The Missing Story

A pleasant aroma wafted around Rainy, cocooning her in a cloud of fresh tropical breeze. She’d never smelled anything so wonderful before. As a microfiction about Alaska, she usually felt so cold inside but she could feel a warmth spreading through her core to her limbs.

Her eyes shot open. Something was wrong. She never awoke to a pleasant smell.

She looked to her left and gasped. Her neighboring story, Arty, was gone! He’d always been next to her since the day she’d been published, but now there was a narrative poem about Hawaii in his place!

Quickly turning to her right, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Piecey, wake up! Something terrible has happened!”

The inverse poem squirmed and awoke.

“What is it? What’s the matter?”

“Arty is gone!”

“No!”

“Yes! Look to your left! Is Squirrelly still there?”

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Piecey. “He’s gone too! Although, I must confess it’s a bit of a relief. Squirrels are terrible creatures and he was a shifty sort of sonnet, wasn’t he?”

“Focus, Piecey!” Rainy ordered. “Something strange has happened. It’s as though stories have been shuffled up and reordered.”

“But you and I are still together!” Piecey observed. “Maybe we’ve been moved to a better shelf of stories? Maybe it's a good thing.”

“How is losing Arty a good thing?” Rainy asked in disbelief. “We’ve been a trio for months! Why would we get moved without him?”

“I don’t like to suggest such things, but maybe Arty wasn’t up to snuff. Maybe he got, you know... deleted.”

“No way! Not Arty.”

“You have to admit it's possible, Rainy. I mean he’s a story about a misplaced item and his image is literally a group of trash cans. The word ‘disposable’ is in his title. Plus we both know he didn’t get many reads.”

“Even so, our author wouldn’t just delete him!”

“Can’t be too sure. We are just intellectual property after all. And look on the bright side, you won’t have to deal with those persistent wafts of trash smell anymore.”

Rainy did pause at this. It had been delightful to wake up next to the sight and scent of paradise. Then she shook her head. “No! We have to find Arty back.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?”

“Well, let’s start by asking some of these stories on our shelf. Perhaps one of them has seen him!” Rainy said excitedly. She headed toward a story a short distance away and pulled Piecey with her. She called out to the story, “Excuse me. I was wondering if you’ve seen my friend?”

The story turned to face them.

“Ah!” Piecey cried. “It’s a clown! Don’t look it in the eyes! Probably a horror piece. Could be dangerous.”

“Don’t be rude!” Rainy hissed.

“Hello, friends,” the story greeted them. “I’m Clowny and I’m a humor story, so have no fear. Who are you looking for?”

“Our friend, Arty,” Rainy replied. “He’s a humor story too. Has colorful trash cans for his image.”

“Afraid I haven’t seen him,” Clowny said sadly. “You fellows haven’t seen a story with a big fish for an image or one with an owl, have you? Seems I’ve been re-shelved without them.”

“No, we haven’t. But we’ll keep an eye out, won’t we, Piecey?”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Piecey said with a strained smile, still looking at Clowny with a skeptical gaze.

“Thanks! Good luck finding your friend,” Clowny said with a wave.

Rainy waved back then elbowed Piecey.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“How do you expect us to get help finding Arty if you offend the other stories? You’re lucky that one had a sense of humor!”

“Alright, let’s just get a look at a story before we approach next time.”

“Fine. How about that one?” Rainy asked as she pointed to an abecedarian with a heart-shaped cloud for its image.

“Wouldn’t be my first choice.”

“Why not?”

“Well if we want reliable sources, maybe we should stick to stories with badges.”

Rainy stared at Piecey blankly. “What do you mean?”

“You know, Top Stories or Challenge Winners.”

“But I don’t have any badges. Does that mean I’m not a trustworthy story?” Rainy questioned through gritted teeth.

“No! Of course not! You’re…you!”

“Well spotted,” Rainy remarked dryly. “I didn’t know you were such an elitist. If badges are what you’d prefer, let’s ask that gang.” She pointed to a cluster of stories at the end of the shelf.

“Hmm… I’d rather not,” said Piecey, shaking his head. “They look a bit sinister, don’t they? All those dark colors.”

“But look at all the badges,” Rainy said pointedly. “I suppose if you’re too scared to approach such intimidating stories, despite their undeniable trustworthiness on account of their badges, we should probably try another shelf.”

“Yes, I think that would be wise,” Piecey said.

Rainy rolled her eyes and made her way to the edge of the shelf. She crouched, grabbed the edge, and swung herself down to the shelf below.

She began to look around and a thud announced Piecey’s arrival beside her. She was about to recommend they head toward the right when Piecey gasped.

“Oh my words! It’s her!” Piecey whisper-exclaimed.

“Who?”

“Birdy! The only one of our author’s stories to be both a Top Story and Challenge Winner! The most read piece of all our author’s stories! Our unofficial queen!”

“Woah! That is pretty impressive,” Rainy admitted. “Let’s ask her if she’s seen Arty!”

“What? No! We can’t just speak to her. We aren’t worthy.”

“You’re ridiculous! Of course we can talk to her!” Rainy huffed. Then she jogged over Birdy “Pardon me, Queen Birdy!”

“It’s just ‘Birdy’” the story replied in an amused tone. “Can I help you with something? I’m afraid we’ve had so many new stories arrive on our shelf this morning, we’re all in quite the state of confusion.”

“Our shelf is all jumbled up too,” Rainy said. “We’re looking for our friend, Arty.”

“Arty…Arty…yes! I remember! He’s here somewhere. Come this way.”

Rainy and Piecey followed behind Birdy as she led them past several stories that looked quite sullen.

“Do you know why all the stories got rearranged?” Rainy asked.

“I have no idea, but we’re doing our best on this shelf to make everyone feel welcome until we all hopefully get re-shelved to our rightful places.”

“That is so kind of you,” said Piecey with a starstruck expression still plastered on his face.

“You’ll have to forgive my friend for his strange behavior. He’s a huge fan of yours,” Rainy explained.

“How sweet!” Birdy declared.

Piecey blushed.

“Arty!” Rainy cried as she caught sight (and smell) of her friend.

“Rainy! Piecey! How I’ve missed you both!” cried Arty. “I’ve been so distraught, wondering what had happened to me and where you two were?”

“See, Rainy,” Piecey said. “I told you Arty didn’t get deleted.”

Rainy punched Piecey in the arm. “We’re so glad we found you, Arty! We’ve been terribly worried! Let’s go home.”

“I’m afraid you can’t,” Birdy said. “Not permanently, anyways. Until we’re put back in order, we’ll keep resetting to these new shelves.”

“Oh, no!” Rainy cried.

“Don’t worry,” Arty said. “I’ll be okay. There are some nice stories on this shelf. But I do hope I can come home soon.”

“So do we!” Rainy assured him. “Well, I guess Piecey and I should get back to our shelf. We’ll miss you, Arty. And thank you for all your help, Birdy.”

“Of course!” Birdy exclaimed. “Safe journ– Oh, no! Not again!”

A loud wailing filled the shelf.

“Do excuse me!” Birdy said hurriedly. “It’s one of those breakup nonets. He’s not taking the separation very well, if you can imagine.”

Birdy glided off to chase down the panicked nonet who was running in circles and sobbing relentlessly.

Arty, Rainy, and Piecey embraced.

“We’ll be back together soon!” Rainy said confidently.

***

One Week Later

A wisp of banana peels and dog poop tickled Rainy’s nose. She awoke at once.

“Arty! You’re home!!”

Author's Note: This weird story was inspired by the reshuffling of stories on our profile pages when the new updates were launched. Huge thank you to Justin and the Vocal Team for being so quick to respond to the request to have the sorting of stories adjusted back to the previous order! Links to all the stories that appeared in this piece are included in the picture captions and in the underlined names or descriptions.