"You want to exchange a talent?"
The boy gave the girl a pained look. "Just listen before you start making fun of me, okay?"
"Fine, but still, you want to exchange a talent?" The girl looked half-amused, half-curious. "Can you do that?"
"No," the boy said with an exaggerated sigh. "But if you could, imagine how great the world would be."
The girl snorted. "They would run out of talent to exchange, though - some people would be saddled with all the useless ones. Like being able to whistle well or know how to fight or whatever. Because most people would want to have talent playing instruments and stuff like that."
The boy paused. "I never thought of it that way."
"That's because you never plan ahead, idiot."
"Give me some credit - the talent exchange thing was a good idea."
"Well, sure, but then we'd have some very unfortunate souls with the most useless skills along with very lucky souls that have all the talents anyone could desire," the girl pointed out. "That wouldn't be fair."
"Yeah... we would have to have all these different ways to classify people." The boy scratched his head and added, "Heck, we'd have different social classes based on the talents you received or traded for at birth."
"Traded for... at birth? How do you even know what talents you have?"
"... This could actually become a full-blown chapter story."
"You suck at writing," the girl said offhandedly. "Let's just forget about this and do nothing, okay?"
That raised the boy's hackles, and he snapped, "I do not suck at writing!"
"You got an 'F' on that English paper last year - "
" - that's different," the boy interrupted. "That was a five-paragraph essay. I can write an actual story, no problem."
The girl snickered. "All right, then. I'll just sit back and watch you fail."
"Shut up. I will write this and it will be published!"
"In your dreams," the girl retorted. Then she reached over and grabbed her laptop, flipping it open as she said, "I'll just get back to writing my own stuff, okay?"
The boy looked startled. "You're not even going to help me?"
The girl shrugged. Then she smirked and said, "Not everyone has the talent to write, kid."
"Oh, that was low."
YOU ARE READING
Whole Grain Bread and Other Musings
Short StoryA little something about bread and a bunch of other random stories, inspired by random quotes, conversations and thoughts. Each is under a page, and the characters are an unnamed boy and girl. Some of these are good, some of these are great, and som...
