Sub: [URGENT]- Imagination Required
Hello friend,
Been a while, hasn’t it? Yeah, I am talking to you, who else is here anyway. Tell you what, I am gonna be square with you, I have landed myself in a bit of a fix and I would appreciate your help. What’s that? You don’t know me...Sure you do. Let me jog your memory.
You’ve heard of me, heck we’ve even met loads of times. The trick part is to formally introduce myself. Now just for a second imagine this: you are in a library but you can’t read and you can’t enter the library either. But you gotta read some books. So what do you do? Telephones right? You telephone someone at the library and they read you a book. That’s me. No, not the telephone, the person who reads the book.
Still confused eh? Every time you get an idea or some clever chum somewhere gets an idea or a plot or something, what do they do? Huh? That’s right they tell it to someone, or better yet, they write it down. Now that right there is a story my friend. And our kind, we hold the keys to ‘em stories.
We go by many names, the older ones call themselves ‘Guardians of Tales’, ‘Keeper of Stories’, and all of that stuff. Me? I like to keep things simple, you can call us ‘Narrators’.
Now, where was I? Yes, the Library, so every time someone tells a story one of the telephone rings a Narrator answer and a story’s made. It's a fun job, not for everybody though, but hey I ain’t complaining friend. Flexible work hours, great culture, and wonderful occupation. Did I mention we have been expanding for a while now? That’s right friend, new Narrators coming in every day. Man, woman, god, alien, you name it, you got it.
But the trouble started a couple of weeks back on a Thursday. So I am in the middle of a story, regular murder mystery, the-butler-did-it-to-steal-all-the-money kinda stuff. I feel something change, I don’t bother much then and I finish it all swell and proper. But as I look around I see the Library’s changed. Everything’s as it should be, except most of the Narrators are gone. Just gone. Vanished without a note. A few young recruits wander about aimlessly. I would have asked them about it, but the damn telephone. I answered one and then two more in a row. When I was done there weren't any Narrators left. Not a single one.
I tell you, friend, I’ve seen some weird stuff in my time. Heck, some lady, Christie, or Christiana she made me the murderer in one of her stories. But this...this was beyond strange. There just wasn’t one trace of where they went. Maybe they died, maybe they were on a beach sipping margarita. I didn’t know, and I didn’t get much time to think either. The damn telephone kept ringing off the hook.
I think to myself, maybe it’s something I ain’t supposed to know and they’ll come back alright. I take some calls. A day goes by, and then a week goes by. None of the Narrators come back, there ain’t no new Narrators coming in either. I stop eating or sleeping, all I do is answer the phones and make stories. Do you realize what was happening? Every second a new call came in for a new story and I rushed for every one of those.
So on the tenth day, I tell myself: Now, now, let’s pause and think for a second. This right here is a fine mess and there ain’t nobody coming to save me. I am the last Narrator left here. Whatever’s gotta be done, gotta be done by me. And I let the phones ring for a day, two days, no stories get made, the whole world is in what you lot call a ‘writer’s block’.
But still, no one comes in, not a single Narrator other than me in this gigantic Library. And that’s when it dawns on me, if there ain’t any Narrators around we gotta create some.
Now you’re probably thinking the guy writing this has gone completely bonkers. But that’s not it. You see it’s simple, you lot write stories through us, right? What if I started sending a message through you? So I pick up this telephone and instead of giving a story, I send out this message.
Let me cut to the chase now. The Narrators are gone. All but me. They ain’t coming back. So we need to make some more. Me and you, friend. Here’s what I do, I pick up the telephone occasionally and I send out this message to as many people I can.
Your job is to imagine. Just close those big eyes and think of a Narrator, think of one who tells your story, their voice, their features, and perspectives. Think of diverse Narrators every time you think of a story, or read one, or listen to one, on those devices you carry around. Imagine. That’s not too hard eh? Think of a world where all stories have the same Narrator: me. Isn’t that a boring world?
So just before you write, before you tell your story think about the Narrator for a second. Imagine them, imagine who they are and how special they are. You do that my friend and I am sure this place will be packed up again in a week's time. Until then, so long, farewell.
P.S: It gets lonely around here. The stories are only fun when you have friends to share them with.
Regards,
The last Narrator.