Contemporary story
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Zippo

John said; 'I had this dream. I'll tell you about it: I'm standing in a bar with some friends and we're talking, drinking, it's Friday night and the bar is pretty full, there's loud music playing. The beer is making me feel good, but not falling-down good, and the vibe is there and all the girls look pretty. I have enough money in my pocket to keep it going like this all night so, you know, everything is fine.'

He wound down the window and took a deep breath before continuing.

'It's my round and I go to the bar and there's a huge crowd but I get served right away. As I pass out the drinks and turn back to get my own beer I brush against this girl, I mean, she brushes against me. And smiles. Real eye contact. I think to myself, "This is going to be a really good night" and if I'd woke then I would have woke up laughing. You know how it is with dreams, good dreams, part of you knows it's all fake but if you are really lucky you don't wake up. Everything works alright.

'Then this kid walks into the bar, I don't see him first, but my dream sees him or maybe I just remember it afterwards. He's just a skinny kid, wired up though, real angry looking, and in his hand he is carrying a bucket full of petrol. It sloshes about as he pushes through the crowd.

'I look up to see him standing in front of me just as he throws this bucket of petrol in my face. Next thing I'm standing in a crowd of one as everybody backs away, except the kid who is grinning at me, and I am soaked in petrol. My eyes sting as it runs down my face. It is clotting in my beer.'

John looked at me and smiled, a wry smile.

'There I am, standing alone in a puddle of flammable liquid, the stuff is seeping through my clothes; it feels clammy and scratchy. I know what is about to happen and I think to myself, "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?" Like it just isn't part of any of my plans to be burned alive in a pub on a Friday night.

'The kid reaches into his pocket and pulls out a Zippo, holds it toward me and smiles. He has nice even teeth, I notice. I think to myself, "I haven't had time to think this through and I'm not prepared. I'm not ready yet."

'I'm still waiting for my life to flash before my eyes when he snaps open the Zippo. And it fails. It won't spark. He clicks it again. It fails again. He says to me, almost apologetically, "Just hold on, Rufus, it'll work in a moment." He really concentrates on getting this thing to work.

←2→

'Then I woke up so fast. I'd wet my shorts. I was more scared than I'd ever been.'

John shrugged, played with the air vent, 'I've had this dream four times,' and then he wound down the window again, and spat into the fresh damp air.

'The first twice it was like a shock to my system, I was so upset by it, I couldn't sleep for days afterwards. The third time it happened I couldn't sleep for days before. And I was ready for it when it came. So ready. I shot out of that dream so quickly he didn't even have time to reach into his pocket.

'The last time I had the dream, I'd almost forgotten, it had been so long since the last one. I was just standing with some friends, in a pub, you know, having a really good time, and this girl brushes past me. She is wearing a thin top and no bra. I can feel her breast as it grazes past my arm and her nipple is hard even though the room is warm. She looks up and smiles at me, a really warm smile. Comfort and joy. You know, I've never met a girl I couldn't learn to dislike, but this one and me, we have this immediate depth. I can tell it's going to be a good night.

'But the kid hadn't forgot and he took me from behind, and when I turned to him the petrol was already dripping out of my hair and the girl wasn't there anymore.'

'Maybe she knew the plot,' I say to him, 'maybe she was in on it,' but he ignores me and continues:

'I can feel this liquid soaking through my t-shirt and my jeans, running down inside my underpants; following the crease of my arse and collecting behind my balls. And this time the Zippo was working, he must have got it fixed, and his hand was moving toward me with this little machine with a small blue flame coming out of it.

'As I woke up I heard a 'whoomp' sound, but that might have been my heart, or my stomach 'cos I was sick on the floor next to my bed.

←3

'The first couple of times really pissed me off because I was so unprepared, and I hate that, the feeling of being caught out. But the last time it happened I realised that what I was really scared of was knowing that the petrol would burn me until I died, that sooner or later the Zippo would work and I would not be quick enough.'

He stopped talking and spent a few moments deep in thought.

'And then what?' I asked.

'Then I won't wake up,' he turned to face me, 'Because I can't always be fast enough, can I?'

For a moment I felt a surge of some emotion toward him but this was extinguished as his hazel eyes hooded over and a lazy serpent smile spread across his face, masking the brief show of fear.

'Let's do it then,' he said to me.

We got out of the car.

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Average: 5 (1 vote)

Comments

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 15:57

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I think alot of people have unfortunately missed the point about this story; they all seem to be looking for some answers and reasons that arent there. I think that the point of this type of fiction is that it is left up to the reader to really decide whats going on, and that is what is good about it. A story where the readers come up with ideas about whats happening that the author hadnt even thought of, means at the story can be interpreted in so many ways, and will appeal to a much wider audience than a story otherwise might. I think that the authors writing is very coherent and believable and is beautifully contemporary. I only hope that people will see the same thing about my work if I am successful in publishing on here.

Submitted by admin on Sat, 11/03/2007 - 19:48

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i think this is a very intresting story.

i think the moral that the author is trying to convey is that you cant/shouldnt live in fear of what could be.

you should live your life and have a good time.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 11/07/2007 - 11:59

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I think that this story was very well written but I think that what would have made this better is if it was not a dream and it actually happened to him in real life. And I also didn’t like how they didn’t even discuss the horrifying dream but instead just went on to say well then lets go do it. But the over all them being that you should never let fear stand in your way and you should reach for what ever goals you have is deffinatly a great way to convey the authors point.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 11/07/2007 - 12:07

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I really liked this story a lot because it gets the reader really into the story and into the characters thoughts in the very beginning. The ending was kind of confusing but i liked it because it lets you add your own ending. You could make him die or you could just let him have a good time. I think the main idea of this story was to show the readers that people can over come fear if they just go out and face it instead of just staying away from it. And i also liked how it tells the reader about his dream and how he reacts everytime he wakes up. It puts the reader into the characters shoes so they can know what the character is feeling. The intensity of the story was good because it starts out slow and then goes into more depth about how the fire would kill him. Over all this was a good story.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 23:23

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The monologue, so to speak, of this character is chilling in how realistic it feels and how accurately it portrays the vision of this person that you have presented us. I enjoyed it thoroughly and read it again straight away after the first time. I understand why someone would feel that it is incomplete, but I think it ended perfectly abruptly, in a very fulfilling sense.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 12/06/2007 - 07:01

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Facing your fears with a dark twist or are they trouble makers and the dream is guilt for what he has done..they seem to take on the idea of acting out the dream with a sense of inevitablity which to me suggests they may have committed acts of violence before?

Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/09/2007 - 20:21

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Silly writing. No imagination, no plot, no "moral." Readers who find this intriguing are trying to convince themselves they understand it on a "higher plane," but are really only kidding themselves. Im as intelligent as the next bloke and I dont begin to understand something like this, not to mention understand why someone would waste valuable time producing it. You want to read good short story writing, get Jeffery Archers collections...hes a master.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 16:38

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It would make more sense if even a little more detail was added to the ending. "We pulled up the bar, and we got out of the car", for instance. Otherwise, there is just way, way to many directions this ending could be going. Having a story end with a character standing at a crossroads is one thing, but ending it in complete ambiguity is entirely different. The story grabbed my attention from the beginning, but left me feeling cheated in the end.
And I take issue with the commenter that said it was cool that so many wouldnt "get it". That smacks too much of the Emperors New Clothes. In order for a story to be good, most readers should be able to "get it", not just a handful who think that they do.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 01/23/2008 - 11:11

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i found it very engaging throughout and then came the end- im not going to pretend i understand it because the author has clearly meant it to be ambiguos and left it hanging to provoke different personal interpretations. Reading these comments though, i noticed that nobody seemed to get the first impression of the ending i did- that they are infact going to reinact the dream. Perhaps this was just my reaction to the dark character of the child, and his lazy serpent smile which gives connotations of evil.
After a second read i now get that this is supposed to be about him overcoming his fears, and whatever is causing his subconcious to make him keep having these dreams.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/24/2008 - 18:16

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This is a great story...
Maybe the last sentence should be more explicit. The way I get it is they get out of the car and into the bar, so they are actually living the dream.
Obviously a few people didnt get that, or I got it wrong myself, or its just for the reader to decide. But those who didnt get the ending didnt like it, so it might as well be more explicit...

Submitted by admin on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 17:48

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"Im as intelligent as the next bloke and I dont begin to understand something like this, not to mention understand why someone would waste valuable time producing it."

If you are not even trying to interpret the deeper underlying or symbolic meanings, message or purpose of a piece of literature you have no business expressing your opinions on its quality. This was an engaging story for many, meaning that this writer obviously knows how to write an engaging story, which leads me to believe that he knew what he was doing by leaving everything up in the air, because he is obviously skilled or experienced enough to intrigue the readers enough that they are pissed off when they intially find they do not understand the conclusion.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 05/30/2008 - 14:49

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I thought this was a very interesting story. I got the impression that the characters dream represented his life. That is, on the surface it was a perfect evening at the bar, and on the surface everything in his life was great. The boy with the zippo represents what is lurking under the surface, that deep down the main character feels guilt over some aspect of his life and knows that its only a matter of time before he has to account (or pay) for his actions. although the main character in the story is troubled by the dream and knows that one of these times it wont be fast enough he decides to put aside these feelings. The last line in the story, "Ok lets go" tells us that he has decided to set aside any second thoughts he may be having. I cant tell from this story if he is guilty of violence or is perhaps feeling guilty of using women for one night stands, but I think the dreams represents his feelings of guilt and his ultimate decision to put these feelings aside.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 10/30/2008 - 14:36

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I enjoyed reading this story until I thought Id got to the end. But for me there wasnt an end, and without an end its not really a story, its just a piece of open ended writing, however well its written.

Submitted by admin on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:24

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very nice one.. i think he means that the whole thing is a dream " the story hes telling his friend and his friend is the guy in the bar.. or thats how i get it :) i like it so much .. kinda a short film material .

Submitted by admin on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 20:51

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Love it. It reminds me of the conversations between Samuel L. Jacksons character and John Travoltas in Pulp Fiction...a little fragment of interesting but trivial minutia from 2 guys who are about to go kill some people.
Additionally, I very much like your other two - "Its just the Sun..." and "The Card". Touching.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/27/2009 - 08:00

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I loved it. Admittedly, the ending has got me beat, I took it to have little meaning. And Im not sure why so many previous comments allude to every story having to have a "moral". Perhaps its just a nice piece of writing. Certainly made me feel a few things, including the menace of the dream.

Submitted by admin on Sat, 12/26/2009 - 15:01

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Zippo:
This is Wildes Dorian Gray meets Pulp Fiction.

The dream sequence is a roll of celluloid on fire. And its the somewhat painless existence the character leads: the going out drinking, meeting girls, night after night etc. etc. that one day will burn up and come to end. And how could a life so pleasant yet banal end in death? Well, one day it happens to us all, thats what the dreams about.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 07:00

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The story is quite good and a typical short story. However the end is confusing and you really want to know what will happen, what are they going to do.

The author did a good job - everyone can think whatever he wants to and so everbody will understand this story in another way.

All in all it is very interesting to read about the oters interpretation.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 07:04

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when i read the first lines of this story
i was scared about the unscrupulousness of
the kid. lol. the whole story is really
exciting and sometimes funny because of
"nipples" and "balls" xD

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 07:05

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I don´t like the story ,,Zippo by james ross, because it´s very boring.
It´s an open-end story, and i don´t like such stories.
I think that John is a silly guy. So the whole story is senseless. There is a man who dreams that he will die, because a little kid burn him up with a zippo lighter.

For me the story is bad, and boring and nothing else.

Submitted by admin on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 12:44

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Stupid

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