The Green Meanie

The Green Meanie

Suzanne Marsh

I sat staring at the blank computer screen, drawing a complete blank, talk about writers block, this was it. I had no idea what I was going to write about, but I knew somewhere there was story that would be fun to write and my deadline was fast approaching. The story was supposed to be Science Fiction. My fingers were willing but my brain said: 'I don't think so.' I finally went to bed, my husband was already asleep, he began to snore and I stared at the ceiling, hoping I would get some sort inspiration and soon. After an hour of tossing and turning I got up and padded to the bathroom with my writing pad. I know that bathroom is a rather odd place to write but I didn't have to leave our bedroom and I could close the door and turn on the light, not disturbing my husband. The next morning, the thought of getting out of bed at six o'clock in the morning, was just not appealing. I rolled over and went back to sleep. That was a big mistake on my part, I knew sooner or later I was going to have to get my body and devious mind in gear, just not right now.

When I finally rolled out of bed; I headed back to my office and the blank screen of my computer. You would think that I would have had some sort of inspiration at this point, the deadline was fast approaching, my mind as blank as that damn computer screen! I knew I should have paid more attention when I took that Science Fiction course than I did, but that is another story. I rummaged around my office until I located the text book I needed: How to Write Science Fiction for the Beginning Student. Not that a book at this point would give me any ideas that were plausible. I sat and stared at the computer screen; no, no good. I got up from my desk and headed toward the living room and my piano. Music has always been an inspiration to me, however misguided my thoughts. That didn't help either. Back to the blank screen on the computer I went.

My next distraction was computer games, not that those helped much, sometimes it did, but, nothing was working this time. That screen was just as blank as blank gets. I needed an idea and about three thousand words, I did not even have a working title. I usually have at least one writing journal, where I keep ideas, so I pulled it out and thumbed through it. My husband, noticing that I was sort of losing my marbles with this thing decided it was time to help. He began with:

“what about an old computer game, that might make a good story.”

I love him dearly but I hated computer games like Pac Man and Ms Pac Man which were the ones he played back in the day. I had played Ms. Pac Man several times but was never very good at it. Then I began to think again about the Convenience Store. Hey, maybe I was onto something although what I still had no idea. That night I went to bed, once again I was up with my pad in hand headed toward the bathroom, determined to solve my dilemma of what to write. I went back to bed, stared at the ceiling then the light bulb came one, I had a bright idea. I jumped out of bed again, grabbed my writing pad and headed for the bathroom. I began with the working title: The Green Meanie. Ms. PacMan had green, blue and yellow meanies that devoured her and ended the game.

I sat on the toilet seat as I began to write. Realizing that this is a rather a strange place to write a story however I did finish the rough draft. I turned out the light and padded back to bed. The following morning I showed my daughter the fruits of my labor from the night before. First she began to giggle at where I had concocted the story then she began to read. By the time she was done reading the story she was in hysterics from laughing so hard. Just what had I written?

The story opens with the Green Meanie contemplating how to get out the machine he has been trapped in for the last twenty five years. He, found himself in the machine as a small green grim face. The issue was how to get him from the machine to the body of young male. Okay, so this was going to take a bit of explaining. The best place to start was Google, I just was not sure how to ask the computer to list body jumping or something to that effect. I finally settled for body heat transfer. It made the most sense at this point. Now I had given the Green Meanie a way to get into Travis' body. The next part of the story I need a very small Texas town, thank heaven for Goggle! I found Gail, Texas population 231. This was great! I began to think about a location for Ms. PacMan, then I remembered being in another small town and seeing one at a General Store. The setting was perfect.

The story began to flow more smoothly as I began to build the plot. Travis Simons, age eighteen was the protagonist. He was around five feet eight inches in height, weighed one hundred and forty pounds, he was awkward. Travis played with three others guys of the same age, sometimes they played teams; other times they played tournaments. Travis arrived early, heading toward the Ms. PacMan machine, he wanted to practice.

The next part of the plot called for the Green Meanie to communicate with Travis, this was a huge challenge. I could not just have a conversation between the two. Then I thought about Ms. PacMan again, the Green Meanie could communicate through the electronic system. I was on a roll finally. The rest of the story took shape, so to speak. The Green Meanie and Travis went on to win all the tournaments, giving Travis what he so longed for, fame and fortune.

I finally finished the story with less than twenty four hours to submit it. Although I had procrastinated in writing it, when the light bulb finally came on the story turned out well. Every writer has light bulbs as ideas begin to form into stories. That story was one of the first I ever wrote, it disappeared when I obtained a new computer, which is to bad because it was a really funny and interesting story.