I wrote this very short work of fiction based on real-life at a literature group meetup. Each participant suggested one random and optional word to use. The only word I used was “bear,” which was my word suggestion.
I have been moving words and numbers for most of my life. I was a model student who was good at math until I realized being an engineer or a scientist would likely test my mental limits while being very boring. I ended up going into quality testing software by pressing buttons all day to move words and numbers for private information technology corporations. My co-workers tended to focus on making money to pay off their mortgages and their shiny BMWs. Many IT guys loved BMWs for some reason.
Working with my hands seemed romantic, so I enrolled at a cabinetmaking school and soon realized I am terribly slow at woodworking. What got me was that a mistaken cut is not recoverable and you can die from a power tool gone bad. And the pay was terrible. I realized I had switched from moving words and numbers to moving wood at the risk of killing myself. I settled on working at the IT department of a wooden window manufacturer. I felt like a sellout, a slightly better paid one.
When the window company went broke, I had to get a new job. Still hung up on the idea of working with my hands, I tried working at restaurants and learned that many chefs are angry and unpleasant people. The hours were long, the work repetitive, and the pay terrible. I was now moving food with sharp knives.
I ended up going to graduate school and working for a government agency. I was finding myself almost back to where I started. I was moving words and numbers all day long by pressing buttons. The difference was that my co-workers were nice while some of my customers – members of the public – would make me want to climb up a mountain and scream for 20 seconds. I never had any customers to deal with in IT or window manufacturing.
I felt my problem was being born as a human, so I started dreaming of a better life as another species. After much thought, I settled on the buffalo. Buffaloes looked peaceful yet powerful with their giant horns and hunched backs. And then I remembered they almost got wiped out by European immigrants. The movie Dances with the Wolves showed the aftermath with piles of dead and skinned buffaloes.
I thought maybe staying human would be an okay choice until I saw a bear at about 100 feet away. I used to think that with cunning, I could survive a bear attack. I would poke its eyes and punch its mouth. Seeing a bear almost at my height even when it was on all fours dashed my dreams.
So I am not sure what species I should be even if I could choose.