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THE

SHORT

CUT

A Short Fiction

David A. Archer

02/15/1968

09/05/2006

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THE SHORT CUT – SHORT FICTION

It is really hard to say.

Just where it was that I began this habit.

They are everywhere…. In more of a multitude

than even the vast expanse of various forms of

advertisement.

In fact, I would venture that if you could stand

them all “end to end” in comparison with all of the

variations of advertising ploys… a person would be

hard pressed to discern which to be greater; The sum

total in measure of “short cuts,” or the sum total in

measure of advertising space.

I wonder momentarily if Vegas has a line on that

one, then realize that it probably isn’t that important

to even the most desperate of bookies.

The habit itself is somewhat of a guilty pleasure, I

admit. In fact, I pride myself to some degree in opting

to use every short cut I happen across. Something

about it just gives a lift to my day.

I could be on a perfectly good road, traveling

along and knowing precisely how far to my

destination…. But should that ever tempting little

sign appear at the side of the road indicating a sure

fire “short cut,” there just seems to be nothing more I

can do beyond that sighting…except of course, go that

course.

I have heard it said, that at some point a man

must put away childish things.

Honestly, I just can’t begin to figure out where

the heck to put them all. Where does a person put all

of the short cuts? Can you imagine the storage bill?

Do you first have to pack them in moth balls to insure

the future visage and visitation of them around some

useless family gathering will be fruitful and not filled

with moth holes and the like?

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When I think about it, I really don’t think that

saying should apply to short cuts even as childish as

they are and further even that they most assuredly

originate from childish reasoning… as it just wouldn’t

be fair to all of the other people using short cuts, if all

of a sudden one day they went to use the short cut and

it wasn’t there just because some guy thought it was

time to put them all away.

I do associate using short cuts in the obsessively

habitual manner which I do, to something in child

hood. Mostly because quite logically, that is where the

addiction began for me.

While it is that I cannot place it exactly, I do

know that from youth is where the illness I bear

began. And it did so in a rather innocent way I am

sure… perhaps even in the effort to make it home for

the evening meal so as to avoid various and

unspeakable forms of trouble resulting in punishments

of the sort that would shame the most hardened of war

criminals…. such as eating dinner cold for breakfast,

for instance.

Besides… it was always, and still is for some sick

reason, much more fun to emerge at ones destination

after having traversed something indescribable as per

consistency and design… being the “universal” short

cut.

I can trace to some degree, the beginnings of such

an addiction quite simply to the efficiency I found in

using them. Then further, as I have mentioned was

and is the presence of excitement which I found on

more than one occasion while engaging the act of using

a short cut.

I can remember one in particular that lead me

past a rattlesnake pit on the lip of a ledge that was

hardly wider than my shoe. I’ll always remember the

sidewinders being the most active of the bunch.

Another I can recall and used quite frequently,

made its way along and over the railroad tracks…then

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THE SHORT CUT – SHORT FICTION

through a downed area of fence… which remained like

that for some years. Then of course, as with most all

other short cuts, there was an alternate route a person

could opt for once safely across the railroad tracks.

This alternate route was more for the use one way

than it was the other… mostly because of a rather

steep hill and of course the fact that it lead to an arms

length near a very old graveyard…which, as anyone in

their right mind could surmise, was very much the

reason you used it in the morning “on the way to”

somewhere… instead of in the evening near dusk (or

later), on the way back.

I can remember a more recent thought regarding

the very idea of the invention and have surmised that

it very well may be that all short cuts in existence are

somehow connected. This then further gives reason to

avoid putting even one of them away. It might just

damage the entirety of them all…and let’s face it, that

just wouldn’t do.

I do realize that there has been some measurable

damage done to various, miscellaneous properties and

frivolities in the manner of wrongfully placed fencing

and the like…but it is easy to see the value of the

imminent domain like stature of the short cut taking

precedence quite justly. They are just damn fun and

handy as well.

Of course, when one appears across my back lawn

I will have to do my adult duty in making sure those

utilizing it know that it is only with a heaping portion

of stealth that they may successfully employ that

which has found its way through said stretch of

property.

I might even find myself with extra

equipment for increasing the skill level one would need

in using it as said short cut.

Maybe an air cannon with a motion sensor would

do for starters?

I realize that it shouldn’t be anything so

pronounced as to dissuade the use of it entirely…but

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THE SHORT CUT – SHORT FICTION

most definitely should be something that gives

challenge to the newly found ease in said development.

Mind you, as strange as it may seem…a person

should never discount the value of even a newly

established short cut. They hold great weight to many

in many ways.

As I have mentioned, it is hard to tell which is the

more popular in American culture when comparing

advertising ploys and short cuts… but that

relationship is even deeper when a person really

knows that value.

For instance, it is easy to say an advertising ploy

is successful to some degree when it can be seen and

even heard at every turn in everyday life. But it is

only when the remnants of such a ploy have found

their way onto the short cuts of this nation, that any

such campaign can be deemed a success beyond any

reproach.

Sure, billboards along the highway or road as you

drive along? No big deal… everyone does that. But to

find a billboard on the side of a shortcut means

nothing less than total saturation and more than

likely resounding acceptance and success.

You know that advertising person really has a

finger on the pulse when you happen upon such

displays.

As I ponder this incredible subject, I find myself

in the knowledge that there really isn’t much more to

know in modern society. Beyond that is, the proper

appreciation and pleasure derived from the nasty little

addiction I can’t seem to resolve in the use of such

short cuts.

When it is that I truly give it pause, I find myself

wondering what Freud would have said about it?

Could it be sexual in some mutated way? How would

he have associated and described this incredible

addiction?

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What then of other great minds when put to such

a task as analyzing even the basic popularity of such a

wonderful tool?

Such an unappreciated though

massively popular tool unprecedented in stature and

functionality. Is it of any use to ask such arbitrary

questions as; Did Aristotle find comfort in his short

cuts? When Alexander the Great used a short cut…

did anyone complain? What did Confucius have to say

about his short cuts?

Yeah, you know there are those that posture

against even the idea of short cuts. Mostly out in the

open when everyone is looking…but I am sure that

given the situation such as when nature is calling (and

using a bullhorn so to speak), you would hear no

utterance of dissention pertaining to the efficiency and

use of any such existing tool as a short cut from even

the most righteous and upstanding of individuals.

I personally have opted to find some pleasure in

addressing my shortcomings there-in... and even

opting for them at times, as standard. I do so even

knowing sometimes, that the short cut is full well the

longer path. Patronizing myself in pretending to be in

some form of denial as to the mythological aspects of

such wondrous modes and means…then trapping

myself in a cycle of thought which you may now begin

to recognize… even knowing that sometimes I use the

short cut, knowing full well it is a longer

path…knowing that it is and doing so for that reason

alone…while knowing somewhere inside my reasoning

that it is the longer path still not seeming so along the

stroll en route upon the short cut...telling myself that I

know it is the longer path...but strangely realizing in

the stuff of truth that it is still the short cut…even

being the longer path I traverse.

Then sometimes, it is actually the shortest route

to my destination.

It is more than just a moniker as I am sure that

you know. Some would argue that it is even a way of

life. At least in appreciation of the all encompassing

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nature within the very idea itself… just say it to

yourself and it echoes through even your very being;

short cut.

Don’t mind me… I have long since realized the

facts pertaining to the simple intangible essence of the

short cut, but go ahead and celebrate it a little. If you

have to, begin those self realizations in celebratory

romance within the privacy of where ever you feel the

most comfortable and at ease.

Then watch yourself begin to realize true freedom

as you soon find a bounding step in your stride and a

slightly maniacal laugh of confidence thrown to the

wind as if any should care, while you step within that

bounding stride onto the path less traveled…or kind of

less traveled, sometimes, maybe…. when addressed in

open conversation, anyhow… known only as the “short

cut” where ever, and how ever it manifests within

reality… and duly, beneath your regal and magnificent

foot each time finding newness on the age old and still

un-charted, un-mapped and untamed short cut.