What if…

Several students waited for Dr. Jennings to post the results of the fiction reports the students were required to write.

“Hey, Carl, looks like you got the award for Most Creative,” Maryanne said.

“Yeah, I see that. Got it back though and he gave me a B- for it. Said it was creative but not believable. Wrote on the top: Fiction has to be believable; real life, not so much.”

“Prime Minister PaperClip,” said Maryanne. “Hmm. Interesting title. Be interested in reading that. What, uh, what possessed you to write something like that? I know you don’t do drugs and I don’t recall you drinking.”

“Naa, didn’t have to do either. Mind just went wild. Went to bed with a paper clip on my mind for some reason. I think I was searching for one for like 20 minutes and couldn’t find one. The pizza I had earlier might’ve set me into a crazy dream about a paperclip taking over the country.”

“That’s funny. Tacos do that for me. The unfortunate thing is, your story could’ve been written about any generation and any leader in power past present or future. It’s not as farfetched as Ol’ Jennings makes it. Those people in D.C. make decisions that rarely help anyone but themselves. Paper clips could certainly do a better job.”

“I think that’s the thread I tried to weave into it. I mean, with the paper clip’s platform of ‘I’ll bind us all together’ how could I go wrong?”

Maryanne said, “I could see the paper clip taking over the world, Carl, but not with a line like that. That’s pretty lame even for a paper clip.”

*******