Wait for it. I silently begin counting down, Three, two, one! Yes! As, I anticipated, my father reaches across the booth and tugs a few napkins free from the dispenser. My eighty-four years old father, takes out his pen from the front left pocket of his blue plaid-coloured shirt. He starts drawing a small home design for him and my mom. They are sitting across the booth from me and completely engrossed in my dad’s drawing. I can’t stop myself from smiling and giggling, like I did as a child. Allowing my mind to wander and think about all the little napkin memories that I have kept over the years. As far back as I can remember, my father has been explaining life by way of, the pen and napkin. It’s how I learnt, English, Art, Geography, Math, and Architecture.
Hangman, was one of the first word games I learnt to play on a napkin. My father, wrote down which category I was guessing from: animals, movies, sports, or food. This was also, my first lesson about compassion. When, I was losing at the game and my stickman was clearly doomed, my father would draw exaggerated wardrobes. Making the game into an art class. I learnt to draw: beards, mustaches, dresses, suits, shoes, gloves, and hats. Then, I took Hangman to another level playing against my brother. He is two years older and extremely competitive. That very first Hangman game with him, I remember drawing an indestructible platform. At least, at seven years old, I thought I had! And, just in case my brother’s stickman tried getting away; I drew sharks swimming below him. My very first attempt at drawing sharks was on a napkin.
My drifting memories, are interrupted by mom’s voice correcting dad’s napkin drawing.
“The kitchen, should be over here,” she says, pointing at the napkin. They continued to agree and disagree, on the layout of their imaginary home. Staring at my parents from across the booth, I think about how often the meaning of the napkin changed for me. Sure, the napkin is used to wipe off our beings and for spills. For me, the napkin always comes with a pen and some type of education. Like Geography.
“Please, bring these apples to Mister and Missus Nelson, on the way to your Grandma’s house.” Requests, from my parents as they handed me a napkin with the exact location. Including drawings of creepy trees. Now and days, we can use our phones to find locations. Boo! I, certainly don’t find it as much fun and I miss the good old days. I miss when my friends drew me small maps with directions to get to their houses. Somehow, the trees or objects, would always end up looking like anatomy parts. See! Another subject on the napkin, Human Anatomy.
Then, there was Math. My father spent hours trying to teach me math on napkins. All, I saw and heard, were hieroglyphs and my father’s voice sounding like, Charlie Brown’s teacher’s muffled voice, “Wah-wah-wah…” In my early adulthood, I dreaded seeing the napkin. I knew what was coming! “This column here, is what you earn a year,” my father would say. “This is how much you spend…” I think I will skip over this memory.
The very first story that I wrote on a napkin was about a rock. I was five years old and extremely imaginative. Don’t even get me started on my letters to Santa Claus; written on napkins. Around ten years old, I discovered them all inside my dad’s top dresser drawer. Busted! But I kept writing Santa.
The older I got, the more the napkin had evolved; love notes, phone numbers, dates, tissues (Warning: napkins will leave nose extremely red and raw), poems, short stories, artwork, score keeping sheet, inventions, etc.
My parents’ loud laughter, snapped me out of my daydreaming again.
“Screw it! Let’s just get an RV,” Dad laughed, tossing the napkin aside. He was laughing so hard; tears were streaming down his cheeks.
“Napkin?” I offer. Crap! I just handed him the napkin with my story idea on it.
This story. The napkin, is a blank canvas of endless possibilities.
About the Author
Madonna Wood won 3rd place in our 2nd Annual Napkin Microfiction Contest (May 2022) with the award winning story The Napkin. Madonna won a cash prize and will be published in Indie It Press’s 2nd COURAGEOUS CREATIVE Anthology: Volume II, in 2023.
When M.K. Wood published the first book in this series, Piper’s Pond, which was inspired by her children, Skyler and Brody, she was often approached by readers wanting to learn about the pond’s origins, and so, Piper’s Pond; the Unwritten Fairy Tales was born-a prequel to the popular first book. Having always been inspired by the outdoors and nurtured by the beauty of nature, M.K. has been creating unique worlds and artwork her entire life, with stories, poems, paintings, and photos that bridge the distance between reality and fantasy. She currently lives close to her very own fairy garden, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with Tomasz (her king), and their two cats, Calvin and Moka.
