"How in the name of all that has been desecrated by an egg-beater am I supposed to come up with a story out of just this?"
Jessica was mindlessly clicking away on her laptop playing World of Guild Wars, or Final Quest, or some such nonsense and apparently didn't deem her brother's question complete enough to justify interrupting her task with a response.
"The hallucinogenic elephant slathered itself in deodorant, swallowed a box full of doorknobs, and began chirping like a one-legged pelican."
Jessica briefly looked over the top of her screen at her younger brother.
"Huh?"
"It's a writing prompt for my creative writing class. I'm supposed to write a short story that includes five random words."
"And one of the words is a one legged pelican?"
Chad fought the urge to make a jocular retort at the expense of his sister's inability to count.
"Um... no, actually. They are elephant, doorknob, hallucinogenic, deodorant, and chirp."
"Is it supposed to be funny?"
"Not necessarily. It can be anything I..."
"Because that really wasn't." Jessica interrupted. "In fact, it doesn't even make sense. How can an elephant be hallucinogenic? Would you have to, like, lick it or something? And how does a one-legged pelican chirp anyway? Does it sound any different than a two-legged pelican?"
"Well it's nice to see that those computer games haven't completely ruined your college education."
A fleeting scowl darted across the room. Jessica continued to click away at the computer.
"Do you have to use the exact word or can you use the same--tense, or form or whatever you call putting an I-N-G on the end of it? Like chirp verses chirping."
"Uhhh......I'm not sure. The assignment doesn't say. And it's called the present participle." After a brief pause and a glance towards his English notebook Chad almost amended his statement with an "I think," but decided to let his sister think he knew what he was talking about.
"Whatever."
Clickety-click-click-clickety-click-click-click...
"Why don't you write about an out-of-work chemist?"
Chad chuckled. "Let's see. Hallucinogenic would be pretty simple, and deodorant probably wouldn't be too hard. And I could easily work in a doorknob or two if I was writing about a meth cooker working in an abandoned house that still had actual doorknobs. I could even use the chirping of the birds to portray the passage of time during an awkward silence if I was getting desperate--but what in the blazes am I supposed to do with an elephant?"
Chad saw a smirk spreading across his sister's face and knew a piercing comeback was about to be fired. He decided a preemptive strike was in order.
"There wouldn't happen to be any elephants in that game of yours, would there?"
"Hah!" She laughed and closed the lid on her laptop. "Okay then wise guy. Why don't you write a story about trying to come up with a good story based on nothing but five random words."
"You mean like give a word-for-word account of our present conversation?"
"No, that would be lame. Make it about how you stumble across a website that holds regular writing contests or something. First prize is worth one thousand dollars and you desperately need the money to impress a girl."
"To impress a girl? Really? A little cliché, isn't it?" He could hardly believe he was even considering the idea. "And besides, the whole idea is a bit risky. This assignment is graded on a curve so I need to make sure this is at least as good as what other people are going to hand in. Everyone else is probably going to come back with grand and epic tales from all the exotic places they went to on spring break. They'll do it with all five words subtly and masterfully woven in too, like they would have used them even if they weren't required."
"Well yeah, this would be about as subtle as dropping a sack of anvils in a swanky art gallery, but it'll be unique. That's gotta count for something."
"Maybe." Chad was now seriously considering his sister's suggestion, but suddenly feared that at least three other people would have the same idea.
"It's kinda the obvious solution though, isn't it? Take the five unrelated words that should take some skill and effort to work into a coherent story and simply beat the reader over the head with them."
"I dunno. You didn't think of it," Jessica replied. "Maybe you should ask your girlfriend; sounds like the kinda thing she could help with."
"Actually, she usually really likes my writing and I was hoping I could--" Chad shifted a little in his chair and with an embarrassed grin tugging at his reddening face turned towards his sister. "--uhhh... impress her with this one."
Enjoying watching her little brother squirm, Jessica tried to hold back a laugh but her meager efforts were unsuccessful.
"And you say my idea is cliché!"
Joining in his sister's laughter Chad pulled his laptop out of his backpack and set it on the table.
"Oh, I'm so going to fail!"
"That's the spirit," Jessica snickered as she reopened her computer and resumed the compulsive clicking.