Fantastic Metropolis

Needless to say, what Steve Simmons wrote was not really a story at all—barely a page of large-lettered, widely-spaced words that described (in a half-ass manner) a Not-Too-Distant Future World wherein all the bands that ever broke up in the 1970s and 1980s got back together and sold more albums than they(/anyone!) ever had before, and went on tours that every person in the world managed to see. “And the world partied for years,” Steve S. wrote at the end. His little end.

When the instructor gave Steve S. an “F” on the assignment, Steve tried to argue that no one had any right to rate or criticize his original work, that Art Is Just Art. Shortly after, Steve Simmons transferred to another English 112 class scheduled at the same time which the College of Arts and Sciences didn’t usually allow for Personal Differences, but the English Department Head was trying for tenure and didn’t want any Delicate Situations jeopardizing his Career or his Professional Image. (English 112 was a required course for all freshman even if they knew how to structure a bibliography.)

The kid went on to be a Business Administration major, and more. He managed to never write anything again in his life (by hiring foreign exchange students to write his college papers, co-workers to write his monthly reports, secretaries to write his business letters, and independent designers [whom he never paid] to compose and design his presentations); to gang rape thirteen mildly intoxicated but heavily drugged young women with his fraternity brothers; to break a (gay) man’s collarbone and stuff him through the hole in a park outhouse; to drink 9628 cans of particularly poor beer in five years; and become a record label CEO only two years after finishing college.

This is the last story before the End.

Andrew S. Fuller’s short fiction has been published in various magazines and anthologies, both online and in print, including: The Harrow, House of Pain and The Vinyl Elephant. He is active as editor of the quarterly speculative fiction e-zine/anthology The Three-Lobed Burning Eye as well as the small press publisher Legion Press.