Friday from the Archives: “Want Ads” a short story by Kim Church in NCLR 2001
Ok, this one is for the kids: back in the day, before the internet, when you wanted to find someone you’d met, or place a help wanted sign, or sell your never-used sports equipment, or even go on a blind date, you’d run a small text ad in the local print newspaper. And you had a leave a phone number for someone to call you in response to the ad. How 1900s. It didn’t always work as you’d hoped, but it definitely made for great stories.
Kim Church wrote a short story with these want ads as the plot device. “Two weeks to the day after his wife walked out on him, Harold Musgrave was reading the want ads when one caught his eye:
Church never reveals why Harold’s wife, Esther, actually left, but the reader does know Harold is vindictive, passive-aggressive, and has low self-esteem. She crafts a story about how Harold takes revenge on Esther by placing his own want ads but using the phone number from the original ad, which he believes is her new number. “Harold puffed up when he read it. He’d never written anything for a newspaper, and this was catchy. What a shame he didn’t have anybody to show it to. It was much better than Esther’s ad in Rentals. He read hers over again and wondered who she thought she was fooling with that last part – the part about being a good listener.”
For the new writer, or for any writer looking for some new inspiration, using a pre-internet communication style for a story prompt could lead to interesting narratives. Epistolary writing, original Instant Messages and chat room dialogues, or stories told through entirely through text exchanges, are all ways to boost the creative facility.
Read Church’s story on Gale Literature. Add the 2001 issue to your collection today!
