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In a world of knights and demons, John Johnson is sent on a quest to destroy a great demon lord from the king of Kingdomville. John accepted the King's requests. He and his companions set off to destroy the demon lord on an adventure so grand. They followed the path down the path of giants, through the Road of goblins, and finally to the evil kingdom. John walked to the throne of the demon lord and formally challenged him. The two fought him for 3 days and 3 nights. Just as John thought he won when the demon lord fell, he turned around and was stabbed in the back.
John woke up from his dream. Today is John Johnson's first day of school. John Johnson cried the whole way to school, but as soon as he walked through the doors and saw all the other kids he lit up, the world filled with color. John Johnson is an only child so he doesn't get to see other children his age, much less interact with them. John Johnson’s world was turned upside down when he saw a little red-headed girl in his class, Little Miss. Everything else in the classroom disappeared as young John approached Little Miss. He thought of scenarios in his head while approaching her about how he will announce his love to her followed by acceptance and applause, but when he got to her he could not say it. John pushed as hard as he could but all that came out was a little squeak. She laughed at his attempt but not in a patronizing way. She just laughed because she thought he was funny. John may not have been able to ask her out but he made her laugh and that's enough for today.
John Johnson went home excited after his first day of school ecstatic to talk about Little Miss, but Mr. and Ms. Johnson are arguing. John Johnson’s parents always argued, but today was different. Today was much more aggressive than days past. John just followed the drill and went to his room, usually if he went to his room nothing bad happened. After sitting quietly on his bed for a while his mom and dad walked into his room.
John's mom and dad sat him down and told them they are moving to different houses. John doesn’t understand why John's dad left the house but he is told he gets 2 Christmas’s so he is fine with it.
John has been forced to live with his dad since the argument. The court deemed Mr. Johnson to be the better guardian for now due to him having a house and job. John's mom also has 2 DUIs and lives with her mother which doesn't help his case.
The court date is approaching and John is excited to see his mom because he hasn't seen her in a few weeks at this mysterious thing his dad has been calling divorce court. John may have court in a few weeks but for now, he still has to go to school. When John goes back to school he finds and approaches a crying little miss. John musters up the courage to ask her why she is crying and she explains that she has to move away. She is moving very, very far away. Far out of walking distance for little John Johnson. John may beg and beg but there is no convincing her not to move. He asked her when she was moving and she said that it was in a few weeks. John Johnson thought to himself “In a few weeks, why, that's the same day as divorce court!”. John ran home in tears after school and locked himself in his room. John had already made a plan of action.
The court date approached and John was being driven to court with his father. John played with a little knight toy on the way there. John got out of the car and looked at his tunnel-visioned father walking ahead of him so he snuck away. He ran to go see Little miss. He ran all the way to her house and saw the parked car where he expressed his love for her. She cried waving through the window of the parked car. Meanwhile, in court, Mr. Johnson is getting scolded for losing the boy and the custody battle is turning towards Ms. Johnson. Little Miss’s parents noticed the crying child yelling outside of her car. During his awkward car ride from Little Miss's parents, Big Miss and Big Mister, John and Little Miss seemed like they could not be separated. Big Mister dragged John into the room where he ran excitedly into his mother's arms, ecstatic to see her again. The rest of the court was a blur because he just blocked everything out while he played with his little knight.
He goes home to his mom where he goes to sleep.
John is a commander in a SciFi world. He shoots down spaceships from his commanding seats. The ship hovers over an alien planet full of hostile creatures. John offers to go through the beam down to the planet to neutralize the alien species. He gets down there and removes all the aliens. One problem though, the planet was an artificial planet run by aliens. The planet exploded.
His alarm is going off playing the same ‘ole toon. He presses the off button and slowly gets out of bed. Years have passed since John has seen his dad or his beloved Little Miss. John has been living with his mom for the past few years. Today is his first day of middle school. John is so nervous he can barely sit still. John has played with his hair all morning trying to get it just right. Although time would not slow for John to play with his hair, it was now time for him to go.
John walked into school and felt eyes from all directions. John knows that everyone is judging him for his hair. He had to fix his hair before the first period, or he would never be cool. John ran into the bathroom and took no time to fix his hair just right for the first period, or so he thought. John heard the bell ring signifying he had missed the first class on the first day of middle school. How could he ever recover from this tremendous mess up? John walked into the second period with his lip trembling and told the teacher about his bad hair day and that he had missed the first period. The second-period teacher giggled and said all he needed to do was go to the office and tell them he had missed the first period.
John walked through the drawbridge leading to the office and talked to the guard (the secretary). He explained his horrendous hairstyle and how everyone was judging him, in excruciating detail, until he got to the point where he said he missed the first period. The secretary just gave him a slightly annoyed glance and told him to wait a minute in the office. He sat in one of the office chairs tearing up, praying if they did anything to punish him, it was not calling his mom. The secretary sent him back to class.
His day passed like almost any other, except for the looming fear that they may have called him mom. When he got home he dragged himself off of the bus. He may have gotten taller but when he got to the doorknob was further than ever. He walked in and found out that god had forsaken him once again. For he was greeted by his mother's immediate torment. She carried on and on about how his being late was a product of his inability to put effort into anything he does. She complained about and compared him to his father. He went to his room and went to sleep, for it was the only way to escape his mother's scrutiny.
John hit his pipe. Tonight in the big city John is a detective on a big case. A young woman walks into John's office and asks him to investigate her husband because she thinks he is cheating on her. John gets cases like these every other day, it's how he makes his money. He does the same routine where he stalks the husband for a few days. He sees the husband cheating, but something is off. John knows that woman. “Why, isn’t that Little Miss?” John thought to himself. “But she hasn’t been to the big apple in so long,” John thought. Why is she here? John gave the woman the evidence he had taken of her husband cheating on her. The woman cried and cried claiming she knew all along he was gonna be with this whore. John asks how she knows this girl and she just dodges the question. John knows a mystery is afoot. John goes out to interrogate the husband. The husband was not going to play John's little game, so he pulled out a gun and shot John.
John woke up and turned off his alarm clock. Something about this dream ate at John’s subconscious. Nothing could ruin John's day though. John is graduating high school and was offered an internship position at a big company, Money Incorporated. John got up, put on his cap and gown, and headed downstairs. He ate breakfast and noticed that his mom was not awake yet. The promise that she made to come to his graduation echoed in his head. Sure she was not awake now, but he was sure that she would make it. His dad sent him a letter promising to be there, but John knows better than to depend on him coming for anything.
John ran to school excited to finally be done with the 12-year hellish nightmare. John walked to his seat on the stage when they called his name. From the stage, he had a great view of the crowd. He looked everywhere for his beloved Mother but she was nowhere to be seen, almost as if a spotlight had been shined on her, Little Miss stood out from the crowd. She had the same red hair, almost the same hairstyle. The same cute freckle on her cheek. She looked just like John dreamed she had looked like. John stupidly waved and waved but it seemed like she didn't notice him. She finally met his eyes from the crowd and gave John a little wave back. John Johnson filled his entire body with blush and daydreamed about marrying Little Miss throughout the whole ceremony. John looked for her everywhere afterward, but when he finally found her she was in the arms of the football captain.
John went home in shambles. His jobless mother apologized for missing the ceremony claiming she had “business to attend”. He just ignored her like he usually does and ran to his room. John thought to himself about how this was just going to be another day after school where he sits in his room and wallows in his own self-pity. Today was different though. John cried. John left his room just like any adult. He picked himself up.
John walked into the local diner because he was gonna get himself some celebratory lunch for making it out of high school. John walked into the diner where he saw Little Miss and the football captain. He shrieked in fear and almost left, but John was an adult and he was going to get his lunch. John walked to a seat at the bar then he heard a voice calling him. Like a knife, the voice cut through all the other noise in the diner. John cut his head in the direction of the voice and saw the owner of the voice, Little Miss. John nervously walked over to their side of the diner where Little Miss told him to “sit down with them and eat”. John sat down shaking silently, struggling to join in the conversation until Little Miss asked if he knew her “brother” Little Mister. John sparked up thinking to himself (in all caps) “THAT'S HER BROTHER!”. The awkward tension at the table scattered like someone screamed fire in a movie theater. The group became talkative and laughed after every sentence was spoken. John thought about how great of a start to adulthood this conversation at this table was.
At the end of lunch, Little Miss said she had to go. “Oh parting is such sweet sorrow,” John thought to himself. John hasn’t seen Little Miss in years. Was he just going to let her slip between his fingers? John walked towards her as she was walking away thinking about how much of an adult he was being. John’s mind was in adult mode, but his body was not. John was a coward. His knees crumbled under the pressure. John gave up on Little Miss.
John thought to himself he may not be an adult yet, but if he saw Little Miss today he was bound to see her again. He looked for her everywhere he went from then on. John had his first day at the internship in a week. He spent his week wandering the town hoping to see her face pop up around a corner, or behind a bag of chips at the grocery store, but she never did. The day came when his internship started, luckily it was in town so in case she came back he would see her.
For his first day on the Job, he dressed up in a suit, just like an adult would. John may not have been the only intern but he made sure he was going to make the best first impression. John's competition was a young woman with long black hair, and glasses, who was also dressed in a suit. They both ran back and forth, bringing coffee to every employee in the office. A hard day's work requires a hard night's rest. It was company policy, so John went home to his new apartment because everyone knows an adult would never live with his parents. John then went to sleep to the thought of Little Miss and her whereabouts.
John is a superhero. John flew across the town looking for the trouble he could stop. Today was a calm day in town though. Until he saw a meteor about to strike the town. He flew to the skies to stop the meteor and pushed with all his might. The meteor may have fought back a little but eventually, it returned to where it came from. Deprived of his energy John fell to the ground. John looked to his right and a girl was picking him up.
John woke up to the sound of his alarm like he had many times before. He threw his gray blanket off of himself, got out of his gray bed, walked into his gray bathroom, and got ready for his same old job. John still lives in his same old apartment. John’s life is more routine than it was when he was in school,l when he was living by an actual schedule. He has worked at this Job for longer than he was in high school as of this year. Well, life has been routine but today was different. John was brushing his teeth, cleaning his smile that he hasn’t used in years when he got a call. John’s mother died today. For anyone else, this would have hindered the quality of his day. Someone may have said that this changed the routine but it did not, it just gave him less time to brush his teeth before work.
John walked to work looking both ways before he crossed the road, not looking for cars but seeing if he could find Little Miss. When John arrived at work John was told to take the day off. While John insisted he could work, he was coerced into taking the day off. John has not had a day off of work since he started, so today was an oddity in that field. John was walking home when he saw another oddity. He saw a redheaded girl sitting at a cafe across the street. The busy traffic almost slowed in time. He was sure it was her. When the road cleared John rushed across the street to see if he could strike up a conversation with her. By the time he had crossed the street, he saw her walking away in a busy crowd. John didn’t chase after her in the crowd. He might have in his youth but John was a much older, less confident man. John instead walked into the cafe where he saw his coworker with long dark hair. She called him over to sit with her. John sat down in the seat across from her and they both ordered a cup of coffee and made small talk. They reminisce about the time that they were running in and out of this cafe upwards of 10 times a day for their internship. John did something he had not done in a while, John smiled. John was not just smiling to look approachable like he might have in a business meaning. John even laughed. After the conversation, John decided it was time for him to go home. On John's way home he looked both ways like he does at every road and could have sworn he saw Little Miss sitting in the back of a taxi cab looking back at him with the same mesmerizing stare he was giving her. When John got home he wondered if she recognized him. John looked in the mirror and thought about letting go of himself a little, and maybe he should shave. I was wrong, John's mother dying did affect his routine, just not how I thought it would.
John went to work the next day as usual where he was told to have the week off. John may have fought hard but they promised him that this week would be a paid vacation for the week, for him to grieve. John reluctantly took the offer and spent the next day or two wondering what Little Miss would think of him now if she met him. Would she appreciate how responsible he is, or disregard him because of his lack of ambition and monotone stature? John decided today was the day John would turn his life around. John needed a meaning or ambition to focus his newfound aspirations towards. John searched high and low for a way to flip his life around but could not find anything.
John walked outside of his apartment and looked at the neighborhood around him. Everyone was wearing the same frown as he was. Everyone's houses were gray, everyone’s cars were gray, and everyone’s clothes were gray. John thought of his first day of school, when he walked into his classroom the world filled with color. John thought that a change of environment would really help the neighborhood. John has only spent money on necessities so he has plenty saved up. John went to the local compartment store and talked to the cashier.
John wrote a number on a sheet of paper and said to the cashier “I would like this many buckets of paint in every color you have except for gray”
The cashier, dumbfounded, exclaimed, “you wouldn't find a paint store with that much paint in the entire country, by god this amount of paint is ridiculous.” “well what are you trying to paint with this much paint”
John responded “my neighborhood”
The cashier snapped back “ well why do you want to do that… actually you know what that doesn’t matter no neighborhood needs this much paint”
John wanted to make sure that everyone had options for the colors they wanted. John thought of a better option than buying that much paint, why doesn’t he just ask them for their favorite color. John walked to the house across the street from his apartment and approached the door. He was about to knock on the door, but he froze. John was petrified of talking to these people face to face. John instead walked into his job and used the copier to copy a piece of paper where he wrote his address and asked for their favorite color and explained he wanted to paint their houses. He put the papers in the mailboxes of all of his neighbors within view of his apartment, going up and down the stairs to make sure he could see the house from his apartment.
John checked the mail in his apartment building every ten minutes for 2 days. On the third day, John woke up, walked down the stairs, and looked at his mailbox. From a few feet away he could see that his mailbox was filled to the brim with return letters from his neighbors. John practically jumped with joy when he was dragging all the letters up the stairs. He was looking through the letters reading out the colors aloud practically screaming “Blue! Yellow! Blue! Bill! Green! Red! Another Bill!”
John tallied all the colors and went back to the compartment store with a much more realistic number of paint cans to buy. He bought them all immediately with cash. The cashier offered to bring them to John’s apartment with his truck. John took the offer and they took a collective 15 trips of bringing paint cans up and down John's stairs to get them all in his apartment. John immediately started painting the houses. John stopped going to work past his paid vacation. His long dark haired coworker who he had never learned the name of came by his apartment to check on him. She saw the neighborhood was half full of color and half gray. She walked up the stairs and knocked on John's door, where she got no answer. She turned around and saw John painting a house across the way with the most childlike grin on his face. She walked to the house and asked John what about his “new job”.
John explained he was doing it for free and that he wanted to do something nice for his neighborhood. To his surprise, his long-haired coworker said that she hated her job anyways and offered to join him. They painted together day in and day out for a week when John finally asked for her name. She, obviously offended, told John that her name was Harper, Harper Lee Harper.
They finished painting the town in record time. From John's apartment, he looked at the neighborhood of color and felt content. He thought about the smiles on their faces now that their worlds were filled with color. Now, John believed he could return to work to complete a new life’s goal of making his neighborhood happy. On his way to work, he looked at the faces of his neighbors and did not find the joyful smiles he expected. Their faces looked the same as they had before. John realize how dumb it was to paint all of these houses. John's world didn't fill with color because of his classroom, it filled with color because he met Little Miss.
John did not give up on his goal to make people happy. John searched again for meaning in his life. John went out into the world to search for a way to quench his thirst for meaning. He decided to go to the cafe, looking both ways every time he crossed a road. When John got to the cafe he saw her again. John saw Little Miss sitting down at a table all by herself drinking coffee. Today there was no traffic so he could cross the road with no problem in time to see her. She looked like she was having a bad day so John walked to her table to cheer her up. He sat down across from her and ordered a coffee. She was shocked at first, but she soon realized who he was. She smiled ear to ear when she figured out who he was. They talked and talked about their jobs and their lives, their aspirations for the future. John fell all over again for her, butterflies flew up through his stomach and came out through his mouth in the form of a burp. John turned into a giant tomato then they both laughed. John was just about to use his new courage to ask her out on a date and then spotted the big diamond ring. He didn’t know if it was a wedding ring or not, but he was not about to let the opportunity slip to keep in touch with her. They traded contact information.
John went home scared of the thought that she was married but happy to see her. John on his walk saw an empty 5,000 square foot-sized plot of land near his neighborhood. He walked around and around it looking for any sign of ownership from anyone on this plot of land but found absolutely nothing. A lightbulb appeared above John's head. John did not know what to do with the plot of land, but he did know that this plot of land was the key factor in changing his life. John had no idea how to buy a random plot of land but he did know that it was integral so he would do it. John thought of the possibilities of this plot of land.
“What if this mystery plot had buried treasure or oil below it.”
“What if no one had bought the land because it is no good foundation for building a house there?”
John went to city hall and offered a ridiculous amount of money from his savings for this small plot of land. He immediately started construction on his house with a small local company. Turns out, John painted the owner of the company's house, so he got a deal on the construction of the building. John had a blank slate, a new beginning. John had no idea what to do with his new building yet, but he did know that it was his life's goal. John went to sleep that night with a smile on his face, ear to ear.
John is still a superhero. John flies through the air in search of the notorious villain, MR BAD GUY. MR BAD GUY is up to no good again robbing banks, taking people captive, and destroying property. John sees a fire coming from the local animal shelter. John flies down and saves all the little dogs and cats from the shelter. John wipes the sweat from his forehead as he is ambushed by MR BAD GUY. John flies through 3 and a half buildings and gets back up to fight Mr bad guy. They fight in the sky for 45 minutes until they both fall to the ground. John looks towards the air and two female figures loom over his body as his eyes shut
John wakes up screaming “EUREKA “. Today his building finally finished construction and he now knew exactly what to do with it. John was going to make a pet cafe. John has not been to work in months. John believes that work will hinder his stride towards his meaning in life. John instead has been living off of the life savings he accumulated from years of living a low-maintenance life while working an office job. He walked to his new building looking from left to right before he crossed the road out of instinct. When he looked both ways today, John saw Harper. Harper, not seeing John in ages, ran over to him arms open, and hugs him tightly.
Harper asks “where have you been all this time? Nobody at work has seen you in ages.”
John elaborates that he “started construction on a building that I wanted to use to further develop the community. I had no idea what to do with the building until now, speaking of that I have to go. In a rush.”
John then tried to speedwalk away but Harper followed behind his shadow calling out needing more answers. John in all honestly was in no rush, he just wanted to get away from anything related to his former job that he believes to have destroyed his ambition. He also feels a little bad for not knowing her name even though he worked with her for so many years. He kept walking pretending not to notice the cries of Harper Lee Harper behind him, treating her like a fly.
John was on his way to the animal shelter, but this encounter forced john to walk multiple blocks in the wrong direction. When John finally turned around to confront the monster he was slapped. John rubbed his cheek and apologized for his mistreatment of his dear friend. She never got to say it when John was running but she quit her job at the company, Money Incorporated, a few days ago.
She explained “the job may have paid well but it sucked all of the meaning from my life until my life was a corporate sardine that fit in a can with all the other corporate sardines”
John laughed at the wording but he said “I feel the same way”
He even offered “If you want you can join my pet cafe. I was on my way to the shelter to adopt as many cats and dogs as possible”
The thought of the old monotone John making a cafe for dogs and cats was funny to Harper, but she accepted. She and John built a castle of coffee and dog hair from the ground up. They were co-owners of their own small business. The thought excited them both, not the dogs and coffee but the fact that their life was in their own hands. After they opened, customers from John's neighborhood flooded into the restaurant leaving big tips for John. Seeing the people return the favor brought a tear to his eye. The business slowly but surely became a staple of their little neighborhood.
John still lived in his sappy apartment. John still loved Little Miss. John still looked both ways before he crossed the road every day. It has been weeks since the cafe started and John is walking to work. John looks both ways before he crosses the road and he catches a glimpse of red hair. John darts his head to the middle of the road and there is a little girl with red hair standing in the middle of the road. John had no time to think, there was a bus heading her way. John put on his cape and ran out into the road and pushed her out of the way. John took the full-throttle assault of the bus that couldn’t stop in time. In his last waking breath, he looked around and saw what seemed to be Little Miss holding the child he just saved. He thought to himself “well I guess she was married”. He did not think of the cafe or the meaning of his life. He may have found his meaning to impress a girl or maybe he felt unfulfilled. John was loaded into an ambulance where he died with Little Miss and Littler Miss at his side. Harper Lee Harper was told the news of his death to which she cried for days. The whole neighborhood mourned at his funeral. As a sweet gesture, the neighbors painted a line of their favorite color in paint on his casket, and then they painted the coffee shop his favorite color. In all honestly, none of them knew his favorite color but Little Miss. She said in school when they were little he said it was the same color red as her hair.