“Why don’t you take a walk with me?” said the narrator, motioning that Harvey should stand as she did. “You can bring your bucket, of course. I can’t expect to separate you two so easily.”
Harvey did as he was instructed, naturally, given it was exactly what the narrator wanted. Did he really have a choice in the matter? My oh my, this actually was starting to resemble the Parable of Stan. Had she done it? Had she finally made a story that adequately explored the concept of free will by using a fictional character?
Unfortunately, that was not quite the case. As she led Harvey and his bucket through the business agency she worked at, headed toward the best video production team Melbourne had to offer, the narrator couldn’t help but feel that something was distinctly lacking in this story. What was it that the Parable of Stan had that she couldn’t quite capture?
Was it just an unfortunate reality of the medium she was working with, being written text, as opposed to a video game? No… that wasn’t it. In reality, she thought that deep down she did know what was missing, but it wasn’t something she could speak of now – not with the bucket reading her stories, even as they were typed out.
“Seems like a pretty solid video animation company for corporate businesses,” said Harvey, admiring the equipment there. One of the workers was working hard on an animation for some big company she wasn’t allowed to mention by name.
The narrator turned to Harvey and his bucket. “You say you want to go back to renting out shacks on the beach,” she said, “but I think you secretly desire more than that. See, we write stories sometimes, including ones about animation and video editing. I’d like to feature you in those stories, Harvey. Would you like to learn about what a video editor does?”
Harvey’s eyes lit up. He would like that very much indeed. In fact, he’d always wanted to become an animator or video editor, although he hadn’t thought of that dream in a very long time – not since he’d been a child.
“All you have to do is give up the bucket.”