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Funny Fantasy Science Fiction

Harriet Bowson would have had the perfect yard if it hadn’t been for the chipmunk.


She had taken great pains in creating a wonderland for nature. Native plants and flowers sprouted throughout her little, fenced-in paradise. Consultants had been brought in when she first purchased the house to advise her on how to construct a sanctuary for both herself and whatever miniature wildlife might grace her with their presence.


As the yard was taking shape, she found herself dreaming of butterflies. Monarchs and swallowtails, luna moths and red admirals all fluttering around her as though she were a princess in a fairy tale. She imagined ants making their way through her garden in tightly formed lines. Perhaps a bunny or two would find its way under the fence and cause a bit of mischief. Harriet wouldn’t fret about it. After all, her garden had its own little fence that was electrified in the event that any hungry critter took an improper idea into its head. Oh, she had no intention of harming them in any great fashion. Her mother had taught her that discipline is the nectar of an orderly life, and so a bit of a shock might be needed to teach nature that same discipline. Other than that, the rabbits and the hedgehogs and any other adorable creatures should find glorious recreation in her carefully curated Heaven.


Like any suitable backyard, a bird feeder was prominently featured. How else would Harriet expect to welcome bluejays and sparrows and robins if not for a state-of-the-art feeding system that she had ordered especially from an Etsy user in Hong Kong? The first one she received was the wrong color--fuschia (can you even imagine?) and so it was sent back and a refund was demanded. A week later, Harriet opened up a large box revealing a feeder in the color she truly wanted. Off-fuschia. It went up in the garden immediately.


That was the finishing touch. She took a seat at her patio table and looked out upon her empire. The table and chairs were manufactured by the actor who played Peter Brady and were prominently featured in Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan. As soon as she saw the chairs, Harriet knew she had to have them--even if she preferred The Partridge Family over The Brady Bunch as a child.


It was on that first day basking in the glow of her manifestation that she witnessed a chipmunk making its way up the pole that led to the bird feeder. Harriest knew that rodents were sometimes drawn to bird seed, and so she picked up the small cattle prod she had ordered from an Etsy user in Moscow and proceeded to make her way over to the pole. A little jolt should send that chipmunk running, she thought, hopefully he’ll let his friends know as well. Everything in its proper place. Birds to bird feeders and chipmunks to wherever it is chipmunks eat.


She stepped lightly towards the pole. Once she was within a few inches of the tiny invader, she swore she could hear him breathing. He was looking up at her state-of-the-art feeder trying to get a sense of what the best way in might be. Truthfully, the feeder was especially designed to keep anything but birds out of it, but Harriest had seen a video online of chipmunks breaking into a bank vault and stealing over five million dollars, so she knew they were capable of anything. A quick tap with the wand, however, and she could see the little chipmunk absorbing the weight of an electric kiss.


There we are, Harriet thought, no more party crashers, hmm? Stick to the trees from now on. Why, when I used to go into my mother’s room without knocking and she was having one of her naps, she would make me carry a bag full of stones up and down the hillside by our home until I was practically begging her to--


(Un?)fortunately, Harriet’s childhood reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of something rather large hitting the ground. She looked down and saw that the chipmunk had not only fallen from the pole, but appeared to have grown to twice its size on the way down. She surmised that the prod had perhaps given off more electricity than it should have and inadvertently terminated the poor little thing. She would write to the Etsy user demanding a refund--and a replacement prod in a different color.


As for the growth, it was possible that chipmunks expanded when electrocuted. Harriet didn’t bother with too much science as she believed it was the religion of snoots and elitists, but she knew enough to know that if you put something in something else, that other thing will go. She had put some voltage into the chipmunk and so the chipmunk had ballooned a bit. She was going to have to have the landscaper come in and dispose of the corpse as soon as possible, but if he thought he was getting overtime pay for it, she would fire him on the spot. Landscapers should be expected to work emergencies free of charge. After all, wasn’t a dead chipmunk part of the landscape? There shouldn’t have been chipmunks at all in the yard. Harriet had explicitly told the landscaper and the gardener and all seven of the yard designers that any and all life forms needed express permission to enter her space. She had never given clearance to a chipmunk.


Harriet felt the shuddering before she heard it. The ground underneath her feet trembled like a small child getting out of a cold pool. It was a minimal sensation, but unpleasant. She thought that, despite what the realtor had assured her, the house might be located on a fault line. She would be calling Danica tomorrow at her office. She would demand a refund. She would be demanding that the house be painted a different color. She’d want more windows placed on the east side of the house and perhaps a small fountain in the foyer. You had to ask for what you want in this life. Nobody was just going to give it to you.


While she was lost in her ire, Harriet failed to notice that the dead chipmunk in front of her was continuing to grow in size. Within a minute, it had grown past the size of a small dog towards the size of a large dog and then to the size of a pony then a horse then a rather large horse then a suspiciously large horse and such was the nature of Harriet getting lost in her own private tirades that she didn’t notice the chipmunk until it was the size of a full-grown elephant standing right in front of her.


My goodness, she thought, that chipmunk doesn’t look dead at all.


Harriet was correct. The chipmunk was not dead. Not at all. Had she bothered to read the instructions on the Moscow prod, she would have seen that it explicitly directed anyone using it not to shock an American chipmunk as, for some reason, it only causes them to expand to the size of an elephant and exhibit hyper-violent behavior. Of course, she couldn’t have read the instructions anyway, because she didn’t read Russian.


While a giant chipmunk using its now-enormous paws to pick up a woman and throw her over five blocks directly into a lake was not exactly what the person who wrote “hyper-violent behavior” had in mind, it would certainly qualify.


As Harriet was flying through the air, she made a mental note to ask for a refund. She wasn’t sure who would be refunding her, but somebody had to be held responsible.


Otherwise, this sort of thing would happen all the time.

March 03, 2023 20:36

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33 comments

Laurel Hanson
12:22 Mar 17, 2023

Such great character development! And the following line is just wonderful: "Harriet didn’t bother with too much science as she believed it was the religion of snoots and elitists" - way to slide that social commentary in. Engaging read.

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Story Time
16:20 Mar 17, 2023

Thank you, Laurel and congrats on being on the shortlist this week!

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V. S. Rose
00:38 Mar 17, 2023

Ok Kevin this was a hoot. Loved the light-heartedness of it, you had definitely had me chuckling like a goof. The image of the woman being tossed by an elephant-sized chipmunk making a mental note of asking for a refund was too good. Great stuff and well-written!

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Story Time
16:20 Mar 17, 2023

Thank you, and congratulations on the shortlist!

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Julie Grenness
21:21 Mar 15, 2023

Great story! This epic tale clearly conveys the writer's message. There is an apt and effective choice of language and imagery to build up to the pitiful ending. Too funny, I hope you keep on writing.

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Story Time
23:21 Mar 15, 2023

Thank you.

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Susan Catucci
14:17 Mar 13, 2023

Fabulous, Kevin! You have a gift! A whacky, no-holds-barred, I'll-have-what-he's-having, insanely wild and wonderful, hold-onto-your-hat sort of a gift, but a definite gift worth giving! I'm just thrilled to be part of the fan club of satisfied recipients!

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Story Time
16:16 Mar 13, 2023

Aw thank you so much, Susan. I always love a "When Harry Met Sally" reference!

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Wendy Kaminski
21:42 Mar 12, 2023

This was unapologetically funny, Kevin - I could not stop laughing about the internal monologue of Ms. Refund-Replace. While I'm sure there was a deeper message about trying to conquer nature, I'm not sure I'd mind us continuing to try, with these sorts of results in play! Go on, suburbanites - I dare you! :) - Off-fuschia. - oh good lord lol - and a replacement prod in a different color - ok, that is hilarious :) Just great fun, thanks for sharing it this week!

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Story Time
00:25 Mar 13, 2023

Thank you, Wendy! I love a good off-fuschia sweater ;)

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Zack Powell
20:53 Mar 12, 2023

This is one of those stories where if you told me it came from Reedsy and you removed the author's name, I could tell instantly who wrote it. Just oozes that fun, breezy, offbeat-and-upbeat Kevin Broccoli style. I'm dying to know how you came up with the idea for this one. I love how Harriet's character becomes more unhinged and overbearing as the story progresses. I read the first couple of paragraphs and thought, what a sweet woman, going through all this labor for the animals to enjoy her yard. And THEN we get the talk of calling the lan...

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Story Time
00:26 Mar 13, 2023

Thank you, Zack! I had some idea of where the story was going when I started, but I always love it when it veers into the truly insane.

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Stevie Burges
13:39 Mar 11, 2023

Kevin, great story. Loved Miss Fuss-pot. Thought the detail of the feeder colour was fabulous. Highly imaginative story telling. Thanks for writing.

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Story Time
18:01 Mar 11, 2023

Thank you, Stevie. I appreciate you reading it :)

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Delbert Griffith
09:27 Mar 11, 2023

This is, quite possibly, the greatest chipmunk story ever written. This little chipmunk tale had me in stitches, my friend. Everything about it glistened with verve and life. I love Harriet - as long as she is relegated to fiction. In real life, I would find her insufferable. You did a masterful job of showing us Harriet. Her narcissism and self-centeredness knows no bounds; she even tries to dictate terms to Mother Nature. The part that was brilliance itself was the very small description of Harriet's punishment for going into her mothe...

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Story Time
18:02 Mar 11, 2023

Thank you so much, Delbert. Harriet was fun to spend time with--if only in fiction and not in real life.

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Michał Przywara
21:37 Mar 07, 2023

Ha! Was that hyper-violent? Or was the chipmunk just doing us all a favour? What a delightfully absurd ending. And very fitting, in a story about petty irritations. They seem so big right now, but in the grand scheme of things are probably meaningless, so fretting over them is itself absurd. And yet we do it anyway :) "Off-fuschia" :) "absorbing the weight of an electric kiss" - very nice. "getting lost in her own private tirades that she didn’t notice" - humanity in a nutshell? This was a fun piece with a fun character :)

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Story Time
17:21 Mar 08, 2023

Thank you so much, Michal. She was a blast to write.

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05:23 Mar 07, 2023

I love your take on this prompt! Very well-executed and creative. I love Harriet's character and wit, and her determination to confine nature to something within her grasp. The way she was written, I had full faith she could do it. Wonderful story, thank you for sharing!

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Story Time
17:22 Mar 07, 2023

Thank you, Alexandra. Glad you enjoyed it.

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Amanda Lieser
05:21 Mar 06, 2023

Hey Kevin! What a superb story! I don’t know if you’re a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, but I instantly thought of that opening scene in the third film. If you know, you know. :-) Anyway, this story was delightful. I found myself loving all of the pop-culture references, and also appreciating this characters need to create a beautiful yard. My grandmother has always been an avid gardener, and so this particular character made me think of her. Hopefully, this character is able to sort everything out. I would definitely be demanding a refu...

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Story Time
07:38 Mar 06, 2023

Believe it or not, there's a little bit of me in her--Mainly the part that wants everything to be perfect, although I would love a yard with some chipmunks in it. Every size welcome!

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Aeris Walker
01:03 Mar 04, 2023

Hey Kevin! This story made me laugh. Harriet...what a Karen... The fact that she's so absorbed in the thought of who to blame for her problems that she misses the rodent of unusual size feels fairly realistic and true to her character. Also, "Danica" is the perfect real estate agent name. One note of critique: I've heard it said that there needs to be details early on that establish the genre so that as you introduce the elements of the genre (fantasy, in this case) they are still surprising but not unexpected. Here, the genre tags kind of...

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Story Time
09:14 Mar 04, 2023

Thank you Aeris, and thanks for catching the "house" error. I don't know if I necessarily agree that the genre needs to announce itself early on. To be honest, I find labeling stuff by genre kind of limiting, so I usually just grab whatever three pop into my head. Most of the writers I like don't fall into a specific genre, although I'm a fan of magical realism, which wouldn't really apply to this story, but isn't an option anyway when we're choosing. Plus, a lot of the time, when I'm writing, I'm not sure just how much reality is going to ...

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Aeris Walker
11:55 Mar 04, 2023

I can certainly see how there is more emphasis on the character in this one. All fair points! Best of luck to you :)

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Story Time
22:09 Mar 04, 2023

What you said is very interesting though. I wish we could have more conversations about writing on here. I was thinking about it today and you made a great point. Definitely going to remember that moving forward.

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Lily Finch
23:19 Mar 03, 2023

Kevin, your story is excellently written. Poor Harriet always demanded her money back because the colour was off or the outcome of use was unexpected. In the case of her interaction with the chipmunk turnabout is fair play OR you reap what you sow is fitting as a takeaway of your story. It is entertaining. LF6 Some minor typos She be calling Danica tomorrow, luna months

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Story Time
23:26 Mar 03, 2023

Good catches and thank you for reading as always, Lily!

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Lily Finch
00:05 Mar 04, 2023

Good story difficult not to read. You're welcome. LF6.

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Michelle Oliver
23:03 Mar 03, 2023

I had a great laugh reading this story! It’s is crafted with such dry wit and self-righteous language, that Harriet seems incredibly real. What a character. Demanding refunds and changing colours because it has to be someone’s fault. She never apportions blame to herself. Favourite line: -Her mother had taught her that discipline is the nectar of an orderly life, and so a bit of a shock might be needed to teach nature that same discipline. I am still imagining her flying though the air muttering about how someone needs to take responsibil...

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Story Time
23:13 Mar 03, 2023

Thank you, Michelle. I considered having a small group of chipmunks terrorize her over the course of a year, but that felt like the novel approach as opposed to the short story approach.

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Michelle Oliver
02:42 Mar 04, 2023

I would love to see your take on year long terrorisation by chipmunks. It would be very creative, I’m sure

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Graham Kinross
10:11 May 19, 2023

I like the off-fuchsia preference. Some people are far too particular. “even if she preferred The Partridge Family over The Brady Bunch as a child,” I’m a fan of Alan Partridge. Steve Coogan is hilarious. You captured the essence of someone who thinks there’s always someone to blame and that it’s always someone else. Go chipmunk!

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