The Super Duper Fun Maze of Discovery

This story was written as an entry in the 2020 NYCMidnight Flash Fiction Contest, Round 2. I had one weekend to write a <1,000 word story with the following prompts:

Genre = Rom Com // Location = A Labyrinth // Item = Water Balloon

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“Goddamn litterers,” Tom muttered.

He picked up a magazine that was drooped over the edge of a nearby drain and flipped it over the see the cover. “Ugh,” he sighed. It was the recent issue of Sunshine!, the local children’s magazine. “Are you fucking haunting me?” 

He fingered through the sopping mess to page 28, the “Super Duper Fun Maze of Discovery.” Tom rolled his eyes and glanced down at the bottom of the page.

Designed by Thomas Minos.

He crumpled the magazine and threw it in a trashcan.

Four years of art school. An additional four trying to make a name for himself… And this was his most appreciated work. How pathetic. But it paid the bills—well, it paid for electricity… sometimes.

He entered Cafe Aegis and got in line behind a woman and her daughter. The young girl turned around and smiled at him. Hugged to her chest was the unmistakable cover of Sunshine!.

“Well damn,” he mumbled.

“Excuse me?” the mother said. “My daughter is five, you can’t say shit like that in public.” 

Her eyes bolted wide as she realized her error.

“Welldamnshit! Welldamnshit!” the girl squealed, as the mother slapped a palm to her forehead.

Tom winced. “Sorry about that. It’s just… Well, I illustrate mazes for that magazine and I think it’s legitimately stalking me.”

The girl let out an audible gasp and tugged on her mother’s blouse. “It’s Daedalus,” she whispered excitedly.

Tom gave the mother a questioning look.

“Aria’s a little obsessed with your mazes. We kind of make up stories to go along with them.” 

She pulled out her cell phone and scrolled to a picture of her daughter’s bedroom.  The walls were covered with dozens of Tom’s mazes, each one accompanied by paragraphs of story and characters scribbled around the edges.

Tom was speechless.

“The maze designer—that’s you—is named Daedalus in our stories. You know from the…”

“Greek mythology.” Tom laughed. “Coincidentally, most of my real paintings are based on mythology.”

“Oh you’re actually an artist?”

Tom sighed. “You wouldn’t know it from my current portfolio of published work.”

“Draw me like one of your french girls!” she nearly shouted. 

Several people glanced over and Tom’s cheeks burned. He scratched the back of his head. “I… Uh… That’s…”

She put a hand on his forearm and giggled. “So sorry, I just love Titanic and I’ve never met a real artist in person.”

“What’s a frenchgirls, Mommy?” her daughter asked.

Tom knelt down. “Tell you what, why don’t we make a maze together outside.” He dug his hand into the pouch on his belt. “I never leave home without a few sticks of chalk.”

The girl’s eyes lit up as she grabbed a bright green piece. “Can we, Mommy?”

Before long, Tom and Aria’s mother were “tied up by a cyclops” in the center of “The Labyrinth of DOOM” on the cafe’s patio. Aria continued to doodle a man-eating bunny nearby that was supposedly on its way to rescue them.

“I’m Tom by the way,” he said

“I prefer Daedalus.” Aria’s mother grinned, nudging him with an elbow. “I’m Thea.”

“Well, don’t look now, Thea, but I think we’ve got trouble.” He motioned up the street where a few teenage boys strolled, pulling a wagon filled with water balloons. “This happens all the time.”

“Hey nerds!” one of the boys yelled as he tossed a giant balloon at the drawing. It splashed near Aria, completely erasing the gumdrop forest she’d been drawing.

The boys hurled more balloons, but Thea was having none of it. She rushed towards them, catching a balloon in each hand on the way. “Hell no!” she yelled as she whipped them back at the attackers. One hit the closest boy in the head, nearly in slow motion, form-fitting around his pimply face, before bursting and drenching his clothes.

“Let’s get out of here!” they shrieked.

Tom stood back in maze prison, dumbfounded. “How…?”

“I played softball in college,” Thea said with a shrug.

“I… played World of Warcraft.”

“Hey, at least you played something,” she chuckled.

“No! It’s ruined,” Aria cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“It’s okay, honey,” Thea said, sitting by her side.

Tom pulled a piece of trusty blue chalk from his pouch. “Don’t worry, it’s actually better now. Look!” He drew a large circle around the wet mark and added waves in the middle. “It’s the deadly pool of… of…”

“Spaghetti-Os?” Aria sniffled.

“Of course! The Deadly Pool of Spaghetti-Os.” He added a few letters inside the circle.

Aria wiped her tears and clapped, then snatched the chalk from his hand. “You’re doing it wrong.”

“Oh. Yes, you’re right,” he said, standing to admire her additions.

Thea got up as well and he accidentally looked at her bottom, which was tattooed with the chalk face of the man-eating bunny. He bit his lip to keep from bursting into laughter.

“You know, I need to thank you.” Thea said, moving so close he could smell her fruity perfume.

“Why’s that? You’re the one who scared them off.”

“Not for that,” she said. “When Aria’s father left us… As strange as it may sound, it was your mazes that got us through. Something we could do together, to be distracted, to laugh.

“I’m sorry,” Tom said. “I didn’t realize.”

“It’s alright. We’re okay now.”

Aria skipped over and tugged Thea’s blouse again. “Mommy, can Daedalus come over for lunch? I want to show him our mazes!”

Thea turned bright red.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Tom said.

“No, it’s okay. Aria would love to have you over. We both would.” Her eyes twinkled. “And maybe dinner? Sometime?”

“Does this mean you do want me to draw you like one of my french girls?” Tom teased.

Thea laughed and punched his arm. “I think you’re flying a little too close to the sun with that one.”

Maybe. But for the first time in forever, he truly felt inspired.

(c) Kade Kessler 2020

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If you enjoyed this story (or hated it) or have any feedback at all let me know in the comments below! If you want to read more by me head over to my Short Stories page or check out my ongoing serial fantasy novel The Last Sentinel!