One hundred forty, an epistolary tale.

by K.L. Patrick
 One Hundred Forty, an Epistolary Tale
by KL Patrick is

© 2015, Kevin L. Patrick, Jr.

Self-publishing,
www.kevinpatrick.info
https://liarscontest.wordpress.com/

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected

under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any
unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part
of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system
without express written permission from the author / publisher,
excepting personal use without a profit, fair use of excerpts for
purposes of review, and educational use.
Introduction:
In the 19th Century epistolary novels were quite popular.
Basically, this type of work is a collection of letters. Sometimes from
only one person, other times two or more authors. This literary form
fell out of style, and I thought it would be an interesting project to port
that over to a modern medium.
While handwritten letters are much less common, the amount
of textual communication we do daily is quite high. Email, texts,
facebook status updates, and tweets by the hundreds per week! So I
thought to myself, what would a modern epistolary tale look like?
It could have emails, status, tweets, emojis, and hashtags.
Sticking to one venue seemed the way to go, and the short narrative
which follows is the result. It’s an interesting and fun way to tell a story,
but it might take the reader a moment to get used to it. How rapid are
her posts? What’s her mood? Who’s with her? All of these things can
be determined in just a few short characters… one hundred forty, to be
exact.
Enjoy! (;

--- K.L. Patrick

10/23 07:36
Ugh, class this morning at 8am. #caffeine

10/23 08:03
Hahaha, the professor's on the struggle-bus, too!

10/23 09:20
Power just went out. Not sure what's up. Everyone's on their
phones. #blackout

10/23 09:21
#omg, the whole class is freaking out! They’re saying it’s some
kind of attack. New York or Boston, maybe?

10/23 09:26
#1023 twitter and reddit are saying some kind of bombing on
the east coast. Why's the power out here?

10/23 09:32
No one's sure what's happening, people are getting up and
leaving. The halls are packed. Prof says to stay. No one
listens. #1023
10/23 09:40
#1023 Left the class I'm going 2 pick up little brother
@casein42. Traffic is insane, can't drive. Waiting on the metro.
%metro

10/23 09:46
#1023 #metro is closed. It's only a half mile walk. #HoofingIt

10/23 09:59
#1023 The school won't let me pick him up, some anti-terror
protocol bs. #dammit.

10/23 10:04
@casein42 hey, they won't let me come get you. can you get
out? meet me at the pick up place.

10/23 10:13
#1023 #acheivementunlocked: Acquired one booger eater.
Headed home. ef this traffic. Seriously. #truancy
10/23 10:18
#1023 Rumors are no tweets coming from Washington DC. Can
anyone confirm? What's happening?

10/23 10:24
#1023 I hope everyone's ok. #fingerscrossed

10/23 10:28
#1023 Some redditor said there's been an attack in DC. No
confirmation, just his one photo. www.twitpic.com/5gt6hfyd

10/23 10:35
#1023 The roads are a parkinglot. No one’s moving anyway.
Halfway home.

10/23 10:47
#1023 More photos of DC. God, i hope they're faked…

10/23 11:12
#1023 Low battery. Haha, at least I can use that solar panel
charger thing at home. #winning
10/23 11:35
#1023 Finally home. Booger eater is setting up a tent in his
room to prepare for the zombies. #nerd

10/23 11:35
#1023 Mom and Dad are back. Both looked scared. Dad’s
covering the windows with particle board. #wtf

10/23 11:52
#1023 Rumors are true. Someone attacked DC. Power is back
on in some places, not here though. #fml

10/23 12:13
#1023 Umm guys. My dad says we're leaving town. Seriously.
He says I can't post where. Is this real life?

10/23 13:09
#1023 Land Rover’s all packed. I guess we're going camping.
Dad has fuel cans on the back hitch. Where the hell did he get
this stuff?
10/23 13:56
#1023 Dad says we can't take the interstate. On some
backroad now. Guys, what is this? Is everyone ok?

10/23 14:42
#1023 Saw some cars broken down on the side of the road.
Dad sped up, said we couldn't stop. Saw some people in the
rearview. Scary.

10/23 15:18
#1023 Caught a peek at the interstate. No one's moving.
They're probably gonna run out of gas up there.

10/23 16:31
#1023 Dad stopped to put some gas in. Not even half empty.
Weirdo.

10/23 16:32
#1023 Dude. What? My dad's carrying a gun. Like a real gun?!
I didn't even know he owned one! #dafuq
10/23 16:52
#1023 Vines coming out of DC. Looks like buildings on fire and
people running. Hard to make out. What happened?

10/23 18:12
#1023 Guess we're not stopping to eat. Mom made
sandwiches. No clue where we are. GPS is down. Dad's using a
map like an efing caveman.

10/23 18:21
#1023 Someone just jumped out at the car, Dad swerved, but
we almost hit that guy. @JesusHChrist #wtf

10/23 21:19
#1023 Someone tried to run us off the road. Haven't seen any
other cars in a few hours.

10/23 23:45
#1023 Fell asleep. Woke up to Dad yelling, "Shit!" We just ran
a roadblock of some sort. Rumor is DC is apocalyptic.
10/24 01:04
#1023 Had 2 stop 2 pee. Dad stood in the road with his gun like
some kind of Mad Max guy. I want 2 say he's crazy, but I dunno
anymore.

10/24 02:12
#1023 Mom said we're gonna meet up with her sister and her
family. Can't post where. News is saying more cities are "going
dark."

10/24 07:24
#1023 Nice of them to wake me up. We’re … here. Aunt and
crew are here. Waiting on others.

10/24 08:05
#1023 Finally, some hot food! Dad wants me to go help cut
wood or something #butfirstcoffee.

10/24 09:55
#1023 I can't do this.
10/24 15:20
#1023 Sorry, couldn't use the phone. Some dude came into
camp. I think my uncle shot him. I don't think I can do this.

10/24 18:41
#1023 News says everything's crazy after the attack. Looting,
killings. They're hanging folks from street lamps.
www.twitpic.com/hsojd9w

10/24 21:05
#1023 I'm out. I need sleep. Tomorrow's a new day, right?

10/25 02:08
#1023 #shishitshit some dudes came by, we had all the lights
off. but they passed. thank god.

10/25 02:14
#1023 Alright, they came back. My dad & uncle went out with
guns. Told 'em to ef off. They did. I don't even know if we're
safe here.
10/25 04:04
#1023 Can't sleep. Battery's down to like 15%. Forgot to turn it
off while I slept. ):

10/25 05:17
#1023 Those guys are back. They're shouting, saying they want
food and ammo, and they'll come get it if we don't just give it
over.

10/25 05:18
#1023 Don't know why Dad doesn't just give it to them. Give it
to them and they'll go away!

10/25 05:20
#1023 My uncle threw them something. Can’t see what. He
said ‘Go away!’ Looks like they will.

10/25 05:23
#1023 oh god. they said they want more. and they're coming
for it.
10/25 05:25
#1023 oh my god will someone come help?! they're shooting,
they're shooting!

10/25 05:25
#1023 I can't see my uncle. I think he was hit. My dad's back
inside, and he's taking us all to the back door.

10/25 05:26
#1023 fuck. there's guys out there too.

10/25 05:28
#1023 I think I just heard the front door get kicked in. I can
hear boots. We're in the pantry.

10/25 05:29
#1023 If anyone is reading this, we're in the pantry!
10/25 05:29
#1023 I can see someone's feet under the door.

10/25 05:30
#1023 ... my battery is dying. ):