An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination

by Elizabeth McCracken

This is the real Superman moment for me, as I sit at my computer, telling this story. I want to reach into the screen. I want to hit Return between I wish he would respond more and but it is not serious. I wish he would respond more — Look at that lovely white space! There’s my laptop screen in front of me. Surely I should be able to touch the space, I am a science-fiction heroine now, touch the space and pull it open. Can’t I stretch time if I just push these paragraphs apart? Above, she is saying, I wish he would respond more. In the new bright hole in the computer screen, which is to say, the universe, she then says, I think you should go to the hospital immediately.