beings that may or may not have a penchant for puffed rice cereal and its melodious snap, crackle, and popping when exposed to milk.
