Cheating
FlashNano 2019, Day 19
“Leonard Nimoy?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Wow. What are you doing here?”
“You should know.”
“Well… yes. Yes, of course. It’s… surprising?”
“Do you mean ‘fascinating’? Perhaps even remarkable?”
“Ha. No, I… I don’t know. I didn’t think it would be like this.”
“Well, you know I’m not really Spock.”
“But you are.”
“Zachary is quite good as well. And I hear there’s some new guy who’s not half as bad either.”
“A-ha.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I just realized. I’ve almost always seen you on-screen dubbed. Yet… I’d say that is your real voice. That is indeed fascinating. I didn’t think I could pull it off.”
“Well, thanks then. I would have felt really weird.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, Mr Nimoy.”
“Why am I here?”
“Well… Honestly?”
“Please.”
“Because I cheated.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Well, I had to write about my grandfather. One died before I was born, and I barely remember the other one. Of course I thought of inventing a story, but I didn’t feel like it. And it’s a hectic week, and… here we are. I cheated.”
“In a way.”
“Yes. I remembered you offered on Twitter to become honorary grandfather to anyone who so wished. And I said so. I had it in my profile for some time, too.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. You see, here I just knew you from the movies… well, I knew you as Spock. But when I really started doing Twitter, you were one of the people I decided to follow, and I saw a glimpse of the person. And you know how it is, even being a social network, how others talked about you and respected you. And then you came up with your offer and… how could I reject it?”
“Well, you know that was easy for me to do, don’t you?”
“Of course. But it was still nice.”
“Thank you again.”
“And then… Then one day, not much later, I saw it, on Twitter as well. You had passed away. Gone.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, of course. And you know, this may sound strange, but… it hurt. Damn, it did hurt. You offering to become grandad for anyone who needed or wanted one. How great. And then you were gone. Like that.”
“So, I’m dead.”
“Yes, I cheated again.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They say that writing a story that is really a dream doesn’t count.”
“Well, if you’d take my advice?”
“Sure!”
“You’ve got to learn the rules first, to know how to break them later.”
“Interesting… Thank you, Mr Nimoy.”
“It’s Leonard… or Gramps.”
This is my flash for Day 19 of FlashNano 2019, (idea by Nancy Stohlman). The prompt for today was “ Write a story about your grandfather (real or not).” And well, the story pretty much explains it all.
