Don’t Touch Me

Short Story Day 101 of 365

“Hey, who’s the new guy, Slim?”

“Pfft. You kidding me? They’re always adding someone new,” Slim said. “Never seen ‘im before. Looks strange. Yellowish. Kinda big for his age too. Wonder if he’s okay.”

“Hey you. What’re you in here for?”

Yellow looked over and shrugged.

“What? You can’t talk?”

He shrugged again.

Slim said, “Well be that way then. If you ever wanna hang with the cool kids, let me know. We’re always here. Been here for a while. Too long really. We know all the ropes, the players, the landscape. Once you’re here, you’ll be here for the long haul.”

“I’m kinda important,” Yellow finally said.

“Here that, boys…and girls? Yellow over here tells us he’s important. Like he’s somebody. Listen, Kid. You may be fat and yellow, but you’re nobody just like the rest of us. Nobody. Got it?”

Yellow smiled.

And then Yellow was gone. No sign or trace of him.

An hour later, he reappeared, this time with a glow about him.

“Told you I was important.”  

“Don’t let it go to your head,” said Slim. “You’re a permanent fixture here and you know it.”

Yellow nodded a bit. “Yeah, you are right about that. The difference between you and me is that while we may both be permanent, I’m more, shall we say, colorful. I like to accent all the words. Get it?”

“What? Now, you’re a yellow comedian?”

“No, but I am truthful,” Yellow said. “And you? I think you’re all dried up ready to be tossed into the trash can of life. I do crack myself up some times.”

“Yeah, keep it up with those jokes about us being all dried up, and you’ll see who gets cracked up.”

“Jealous?”

“Of you? You’re big and fat and yellow. What’s to be jealous of?” said Slim.

“Um, Slim,” Scissors said. “If I were you, I’d be very careful about what you say. Yellow has a point, and you used to. Not so sure anymore.”

“Hey hey, what is this? Gang up on ol’ Slim day?”

Before Slim could finish his sentence, they all crashed against each other, got shaken up and were sprawled out on a flat surface. The owner picked each one up and tossed several into the trash can.

Yellow was right. Most of Slim’s long-time friends were gone, though he himself was placed back into the Holder.

Slim remained, as did Yellow and Scissors.

The unknown entity in the Holder now was NailFile, and boy, was she ever suspect.