Non-Fiction Fiction

I was shoveling snow from the driveway when the ghost of Tom Sawyer came by. It turns out fictional characters eventually become ghosts. They were created by an author in a process of self-fertilization and they live until the book is finished. When someone reads the book, they are basically looking at a historical document of the character’s life.

Tom Sawyer said, “Too bad it’s not whipped cream. If it was, you could sit down with a spoon, enjoyin’ the spoils, till you had a clean driveway.”

I said, “Not me. I’m allergic to dairy and sugar.”

Tom Sawyer said, “I have the fortune of only being allergic to caster oil. Though I don’t know the benefit of not being allergic.”

I said, “Do you ever wish you could come alive in another book?”

Tom Sawyer said, “I’m alive right now because this will end up in your blog. But when it’s being read I’ll be back to haunting the days of people who have little to do.”

I said, “Sometimes I think I’m a character that’s currently being written. I mean, I couldn’t come up with this kind of stuff on my own.”